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What current All Blacks make of Malakai Fekitoa switching to Tonga
Former All Blacks midfielder Malakai Fekitoa has opened up about the support he has received from current and former New Zealand players who have backed his decision to change allegiance and represent Tonga. Despite playing 24 Test games for the All Blacks between 2014 and 2017, the 29-year-old became Tongan-eligible when he took advantage of a sevens rugby loophole that allowed him to play for the country of his birth last June in an Olympic qualifying event in Monaco.
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That freed up Fekitoa to represent Tonga at Test level in the recent Autumn Nations Series only for injury with his club Wasps to put that opportunity on hold. When he does eventually get to play in 2022, the allegiance rules will have changed anyway following last month’s seismic World Rugby council decision.
A three-step criteria will now be applied for a Test capped player to change countries from January 1: The player must stand down from international rugby for 36 months, the player must either be born in the country to which they wish to transfer or have a parent or grandparent born in that country, and a player may only change union once. Each case will be subject to approval by the World Rugby regulations committee to preserve the integrity.
The change of allegiance has been a thrill for Fekitoa and in an in-depth interview in the latest edition of the Rugby Journal magazine, he has spoken about how the switch to Tonga has been received. “Everyone is really happy for me, even the current All Blacks, guys back home and past All Blacks because I am good friends with a lot of them,” he explained.
“The guys in the current team are supporting my decision. They wish me well and they are all happy for me. A lot of them are islanders as well. There is a lot of Tongans in the current team and Samoans and they know what it is like.
The 2023 World Cup has suddenly just got even tastier as Charles Piutau, for instance, could now soon play for Tonga alongside his fellow ex-All Black Malakai Fekitoa#WorldRugby
https://t.co/znP7l0AlhM— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 24, 2021
“They know it is all about the families and the culture. I don’t gain anything from going back – we don’t get paid a lot of money or anything. But I am going for the right reason, to give back, and I think those guys are happy for me,” added Fekitoa, who represented Tonga as a 16-year-old at the Wellington Sevens when he was offered a life-changing scholarship to Wesley College which set him on the path to go on and play for the All Blacks.
Reflecting on his week on sevens duty in Monaco earlier this year, Fekitoa said: “After all these years, it felt the same. The whole place, how they treated us, the whole environment. It’s still the Tonga boys. Island guys, laid back, some of them never on time. The feeling was the same but for myself, I feel a lot of responsibilities now.
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“I just feel the weight of representing my country now. I am so experienced. I’ve done everything. I have got a lot of people to represent so in a way it feels a lot different to last time.”
His hope now with the eligibility rules having changed, other players whose Test careers with the leading nations are over will follow suit and step back into the international arena for a tier-two nation. “I understand some guys are Kiwi at heart, or Australian born and raised, but I think if you haven’t played 100 games, why don’t you (switch)? Especially some very talented guys who are still under 30.
“I wanted to come out and lead the way, so hopefully they follow that. It’s okay to play for tier two nations and it’s okay to change. You can use your talent when you are still young. You are under 30, you have still got ten years left in the game and you can use that to inspire another generation to play the game.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Both nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
1 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to comments