Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors and Hull FC are all in the market for a halfback as are Huddersfield Giants.
Leeds have seen Blake Austin join Castleford Tigers whilst Aidan Sezer is moving to Wests Tigers in 2024.
Wigan number six Cade Cust is moving to number nine and is out of contract at the end of the year. Hull FC have already lost Jake Clifford to North Queensland Cowboys at the end of the season.
But they have missed out on Adam Clune as a replacement with the halfback reportedly headed to Huddersfield Giants to replace Theo Fages.
Ian Watson has now spoken about Fages and it seems there is more than meets the eye to his move to Catalans Dragons with his personal situation seemingly forcing his move: “Theo was supposed to be part of trying to create this dynasty.
“If you look what’s happened last year, and I said it publicly, we got to a Challenge Cup final last year on the back of some of the performances of Theo and you need your big players and your inspirational players.
“So on the back of people like Theo, Chris McQueen, Chris Hill, people like them, we got to a Challenge Cup final last year and we finished third in the table.
“This year we’ve hardly had Theo in our ranks as well, and it’s hurt us quite a bit, but Theo was here to try and build that dynasty.
“There’s things that have happened this year outside of Theo’s control, what he can’t control, which means he’s had to have a little look somewhere else.
“Thankfully, he’s actually got a club which are closer to home, which helps the situation that he’s found himself in, and a lot of situations that have arose this year.
“That’s probably one of the big things that he can be really thankful for there because he might have made a different decision about what he was going to do at the end of this year as well.
“Obviously, we would have loved to have kept Theo involved with us, but sometimes things are out of your control of what happens, not only in your rugby life, but in actual your life life as well.
“Everyone just thinks rugby players are rugby players, but there’s a lot of things that they have to deal with on a day to day basis. They’re not different than any other human being. Like anybody else, if things crop up, they’ve got to deal with them as well.
“Theo is going to be a big loss for us mate. He’s an absolute champion of an absolute of a player and a bloke and I’d love to have kept him. Catalans have got an absolute winner mate in terms of Theo but we support him. I’ve said it before, we fully support him in the decision that he’s done because we know how tough this year has been for Theo.”
Asked if retirement was an option, Watson said:
“Yeah well luckily mate that never came into it because obviously Catalans kind of came forward and shown a little bit of interest in him there so like I say the only person real the person would that would really know that would be Theo.
“I know I’ve had a lot of conversations around with Theo but they’ll remain private mate as like most conversations between coaches and players happen.
“All I can say is he’s been a model professional while he’s been here and he’s been very upfront and very honest about absolutely everything that’s kind of gone on mate so like I say we fully support him in there.”
