Wallabies five-eighth Matt Giteau will decide in the next fortnight whether to seek a release from the Australian Rugby Union to take up a $9.6 million four-season offer to play in France.

Giteau will also soon reveal whether he will remain with the Western Force or head back to the ACT Brumbies - primarily because of money owed from a lucrative but failed third-party deal involving Firepower.

Following the Wales Test loss, Giteau confirmed he had received a multi-million-dollar offer from Bayonne. But he was also aware that the ARU was highly unlikely to provide him with a release so that he could follow his New Zealand counterpart Daniel Carter in having a "sabbatical" in France.

If Giteau was to accept the enormous offer and play in France, he would have to break his ARU contract, which means he would be excluded from the Wallabies. The Test pivot did not appear keen to do that on Saturday.

"The facts are out there, as far as meeting them, and getting an offer," Giteau said. "When anyone is presented with that type of offer, you'd have to sit down and consider your options. But I'm contracted [to the ARU] until 2011 and at the moment you really can't put a price on a Wallaby jumper.

"I've still got that burning desire to play for the Wallabies, and always will have that desire. Whether it's your first game, or tonight when it was my 65th, I still feel so proud."

Giteau said he would consider his options at the end of the Wallabies' northern hemisphere tour, which finishes with a match against the Barbarians at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday.

"I got the offer, and as we've been playing Tests I haven't really thought about it seriously," he said. "Over the next two weeks I'll sit down and seriously think about it."

When told that the ARU was unlikely to want to release him to play in France, Giteau replied: "As far as I know, I think they have said no to a sabbatical … so that makes it tougher."

Giteau added that he would shortly decide whether to push for an early release from the Force, because of the money owed by Firepower, or stay for one more season. He is expected to either return to the Brumbies next year or in 2010.

"It is important that once I make my decision that I act on it," Giteau said. "Everyone knows what has happened at the Force and it is just something that I have to think about. I have to make a decision as soon as possible, because the [Super 14] season is not that far away.

"I couldn't play a whole season with the Force lying to my teammates. So if I have made my decision, I will make it public, and let them know."

However, according to Giteau, the endless talk about money has not become an on-field distraction.

"This year a lot of things have gone on, especially at the Western Force with Firepower and the like. But football has been a great way for me to get away from it. Any time I feel I am getting ambushed with those problems, I just think about the rugby.

"Being in the position I am on the field, I am continually studying the game plan and that keeps my mind away from those things."