The London Irish flanker Steffon Armitage has signed a two-year contract with Toulon while the Northampton fly-half Shane Geraghty is set to move to Brive.

Both Armitage and Geraghty have been capped by England and are in the Saxons squad but their moves to France come at a time when the Rugby Football Union has said that players who earn their living outside the country will only be selected for the national squad under exceptional circumstances.

Armitage, like his brother Delon, who also plays for London Irish, but is in the current England elite squad, was brought up in the south of France and, having fallen down the England back-row rankings, he will not have agonised unduly over his move to Toulon.

Irish hope to sign the former England flanker Michael Lipman, who last year joined the Melbourne Rebels, having been sacked by Bath for refusing to take a drugs test and subsequently being banned.

Similarly Geraghty is some way from an England recall. He has been bench-fodder to Stephen Myler for most of his two years at Franklin's Gardens and has not started a Premiership or Heineken Cup game at fly‑half for the Saints since October.

The Bath second-row Peter Short is also likely to join the exodus to France having been offered a contract by Stade Français, although the Paris club has to satisfy the league authorities that it has not suffered a shortfall in its budget this season.

Meanwhile Fiji will take part in the World Cup even if some of their players are refused entry into New Zealand by the immigration authorities. The government there has a policy banning anyone with links to the Fijian military from entering the country. The sanction has been in place for two years after Fiji's military junta, which seized power in 2006, reneged on a promise to hold elections.

A number of the Fiji squad have links to the military and the New Zealand minister for foreign affairs, Murray McCully, has said they could be relaxed before the World Cup if there was evidence elections would be held in 2014.