French Top 14 club Stade Francais are reportedly set to replace outgoing All Blacks centre Ngani Laumape by signing Sharks midfielder Jeremy Ward.

According to RMC Sport, Ward has already made the trip to France to join the Parisian club, ahead of the 2022-23 Top 14 season.

Stade Francais are looking for reinforcements in midfield after New Zealand centre Laumape was released from his two-year contract with the club following an underwhelming season in Paris.

Ward, who captained the Junior Springboks in 2016, has been with the Sharks since moving to Durban from the Eastern Province in 2017.

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The 26-year-old made a combined 107 appearances for the Sharks in the Provincial Rugby Challenge, Currie Cup, Super Rugby and Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

Ward did, however, struggle for regular game time in the URC, making just six starts out of the 19 fixtures that the tournament’s quarter-finalists played.

At Stade Francais, Ward will join former Junior Bok scrumhalf James Hall and former Sharks lock JJ van der Mescht as the South Africans on Stade Francais’ books.

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