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Edinburgh lock down 'physical threat' Mesu Kunavula
By Teddy Parker
Hard-hitting Fijian international back-row Mesu Kunavula is set to stay in Edinburgh after putting pen-to-paper on a new deal with the club.
The 26-year-old joined Edinburgh from the Fiji Sevens programme in 2019 and has since made 16 appearances for the capital club, the most recently against Brive.
Kunavula, a member of the Fiji Sevens team that won Silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, made his Test debut against Georgia at BT Murrayfield in 2020, crossing the whitewash on his debut for the Flying Fijians.
The back-rower recently returned from a knee injury sustained during an Autumn International match against Spain last November, and he joins fellow Fijian star Viliame Mata in committing his long-term future to the club.
“Edinburgh feels like home, it means a lot to me. I’ve never signed for another club, so I appreciate it here. I enjoyed being back on the field after being away injured, which was tough for me, but I was really happy to be given another chance against Brive.
“I’m looking forward now. I’m happy because I’m getting a lot of opportunities to play. Next year is a World Cup year, so I’m going to work hard to improve myself and I want to try hard to play as much as I can.”
Having bulked up following his seven career, the 6'5, 110kg Kunavula made his Edinburgh debut in the 2019/20 season opener against Zebre, which saw the back-row feature from the bench in the 50-15 victory.
He then made first start against Leinster at the RDS Arena in 2019.
Head Coach Mike Blair added: “It’s brilliant that we’re able to re-sign Mesu. He’s a player with a hugely exciting skillset and a guy that is really popular at the club.
“His physical threat is obvious but he also has great awareness of the space around him. He uses his offloading game to exploit that space, which was evident in Friday night’s win over Brive. I thought he had an exceptional game.
“It’s great that Mesu feels like Edinburgh is home and we’re really excited to see him continue to develop among a talented back-row group.”
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Latest Comments
oh ok, seems strange you didn't put the limit at 7 given you said you thought 8 was too many!
Why did you say "I've told you twice already how I did it but your refuse to listen" when you had clearly not told me that you'd placed a limit of 8 teams per league?
"Agreed with 4 pool of 4 and home and away games?"
I understand the appeal of pools of 4, but 6 pool games might not go down well with the French or the South Africans given already cramped schedules. I do still think that you're right that that would be the best system, but there is going to be a real danger of French and SA sides sending b-teams which could really devalue the competition unless there is a way to incentivise performance, e.g. by allowing teams that do well one year to directly qualify for the next year's competition.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.
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