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Kiwi fly-half Ihaia West has named his new Top 14 club
Former Maori All Blacks fly-half Ihaia West has taken up an offer to rejoin La Rochelle following a one-season stint at Top 14 rivals Toulon. Having featured in Super Rugby with the Blues and the Hurricanes, the New Zealander arrived in France in 2018 and went on to start 83 matches for La Rochelle, including their 2021/22 Heineken Champions Cup final victory over Leinster in Marseille.
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The 31-year-old was in Dublin in May this year on the same weekend that La Rochelle secured back-to-back European titles with another final victory over Leinster, but he was instead in action off the bench for Toulon in the previous evening’s Challenge Cup final against Glasgow.
West came into the Aviva Stadium action early in that win following a head injury to Dan Biggar, the Wales international whose signing by Toulon last November from Northampton ultimately played an influential part in West deciding to return to La Rochelle rather than duke it out with the British and Irish Lions No10 in the south of France.
Confirmation of the signing of West by La Rochelle came at the end of a week where the Ronan O’Gara-led club announced the recruitment of Fijian midfielder Akuila Joeli Tabualevu from Valance and ex-England winger Jack Nowell from Exeter Chiefs.
A club statement read: “La Rochelle is pleased to announce the return of fly-half Ihaia West after a brief stint of a season at Toulon. With 95 matches to his credit during his first stint in Charente-Maritime, the New Zealander will try to continue to write his history with this club he loves so much!
“Having played for the Blues and Wellington at the beginning of his career, the New Zealand fly-half joined the club in 2018 to bring all his science of the game and his qualities as a modern No10. Widely used by the La Rochelle staff throughout his seasons here, Ihaia made 83 appearances in the starting XV and scored 866 points.
“After a season with Toulon (28 matches, including 20 with the No10 on the back) where he took the opportunity to get a title in the Challenge Cup, the fly-half has chosen to retrace his steps to where he feels good, always with the same desire: to enlarge his trophy cabinet.”
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"I can have a terrible day at training, but I’m able to cut it and go, 'No, that is enough for the day'"
– Ihaia West on…
Emerging at Hawke's Bay ?
Slaying Lions ?
Leaving New Zealand ??
Life at @staderochelais ?with O'Gara– writes @heagneyl ???
https://t.co/VzrvhM2dpN— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 24, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Should have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
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