'Unfit chubby n*****' - Nadolo on racism in rugby, traditional healers and why he quit Fiji
The immense toll of professional rugby catches up with everyone sooner or later, even those as mighty as Nemani Nadolo.
At only 31, the Fijian totem and Montpellier galactico has retired from the international game, his hulking form beginning to fray under the relentless strain of performing for club and country.
Nadolo is a brilliant footballer with plenty miles left on the clock but he is not a robot. The Top 14 is long and punishing and he has come to feel like hamster on a wheel that never stops spinning.
The winger’s toil, of course, is handsomely rewarded by Mohed Altrad. His lifestyle in the south of France is barely the picture of hardship either, but eventually, his body has started to crack and his mind grown weary.
Nadolo’s season has been dogged by a persistent knee injury and it speaks volumes about how brutal rugby can be that even the lure of the World Cup and the joy of playing for his islands and his people on the grandest stage of all was not sufficient to delay retirement.
“I could’ve waited ‘til after the World Cup but it just felt right to do it now. It felt like a big burden off me. Probably the last 10-11 months I’ve been thinking about it,” he says.
Continue reading below…
“The amount of rugby I’ve played in the last four years has taken its toll on my body. I went from Super Rugby [with the Crusaders in 2016] straight to French rugby and not really having a rest, then from that into internationals. In two seasons, I’ve played 50-odd club games alone. Along the way, I picked up a lot of niggles and injuries. This season, everything probably caught up with me.
“The Top 14 is a slog; you’re playing 28 games, then Champions Cup. If you’re a foreign player, you’re going to get played a lot.
“You’ve got to find your way to keep getting yourself back up and doing the same thing. It’s a very physical game here, but it’s also one of the toughest comps I’ve played in mentally.
“As players, we know what we sign ourselves up for, but it’s not until you get here that you experience it. I’m used to it now, there are ways you can get yourself up and learn to chill out, but it’s a different world over here.”
Nadolo knows he is lucky to be where he is, wealthy and revered. He signed a new contract in September but virulently refutes any notion Montpellier pressured or incentivised him to give up playing for Fiji.
“Giving the international scene a knock on the head was going to allow me to not only start thinking about stuff like that, but just enjoy my rugby.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed every minute playing for Fiji and it’s always been an honour, but I think doing this will add a few more years to my career. It’s one of those decisions where you sometimes find you have to be selfish about it, as bad as that sounds. At the end of the day, it’s you that’s going to be going through all of it.
“People talk about, maybe he got a little paycheque, a little bonus here and there to retire, but I can honestly say that’s not true. I would never, ever stop playing for my country for money. It’s never been about the money.”
Seeking a lasting cure for his troublesome knee, Nadolo returned to his roots. He spent four days on the archipelago last week to harness the restorative powers of a traditional Fijian healer.
Waisake Naholo, the All Blacks wing born in the same province as Nadolo, famously made a Lazarus-like recovery from a broken leg after visiting a healer before the 2015 World Cup. England centre Manu Tuilagi said a “witch-doctor” in Samoa helped him banish the malevolent spirits that inflicted a barrage of injuries upon him.
“I hate saying it’s the witch-doctor – we definitely don’t call it that – but it’s someone with special healing powers. Funnily enough, I went there, got my knee done, and it’s heaps better. I’ve started running already,” Nadolo says.
“They oil and rub your knee. They massaged and prayed over it for a whole day. Then they put thirty slits in my leg, put a cup over it, all this blood comes out. It was a three-day procedure.
“We grew up on this. Whenever something happened to us, there was a certain thing you’d drink or a certain thing they’d do to your body. I didn’t really tell the club, I just went, came back and told them – nothing was going to stop me whether they said yes or no, because I know this has worked.
“It’s something we’ve grown up on, a cultural point of view, and the club respect it.”
Respect is held dear in rugby, a sport that can be quick to seize the moral high ground and preach its values. Generally, those tenets hold firm. But stories emerge that abhor us all.
In 2014, while playing for the Crusaders, Nadolo says he was called an “unfit chubby n*****” in a Christchurch bar. While out with his family in France last year, a drunken fan allegedly described his match-winning performance against Clermont as “not bad for a monkey”. More recently, former Springbok wing Ashwin Willemse walked out of the SuperSport studio while live on air after comments from co-analysts Nick Mallett and Naas Botha he felt were “rooted in racism”, and Ulster handed a lifetime ban to a supporter who racially abused Racing 92’s Simon Zebo in a Champions Cup match.
Nadolo says racism and discrimination has “always been there” in rugby but is “starting to get unearthed” with the growth of social media.
“There have always been idiots talking. Usually they’re far away from you on the field. What I find really amusing is they don’t own up to it [afterwards] – it’s just gutless people.
“We’re not only dealing with racism now, we’re dealing with homophobia. We need to come out with a commercial – and I’ve yet to see one –around racism and equality, making rugby a safe place.
“There’s always more we can do, always. Why can’t we all do it, get together, get some of the leading rugby players, black, white, gay, lesbian, whatever, and do something about it. Let people know that rugby is for everyone – we talk a lot about it but not much is done.”
In an illuminating column posted in 2015 (link for embedding: ), the New Zealand Herald addressed the issue of overt “racial stereotyping”. It cited an article by Auburn University professor John Carvalho, which “outlined four separate American studies that looked at the language of professional sports reporting. In short, the findings were all similar: white players have the intelligence, black players have the physical attributes.”
In the build-up to Fiji’s 2015 World Cup opener against England, Nadolo was asked to pose for a photograph cradling the journalist who had just interviewed him. The story was flattering and the image may seem a harmless and striking method of depicting the winger’s size. It is hard, though, to imagine George North, Brodie Retallick, or Richie Gray being asked to perform a similarly gratuitous display of strength.
“Every time I see that photo, I’m like, ‘what an idiot’. I kept saying I didn’t want to do it. That incident did really annoy me,” Nadolo recalls.
“It’s always about being big or too big. As long as it’s not offensive, I’m cool with it. The moment you start talking smack or being smart about it, I’m going to call you out.”
Nadolo has never shirked “calling out” injustice.
The plight of young, duped and destitute Pacific Islanders, adrift and lonely beneath the poverty line in the French lower leagues is well-documented, and sometimes bears tragic consequences. In November 2016, Fijian prop Isireli Temo committed suicide in France. He was playing for third-tier side Tarbes.
Nadolo dedicates what time he can to supporting and giving a “voice” to his countrymen in need, as one of six representatives of the tremendous Pacific Rugby Players Welfare group based in France.
“A lot of clubs in France don’t obey the rules or don’t pay their players. That’s where we come in and we work with Provale [the French players union] and the Rugby Players Association in England. We represent our country and our people here,” Nadolo says.
“They’re shy, they’re young, they don’t know what to do. They come over here on a hope and a prayer. A lot of the time in France, the clubs tell you one thing and do the other – that’s where the Fijian boys go wrong. They’re promised they’ll be looked after and they get over here and they’re scrambling to find a place or a pair of boots.
“Just the other day, I had a kid who plays for a Federale 2 [fourth-tier] club down here who needed some boots. It was as simple as going down the local rugby store and getting a pair of boots and putting them in the mail.
“As Fijians, we’re a culture that we help each other out, and if needs be, we reach into our pockets. We’re all they have here.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments