1
Paraguayan club Olimpia Lions clear Napolioni Nalaga to play for local side in Fiji
Napolioni Nalaga – once the most devastating winger in European club rugby – is back playing the sport in Fiji, years after he left the islands to pursue a professional rugby career.
ADVERTISEMENT
Nalaga has been cleared by his Paraguayan club – Olimpia Lions – to play for his original club, Nadroga Rugby. “Nalaga has been cleared by his overseas club,” Nadroga Club President Tiko Matawalu told the Fiji Sun. “We are now waiting for his clearance from the Fiji Rugby Union but his name is on the team list.”
It’s the most recent chapter in what has become something of a journeyman career for the massive Fjian wing. Standing 6’2 and tipping the scales at 17 stone, Nalaga was arguably the most feared strike runner in Europe for a space in time, and still holds the record for the most tries in the Champions Cup by a Fijian (25).
Nadroga are the club that first cultivated the Sigatoa born wing’s rare talents back in the mid-noughties. He represented the club at U21 level before he made the jump to the Fiji U21 team that went on to contest the 2006 Rugby World Championship in France.
He was soon scouted and was signed to Top 14 giants Clermont in 2007. He scored 105 tries in 165 games during his time at Clermont Auvergne and was a Heineken Cup Finalist in 2013. He failed to return to the club in 2011 and had his contract terminated, before linking up with the Western Force in Perth for a stint.
great to see @thewesternforce marquee recruit Napolioni Nalaga at the RugbyWA training centre – big bloke! pic.twitter.com/K4ZUe14e
— Western Force (@westernforce) December 2, 2011
In 2011 he scored a try at the Rugby World Cup for the Flying Fijians, emulating his father’s exploits in the 1987 competition. Kavekini Nalaga scored a try for the Fijians against Argentina in Hamilton.
He returned to Clermont in 2012, where in total he spent eight years of his career. He signed for Lyon in 2015, before popping up at London Irish in 2017, where he managed just five appearances and one try.
ADVERTISEMENT
His next port of call would be Lokomotiv Penza in Russia’s Premier League in 2019, although it’s not entirely clear how much rugby – if any – he played for the side.
Random news of the day.Napolioni Nalaga (ex ASM Clermont legend) has joined Russian club Lokomotiv Penza… pic.twitter.com/a6DneOlONx
— Lotfi Wada (@LotfiWada) August 3, 2019
He raised eye-brows yet again this year, when he signed for the even more obscure Olimpia Lions, Paraguay’s first professional rugby team. The Lions contest the new SLAR competition in South America, although the competition’s inaugural season was cut short by COVID-19.
SLAR consists of six teams, with five of those sides – from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil – competing in a regular season that, upon its conclusion, the top four sides will go into the playoffs. The fifth-placed side will enter the Challenge Trophy with Cafeteros Pro, a club from Medellín in Colombia who are not a full participant for the debut season.
Nalaga was the club’s major signing alongside Puma wing Manuel Montero and the club have now allowed the wing to play again in his native Fiji. Although he’s signed a two-season contract with the Lions, should Nalaga ultimately remain in his native Fiji, it will bring in an end of the most well-traveled of professional rugby careers.
ADVERTISEMENT
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 …
26 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!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 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.
26 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.
26 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