London Irish give Samoan wing Belgium Tuatagaloa a life line after he wasn't offered a new contract in France

Samoan winger Belgium Tuatagaloa has been given an opportunity to continue his professional career after he was not offered a new contract Valence Romans, who played in the PROD2 in France.

The winger chose country over club to feature for Samoa at the Rugby World Cup in Japan but has now signed a deal with London Irish for the remainder of the 2019/20 season.

Tuatagoloa has played provincial rugby in New Zealand for Wellington and Canterbury and has represented Samoa at international level. He has also played sevens rugby for both Samoa and New Zealand.

Before the World Cup however, he turned out for Valence but he has not been offered another contract after he opted to be part of the Samoan World Cup Squad because of the clash the World Cup had with the start of the French season.

Tuatagaloa had no bitterness over the outcome over the club's decision to back him into a corner as he considered the decision to be a strictly financial decision.

"The club did not make me choose; I chose this myself," he told Stuff. "The club did not say 'you play for your country or you play for us'.

"What they said was we want to contract you this year but we're very, very afraid of you not being here at the start of the season, and for a small financial club they would not be able to contract me. I could understand that

"I had a choice to make and I said to the coach I'm going to play for my country and hopefully I make the World Cup."