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Confirmed: Semi Radradra has named his new French club
By Liam Heagney
The exit of Semi Radradra from Bristol was officially confirmed on Friday evening, the in-demand Fijian powerhouse getting unveiled as a new Lyon signing. It had been no secret that he was set for a return to the Top 14 next season given the tightening of the budgets in the Gallagher Premiership; it was just a case of determining where exactly he would end up.
Bordeaux, the club that he joined Bristol from, were initially thought to be interested in bringing Radradra back to the fold. That trail went cold and the 30-year-old has instead taken up a two-year offer at Lyon, the club he visited last month to inspect their facilities and to allow their medics to check him out.
A statement read: “Lyon are pleased to formalise the signing of Semi Radradra. The current Fijian centre of the Bristol Bears has signed up for a two-year term, starting July 1.
“Well-known in France, Radradra went through Toulon and then Bordeaux before joining the English Premiership in 2020. Having become a world reference in his position, he is a decisive player with a spectacular style of play.
“A Fijian international, he participated in the 2019 World Cup in Japan. But it was with rugby 7s that he shone, winning the Tokyo Olympics with his country in 2021. Aged 30, he will now return to the Top 14 next season in the jersey of Lyon where he has already built up solid experience in this championship with nearly 50 games played.”
Bristol have already planned for life without Radradra, unveiling the signing of Fijian Drua midfielder Kalaveti Ravouvou earlier this week. Ravouvou announced himself on the Test-level scene with two appearances in November, including a try-scoring effort versus Ireland in Dublin.
That selection followed his emergence earlier in 2022 at the Fijian Drua, the centre starting on a dozen occasions and scoring three tries in Super Rugby Pacific with a franchise that was appearing in that tournament for the first time.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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