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Nemani Nadolo gets bashful when asked about wiring money to his Pacific Island brethren, as though taking credit for acts of kindness might be the only thing capable of halting this juggernaut in his tracks. It is not in the nature of the Fijian colossus to brag or virtue-signal. He’s not forking out for recognition; he’s doing it for his people.
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Life for the hundreds of Island boys scattered across the French lower leagues is brutal enough without a complete loss of income and a deadly pandemic that effectively confines them to whatever basic accommodation they have, thousands of miles from all that is familiar and comforting.
From his base on the idyllic outskirts of Montpellier, Nadolo, in tandem with Dan Leo and the outstanding Pacific Rugby Players Welfare organisation, reaches out to them. He offers a word of advice here, a pair of boots there; a sage voice or a kind ear. Recently, the need has been for financial as well as emotional support, and Nadolo has delivered every time.
WATCH: Nadolo explores the life and career of Fijian rugby legend Nemani Nadolo
The country has been in a state of coronavirus-enforced lockdown for over a week now. The galactico wing has taken a pay cut at Montpellier, has a heavily pregnant wife, a teenage brother in the club espoirs and two ravenous Rottweillers at home. The weekly food shop regularly pushes 500 Euros, but still he is willing to reach into his pocket for his bosos, usos and tokos.
“It’s frustrating. From what we hear, clubs under ProD2 are not paying their players,” Nadolo says. “At the moment, it’s just communicating with the boys until we can do something. I’ve just been speaking to a few Fijian guys lower down the leagues and just seeing how they are, and if there’s any way I can help. We’re all here to help, and they have it tougher than us guys playing at the top.
“To have this going on and being away from your family, this is going to cause a lot of mental health problems. Every now and again I do help out with money. I don’t really talk about it but I’ve just reached out again and done the same thing and if anyone needs anything I’m here to help.
“I’m not saying that I’m a millionaire, but I can understand their situation, I’ve obviously got my hands full with my pregnant wife, and I’m sure a few hundred Euros will go a long way to helping some of those boys. It’s who we are, it’s in our DNA. If you can help, then do it. That’s just normal for us Fijians.
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“I could sit here for hours and talk about all the good things I’ve done to help other people, but that’s not something I do. Even just talking to you about it, I get a bit flustered. But there are a lot of the older Island boys just making sure that they’re looking after their own over here.”
Nadolo has charted these fraught waters before, of course, a troubled young Fijian alone on the other side of the globe with the weight of the world on his meaty shoulders. At 23, he was playing for Exeter Chiefs, the money he earned putting food on the table for his mother and kid siblings back in Queensland.
He drank too much, partied too hard, desperate to escape the blackness that seemed to envelop him like a giant, cloying spider web. He knows now that he was likely suffering from depression. Eventually, he got done for drink-driving and returned to Australia ready to pack rugby in altogether and take up a job in the tin and copper mines of Queensland.
Day 3 lockdown… at leas the suns out ? pic.twitter.com/cBtQ5Pz0Iz
— nemzy (@nemani_nadolo) March 19, 2020
“I’ve learned from that time and it’s shaped me into who I am today,” he says. “I was in a dark place. My now-wife was living in Australia, as were all of my family. That’s no excuse to drink and drive – that was a stupid decision that I made and I’ve got to live with it.
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“At the time I was going to head back and give up the game. I would have gone straight to the mines up in North Queensland. You’ve got to do a few tickets to get up there and I’d already started and I had an opportunity to go and work there.
“My mum said to give rugby one more crack and see how you go, and I got an opportunity to play in Japan. Thankfully, I didn’t give rugby up, and my wife and I went across. The game has brought me to here and I’ve made a name for myself.”
Rugby took Nadolo from Japan to Christchurch, where he burned up Super Rugby and became one of the world’s deadliest attackers, then to Montpellier, where he has been since 2016 and burnished his highlights reel with more frightening rampages. He captained his country at the 2015 World Cup and soon, although nobody can quite say when, he will be a Leicester Tiger.
?.. ok enough now pic.twitter.com/ALLaRmdkH0
— nemzy (@nemani_nadolo) March 14, 2020
Nadolo is to join the storied English titans on a two-year deal from next season, whenever the pandemic eases and sport, as trivial as it seems right now, can resume. Injuries have felled him these past few seasons and already, there are those in a ferociously staunch Tigers fan-base loudly complaining that he is a spent force.
“From what I’ve heard, their fans can be very straight and very blunt, and I just read a few of them saying on social media, ‘Oh, he’s too old, waste of money, why are they bringing someone that’s past his best to the club?’ I haven’t even started yet and they’re saying stuff about me. I’m just grateful I’m 32, not 22 – if I’d have heard or read this when I was 10 years younger, then I probably would have been offended.
“But I’ve heard it all before. It just gives you extra motivation to be like, ok, obviously not everyone is happy that you’re there, but you can’t get everyone to like you. If you play good rugby and score tries, they’ll be happy and you’ll earn respect.”
Leicester are something of a fallen giant; a team of wonderful players that has hopelessly lost its way, floundering incongruously at the foot of the Premiership. The hope is that Nadolo’s arrival can help haul them up again. Imagine 130KG of Fijian beef playing outside the immense Manu Tuilagi, with Telusa Veainu and Jonny May fizzing up the flanks, George Ford pulling the strings and Jordan Taufua, Nadolo’s old pal from the Crusaders, thundering about like a human torpedo.
“I was messaging Manu the whole time the negotiations were going and hearing how excited he was to play next to me – that’s when it hit home that I’ll be playing with world-class players.
“My first and foremost is just to make a good impression for the club and pay my dues back to them for showing faith in me. I could sit here and tell you, ‘Look, I’m coming here to win a championship’ – nah. I’m there to give my best to the club and hopefully we can create something special. They’re a great team; they’re just not doing well just now for whatever reason. I just want to get some good-quality game time and make the most of my time there, and if we can win some games along the way, that’d be awesome.”
Nadolo is a big man with a big heart and big ambitions. He has been flogging himself on the wattbike, the rower and the treadmill in isolation. When rugby returns, he will be ready.
Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
81 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
3 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
3 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
3 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
13 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to comments