All Blacks World Cup winner Isaia Toeava has gained a contract with French giants Clermont.
The 30-year-old has been playing in japan for the Canon Eagles and Kubota Spears since helping New Zealand win the 2011 World Cup at home.
The backline utility ended his roller-coaster international career after that tournament, having played 35 tests since breaking into the All Blacks as a 19-year-old in 2005.
Toeava has signed a deal that will see him at Clermont through to 2018.
He comes in immediately as cover for injured fullback Nick Abendanon, the 2015 European player of the year who has been ruled out for three months with a groin injury.
"We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Isaia," Jean-Marc Lhermet, Clermont's director of sport, said
"He can play in a number of positions at the back and this is a time when we have many players out injured and we need to adapt.
"We had been targeting this for a long time. We recently managed to reach an agreement for the next two seasons, but we had an opportunity to use this option earlier."
Toeava played Super Rugby for the Hurricanes and Blues and was also part of the 2007 World Cup squad that lost in the quarter-finals.