Andy's Good for £150,000 move to French aces Brive

Andy Goode, the only player to have outkicked Jonny Wilkinson over 10 seasons of the English Premiership, is moving to France - subject to a £150,000 transfer fee.

Brive, famous for their rout of Leicester in the 1997 European Cup Final, plan to herald his capture from the Tigers with a roll of the drums at a ceremony in Paris tomorrow and turn the most prolific of English fly halves into a key component in their bid to restore their former glory.

The old champions have offered Goode more than £200,000-a-year to join their colony of Premiership emigres alongside World Cup winners Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson.

Goode man and true: The Leicester fly-half is off to France

Leicester, who paid Newcastle £160,000 to sign Toby Flood from Tyneside in May, want to keep Goode but are resigned to losing him despite the fact he is under contract for next season.

Having bought Flood out of his deal, Leicester want Brive to buy out Goode and say they must raise their six-figure offer to £150,000 for a player whose impending exit will leave them short of cover when Flood is on England duty.

Heyneke Meyer, the Tigers' head coach, has spoken to the player and does not expect him to be on the payroll when he arrives at Welford Road from South Africa next week.

Chairman Peter Tom said: 'Heyneke's view, which we share, is that we wouldn't want to keep an unhappy player. But Andy is under contract and we'd want to be compensated adequately for losing his services.'

Despite overtaking Wilkinson in April as the Premiership's leading aggregate scorer with almost 1,500 points, Goode has had to live with the almost constant threat of being replaced by any one of a galaxy of international fly halves, most recently Argentina's Juan Martin Hernandez.

Flood's signing after Stade Francais had aborted the Hernandez move to Tigers convinced Goode the Brive offer was too good to miss.

Club vice-president Simon Gillham said: 'We've told Leicester we'd be happy to help them release Andy from his contract. We're in discussions and we'd love Andy to join Brive for the start of the season.'

The 28-year-old is still in the England system having been named last week alongside injured Danny Cipriani and the uncapped Ryan Lamb as the three No 10's in the back-up Saxons squad for next season.

Since winning the last of his nine caps against South Africa less than two years ago, Goode has seen seven other players fill his position for England - Cipriani, Wilkinson, Flood, Olly Barkley, Mike Catt, Charlie Hodgson and Shane Geraghty.

Brive, whose financial clout comes from having the fifth richest man in France, Daniel Derichebourg, as their president, have signed virtually a complete team, among them Wales back row forward Alix Popham from Llanelli and Irish lock Damien Brown from Northampton.

The International Board are to start the bidding process this month for the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and will name the venues next summer to facilitate long-term planning for the third biggest sporting show on earth behind the football World Cup and the Olympics.

England will be favourites to stage the 2015 event, with the RFU sounding Wales out as co-hosts. Japan, outvoted by New Zealand for the next World Cup in 2011, will also be bidding.

Meanwhile Martin Johnson is to make a one-off comeback next season as a player, joining Lawrence Dallaglio in a Fit For Heroes XV against an International XV at Twickenham on September 20 in aid of service personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.