Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Racing line up Aussie replacement for Nakarawa whose compensation case has encountered a hitch

(Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

Racing 92 have apparently lined up a long-term replacement for mid-season departure Leone Nakarawa. The Fijian had his contract terminated by the Parisian club after he returned late from the World Cup. 

ADVERTISEMENT

He has since joined Glasgow Warriors, leaving the Top 14 outfit with a vacancy to fill, and Midi Olympique are reporting that Luke Jones, the Australian who featured in the recent Inside the Barbarians documentary by RugbyPass, is believed to be ready to pen a two-year deal starting on July 1.

The current Melbourne Rebels player has previous experience of France having played at Bordeaux, the club he prematurely left when Michael Cheika convinced him to come home in time for the recent World Cup. 

Jones eventually failed to make the cut for that tournament in Japan and is now set to make the switch back to France.

In the meantime, there is no sign of a resolution to the legal situation between Racing and the ousted Nakarara, who was first laid off on November 12 and then dismissed outright on December 6 by club president Jacky Lorenzetti for returning 16 days late from a post-World Cup holiday.

(Continue reading below…)

Robbie Abel looks ahead to the Rebels-Waratahs Super Rugby clash

Video Spacer

A conciliation hearing was due to take place this week but was delayed due to a lawyers’ strike in France. 

Nakararwa had a season and a half remaining in his contract when he was let go and it is believed he is claiming compensation in the region of between €600,000 and €800,000 from Racing.

ADVERTISEMENT

WATCH: RugbyPass delivered something truly special when we went behind the scenes with the world’s most famous invitational side, the Barbarians

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

R
RedWarriors 3 hours ago
'Not a normal rugby team' - The Leinster flex that floored Jake White

I was actually at the match. Leinster were the outstanding team in the league stage. Leinster’s squad depth meant the Bulls could only nick a late win in Pretoria against an understrenght Leinster. Simple put, Leinster are significantly better this year compared to last. The Dublin match last year was a big win by Leinster. Yes they won by a point in the RDS three years ago but thats not relevant to yesterday.

As Leinster are such a dangerous team, it forces an opponent to focus on a strategy to undermine them and that way get their game on the pitch. Leinster allowed that against Northampton. But that was not going to happen again. The Bulls attack in last 10 minutes of the first half was as savage as anything in the URC this year. Yet Leinsters coaching plan repelled them allied to savage commitment from the players. The defense was outstanding, pressure at breakdown outstanding. Leinster did not win the European cup but arguably at their best this year no other European team could reach that height. They reached that yesterday. Leinster completely removed Bulls ability to hurt them.

And Croke Park….100 years ago the Brits fired machine guns into spectators injuring 100s and killing loads. No Irish team ever performs badly there. Same with Irish supporters. Opposition players might as well be Brit Tommies with machine guns.

I think a great Leinster team, played a great game plan, to the height of their power in a horrible stadium for opponents. If Bulls score before half time they were back in the match. They went down, but they went down fighting.

12 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Adam Beard: 'It’s a bit clichéd, but you only have one life. You want to experience things.' Adam Beard: 'It’s a bit clichéd, but you only have one life. You want to experience things.'
Search