There is a danger Glasgow is seen as a retirement home for fondly remembered veterans, but Nakarawa remains a unique game-breaking weapon
Just as Warriors fans feared there was more chance of Danny Wilson announcing a new clothing line than a significant addition to his Guinness PRO14 squad, along came a whopper that changes the narrative around a vital summer of recruitment. In convincing Leone Nakarawa, the colossal Fijian lock, to spend another year at Scotstoun, Glasgow have pulled off a hugely important capture.
How often can it be said that a truly world-class athlete is not only playing his club rugby in Scotland but choosing that club above a host of richer and more storied suitors? Even at 32, Nakarawa falls firmly into the world-class bracket.
Glasgow – and in particular Gregor Townsend – invested a heap of time in getting the best out of him in his first spell at Warriors, coaxing phenomenal talent from the softly-spoken juggernaut.
In doing so, deep bonds and a dear love for the city were forged and a PRO12 title emphatically clinched. This connection brought the Fijian back for a second (and now a third spell) at a place and a club where he feels cherished. Generic talk of culture abounds these days, but it reflects extremely well on successive Glasgow environments that Nakarawa has chosen to return – and stay put – after his rancorous departure from Racing 92.
As things now stand, Wilson’s three frontline locks are Scott Cummings, Richie Gray and Nakarawa. That is a brilliant array, with young Hamish Bain likely to follow, and the possible retention of Kiran McDonald, who did a fine job last term.
?? Danny Wilson know's all about Leone Nakarawa's abilities
Find out what he had to say on Nakarawa's decision to remain at the club: https://t.co/HcX5NwG16q
???? pic.twitter.com/Z1p29jTLwM
— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) June 24, 2020
Cummings is a supreme athlete with a massive engine, pace and footballing skill around the paddock, a leader in the lineout and one of the premier young second rows in the league. Gray seems to be over the injuries that dogged him in France having helped Toulouse decimate the Top 14 a year ago. His credentials are blaring and he will have designs on winning back his place in the national team.
As for Nakarawa, it is not merely what the hulking lock brings to the table with his outrageous skill set, intelligence and versatility, but what he inspires in those around him. Accurate offloads win games, sloppy off-loads lose them.
Soon after Nakarawa arrived this year on a short-term deal, Glasgow went from the eleventh-highest offloaders in the PRO14 to the top of the charts. He only played in two league games, yet his fingerprints were all over Glasgow’s improving form.
“The biggest thing about him is he brings confidence to people around him,” said outgoing Warriors attack coach Jason O’Halloran to RugbyPass last week. “I know Leone throws the odd loose offload, but all of a sudden guys are thinking about moving the ball in the tackle straight away.
“Our offload numbers went up, but our offload accuracy was always above 80 per cent and that’s a key threshold for us. If we’re making twelve offloads, we want nine or ten of those to stick. As important a weapon as an offload is, it will also kill you if you throw dusty ones.”
If Glasgow are serious about winning titles and making deeper inroads in Europe while inexorably losing their prime Scottish talent, then Nakarawa is the kind of player they need. They couldn’t keep Jonny Gray forever, but what a boon to be able to replace him with his elder brother and one of the most coveted forwards in world rugby.
Might having Nakarawa signed up now catch the eye of other high-calibre targets? Might Glasgow’s reputation for developing and looking after its Pacific Islanders lead to the arrival of more Fijian gems?
There is big excitement around Jale Vakaloloma, the massive back row Dave Rennie signed from Australia’s National Rugby Championship, after his maiden season was entirely scuppered by injury. The story goes that Rennie had to fight hard to keep him, with Scottish Rugby minded to call off the move when he arrived in Glasgow with a serious injury.
"And are you going to shell out £300-400k for a slightly-better-than-mediocre Super Rugby player, or do you develop young guys?"
Jason O'Halloran talks realpolitik with @JLyall93 ; recruitment, Scottish academies, Nakarawa & Borders talent going to waste https://t.co/0lJ8TI49ef
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 21, 2020
Nobody is asking Warriors to sign two World Cup winners, as Munster have done in RG Snyman and Damian de Allende, or fork out eye-watering cash for a mediocre Kiwi. If, for instance, you can pay Glenn Bryce in the region of £50,000 a year, is a solid Super Rugby alternative worth the £300,000-plus asking price?
Is he six or seven times the player of Bryce? Does he bring enough value off the field in the currency of cultural input, fresh thinking, work ethic, intelligence and personality to justify the outlay?
On their budget, Glasgow have to get these decisions right and they didn’t do that often enough in the old Rennie era. Through injuries or non-selection, too many overseas signings failed to hit the mark – Lelia Masaga, Samu Vunisa, Tevita Tameilau, Nick Frisby, Siua Halanukonuka have all come and gone without yielding the desired impact.
In fact, some of the best Rennie acquisitions were returning players. Among the most impressive were DTH van der Merwe and Ruaridh Jackson, with Niko Matawalu, Nakarawa and now the elder Gray coming back for more too.
TRY! "That was all about Leone Nakarawa!"
Glasgow strike first in Belfast.
? #WarriorsReloaded | Watch Munster v Glasgow Warriors live on Facebook and YouTube, powered by @SPEnergyNetwork pic.twitter.com/ccue7wEJTf
— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) June 21, 2020
The danger in this is that Glasgow become seen as a retirement home for fondly remembered veterans, but each has brought valuable contributions. There are caveats to the Nakarawa clamour, of course. Firstly, he has only signed a one-year deal and we’re not entirely sure what the end of the current season and pattern of the next is going to look like just yet.
You could argue that Glasgow would have been better served to invest his sizeable salary in other areas of the squad that might yield a more sustained return, but you’d be wrong. Even a year of Nakarawa is money well spent.
Secondly, the lock is back home in Fiji awaiting the birth of his child and is not due in Scotland until August, weeks before the PRO14 is scheduled to resume with some meaty inter-pro derby action. Away from the Glasgow conditioners and amid the stresses of prospective fatherhood, how close to playing, physically and tactically, will Nakarawa be when he returns to the country?
He hadn’t played in three months when he re-signed for Warriors in January and yet was deemed ready to start a must-win European trip to Sale Sharks less than two weeks after fetching up. He shouldn’t take long to get up to speed.
He doesn’t fix all of Glasgow’s problems. He doesn’t assuage the need for another bruiser in the back row or another option at fly-half or first-choice full-back. But he is a unique game-breaking weapon. Even in these coronavirus-ravaged times, another year of prime Nakarawa is an exhilarating prospect.
Thanks @JLyall93 for taking time to go through this with me during the week – tough to revisit at times. During this incredibly difficult period it's important to realise that it's OK not to be OK and things will get better. https://t.co/pzOt3HGNVr
— Graeme Morrison (@gmorri) April 12, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments