Evolution, not revolution, will be key for Veitokani at Irish
The arrival of Fijian fly-half Alivereti Veitokani (RPI – 64) in Sunbury-on-Thames has given London Irish a valuable new weapon in their arsenal.
The former Fijian Drua playmaker was key to his side’s National Rugby Championship success in 2018 and lit up the competition with his fast footwork, audacious offloads and strong support play. He was a spark plug that ignited the Drua around him.
One of the big questions hanging over the move is how much freedom will he be afforded in the Greene King IPA Championship, playing in a team under Les Kiss and Declan Kidney, where structure plays a bigger role in matches than Veitokani will have been used to in the NRC and in domestic competition in Fiji.
Speaking on the player’s arrival, Kidney had the following to say.
“Alivereti is a player with talent and potential. He will find the Championship more structured compared to what he is used to in Australia and Fiji, so it might take him time to adjust to rugby in England.”
Kidney is not going to give away too much in a press release, but it clearly sounds like Veitokani is going to have to embrace a more structured way of playing in order for him to feature at the Madejski for the rest of this season.
For Veitokani, this could be a challenging process. His game is built around him being able to make decisions on the fly, take risks and bring a more direct running threat to the first receiver position.
That said, it bodes well for Fiji, with the nation’s General Manager, Geoff Webster, having spoken to RugbyPass exclusively last year about the nation’s fortunes and highlighted the value of the Drua, playing in the NRC, being able to bring more structure to the players, who struggle to get it in domestic competition on the islands.
“When you’re on a small island in the Pacific, the game can be quite insular. The players go hard against each other, but they’re not exposed to different ways of playing. Historically, we have struggled to produce tactical game-managers at 10, and that’s a function of the environment we are in. In the NRC, you need to have that, and we’ve now seen Freddy Veitokani blossom into a Flying Fijian. The NRC becomes a critical bridge between the provincial on-island competition and the international arena and we are very thankful to World Rugby and the Fiji Government for the funding they provide to us to do that.”
In that sense, Veitokani’s move looks to be a promising one for Fiji, as he will again be faced by another style of rugby to learn and help develop his game with, but the key for Irish will be finding a balance in just how structured they ask him to be.
There is no point trying to turn him into Stephen Myler. Firstly, it erases many of the unique skills he will bring to the position and secondly, they already have Myler. Finding a way for him to have an impact early, such as off the bench or perhaps in a counter-attacking role at full-back, will help him acclimatise and get an appreciation for what it takes to play fly-half in England.
However, there is no need to transform the player. With Veitokani at 10, Irish potentially have a fly-half on the books who can offer something that no other English 10, bar perhaps Marcus Smith, can bring to the table, week in week out, in the Gallagher Premiership. Should they win promotion back to the competition this season, the Fijian playmaker is a potential x-factor threat to keep defence coaches up at night, in a league where ball-in-play times keep on increasing.
His development in south-west London will be interesting to watch over the coming months, as will be the job that the club ask him to perform moving forward. If they let Veitokani be Veitokani, within reason, then they could be on the way to a winning formula, despite not enjoying the budget of some of the more established Premiership clubs.
Watch: RugbyPass went behind the scenes with London Irish last year.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments