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Ben Barba faces months of being a Top 14 spectator, with his new rugby union club Toulon casting doubt on him getting regular game time until 2018.
The former NRL fullback will battle not only a lack of experience in the 15-man game, but also fierce competition for backline spots in a star-studded outfit.
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NRL star Ben Barba has signed a deal with French rugby powerhouse Toulon until the end of the season. Vision courtesy Seven Network.
Barba inked a two-and-a-half year deal worth a reported $1 million a year with the French powerhouse Toulon following his shock exit from Cronulla this month.
Toulon assistant coach Stephen Meehan said Barba could be forced to wait until the 2017-18 Top 14 season begins in August to make his debut.
"Unless there was major injury problems throughout the club, I don't think it's going to happen," Meehan told Fox Sports.
"Frankly, I imagine it's going to be slow. For the first six months, for him it would just be a question of getting your head down and working on everything as hard as you can, get to know everything, study the game.
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"Honestly, if all these guys are available, I can't see him getting a lot of game time this year."
The 27-year-old joins a squad bursting with fullbacks, with former Wallaby James O'Connor, Welsh star Leigh Halfpenny, France's Pierre Bernard and Japan fan favourite Ayumu Goromaru all wearing the No.15 jersey this season.
Barba, a Dally M medallist and NRL premiership winner with the Sharks last year, claims to have played rugby in high school.
He left rugby league after the NRL delayed registering his Cronulla contract while facing a 12-game ban for a second positive illicit drugs test.
Meehan, who's in Australia for Toulon's Brisbane Global Rugby Tens campaign this weekend, was hopeful Barba would prove him wrong.
"But that's a challenge for him. He might prove me wrong. He might take to the game like that," Meehan said.
"(But) I haven't seen anyone come in and light up the code immediately.
"There's going to be a period for adjustment over there, ever more difficult because we've got various languages on the pitch."
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