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Rumours of Nakawara's Racing exit gain pace following UK sighting
Conjecture surrounding where Racing secondrow Leone Nakawara will end up playing his rugby is mounting following an appearance by the forward in the UK.
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Nakarawa was named EPCR European Player of the Year last week, with the big Fijian lock helping Racing 92 to reach the Champions Cup final in which they were narrowly defeated by Leinster at Bilbao’s San Mamés Stadium.
In recent weeks it has been rumoured that the Fijian is not happy at the Parisian giants and is seeking to move back to the UK, with two clubs having been linked with the formidable lock.
The Scotsman are reporting that he is unhappy at the club despite the side’s superstar status in Europe and is eager to return to Glasgow Warriors.
Adding to those rumours, he was spotted at Glasgow’s Pro14 semi-final match with Scarlets in Scotstoun on Friday night. However, the Warriors may not be able to compete with salaries on offer elsewhere. The Scotsman report that he is currently on £380,000 at Racing, a figure that Glasgow may not be able to stretch to.
He has also been linked with a move to Northampton Saints. Saints last week added England veteran James Haskell to their books but may well be interested in signing a player as versatile as Nakawara, who is equally adept in the backrow as at lock.
Saints have announced the departure of 17 players, including a number of back five forwards.
RugbyPass revealed him as our choice for the world best player in 2017 and he remains one of the game’s most potent attacking weapons.
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Racing 92 teammate Ryan opened up to RugbyPass about the friendly Fijian before their final with Leinster in Bilbao.
“He’ll greet you every morning with a big hug, which is very unusual but is absolutely incredible, he’d put a smile on your face.”
“You see these guys and how talented they are and (wonder) what is their work ethic and you see them train and how hard they train, like Leone and Yannick (Nyanga). You see how hard they train, and that does give you that confirmation in your head that it does take hard work to get to the level that these guys are and Leone does work really hard.”
Prior to the final, he topped the Champions Cup offloading charts with 20, and it’s something that has massively impressed Ryan.
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“It is great with GPS in the club that you are able to give yourself that barometer alongside him, that you are able to challenge yourself alongside him every day. Unfortunately I don’t have octopus hands, that he is able to do fastastic offloads!”
“He’s exciting to play alongside, very, very positive, always trying to do something new. It’s different second row partner to what I’ve had but something I’m enjoying it a lot.”
“I love to get challenged everyday so I’m coming into work skipping going in every day. I leave Leone to do the off-loading stuff.
And Ryan quipped that the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in Seven’s likes to show off his prize.
“Sometimes he does like to walk into the changing room with his top off and with his Olympic gold medal on his chest!”
The 30-year-old Fijian has been with Racing since 2016, joining the French side after three years with Glasgow Warriors.
On top of his 47 appearances for his native Fiji, the athletic lock is also an Olympic gold medal winner, scoring a try in the 2016 Summer Olympics gold medal match against Great Britain.
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 …
27 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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