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Ospreys sign Waisea Nayacalevu as he exits Sale mid-season

Waisea Nayacalevu of Fiji is consoled by Simon Raiwalui, Head Coach of Fiji, after defeat to England during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between England and Fiji at Stade Velodrome on October 15, 2023 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Adam Pretty - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Ospreys have agreed an immediate deal with Sale Sharks to sign Fiji skipper Waisea Nayacalevu, who has flopped since moving to the North-West last summer.

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RugbyPass exclusively revealed last month that the Sharks had told the outside centre he was free to leave the club after only playing 21 minutes since returning from international duty in the Autumn Nations Series.

Nayacalevu signed a one-year deal with the Sharks, with the option for a second year, as a replacement for England and Lions star Manu Tuilagi when he moved to Bayonne, but he has struggled to hold down a regular place in the side.

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The 6’4” star, who weighs in at 16st 7lb, has only made seven appearances for the Sharks this season, although he did play the full 80 minutes in a 19-17 Premiership Cup win over Newcastle Falcons two weeks ago.

However, they have decided to cut their losses and allow Nayacalevu, who famously scored for Fiji in their memorable pre-World Cup win against England at Twickenham, to immediately move to South Wales.

Nayacalevu spent ten years in France at Stade Français, playing 185 times before moving to Toulon in 2022, where he featured 29 times before linking up with Alex Sanderson’s side.

He is due to return to the South of France next season after agreeing on a two-year deal with Nice, despite them facing relegation to the third tier.

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Nice are 23 points adrift at the bottom of the Pro D2 table after losing 18 of their 21 games this season, and with a points difference of -252, they are determined to spend big to ensure a quick return to the second tier.

Ironically, one of the players they have signed – former Wales fly-half Owen Williams – will be a teammate of Nayacalevu’s at the Welsh region for the next few months until they reunite back in France.

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GrahamVF 1 hour ago
The times are changing, and some Six Nations teams may be left behind

The main problem is that on this thread we are trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Rugby union developed as distinct from rugby league. The difference - rugby league opted for guaranteed tackle ball and continuous phase play. Rugby union was based on a stop start game with stanzas of flowing exciting moves by smaller faster players bookended by forward tussles for possession between bigger players. The obsession with continuous play has brought the hybrid (long before the current use) into play. Backs started to look more like forwards because they were expected to compete at the tackle and breakdowns completely different from what the original game looked like. Now here’s the dilemma. Scrum lineout ruck and maul, tackling kicking handling the ball. The seven pillars of rugby union. We want to retain our “World in Union” essence with the strong forward influence on the game but now we expect 125kg props to scrum like tractors and run around like scrum halves. And that in a nutshell is the problem. While you expect huge scrums and ball in play time to be both yardsticks, you are going to have to have big benches. You simply can’t have it both ways. And BTW talking about player safety when I was 19 I was playing at Stellenbosch at a then respectable (for a fly half) 160lbs against guys ( especially in Koshuis rugby) who were 100 lbs heavier than me - and I played 80 minutes. You just learned to stay out of their way. In Today’s game there is no such thing and not defending your channel is a cardinal sin no matter how unequal the task. When we hybridised with union in semi guaranteed tackle ball the writing was on the wall.

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