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Explained: What seduced Castres into signing 'unemployed' Nakarawa
By Liam Heagney
Beaten Top 14 finalists Castres have explained why they have gambled on signing Leone Nakarawa, the Fijian forward whose career has been on a downward spiral since falling out with Racing following the 2019 World Cup in Japan. At the time, the now 34-year-old was one of the stars of the world game due to his brilliant offloading and his athleticism, a reputation honed at the title-winning Glasgow before he switched to Paris in 2016.
However, relations soured at the Top 14 club with his delayed return following the World Cup in the Far East and it was December 2019 when they fired him. “After a few days of thinking about the legal deadlines, Jacky Lorenzetti has decided to break Nakarawa’s contract,” read a statement.
“This decision, taken in consultation with the sporting director of the club, follows on from the proven disciplinary manoeuvres of Nakarawa who, in particular, did not show up at the resumption of the training programme on October 28.”
That left Nakarawa trying to relaunch his career back in the old PRO14. He got going at Glasgow in February 2020 only to then endure an eleven-month wait in between games due to the pandemic stoppage and a troublesome knee injury.
Still, his eight appearances for the Warriors in the 2020/21 season were enough to convince Ulster to sign him on a deal that was ultimately scuppered when he failed a medical at the Irish club. That left Nakarawa returning to France, taking up a contract at Toulon where he made 13 appearances in his sole season there before getting released at the end of the 2021/22 campaign.
That decision left him unemployed but it was only temporary as Castres decided to gamble on offering the 65-cap second row a one-year deal. It was at the beginning of July that this contract emerged and the club have now explained why they opted to bring in Nakarawa.
In a video published on the Castres website, team manager Pierre-Henry Broncan said: “He was on the list of unemployed because he was not retained by Toulon where he played last season. At 34, he has a strong ambition which is to compete in the 2023 World Cup in France.
“His versatility, his experience at the very highest level and his motivation seduced us. Today, he is a player who really has an objective to finish his career and he knows very well that he needs to go through a big season with Castres Olympique to be able to try to reach the 2023 World Cup."
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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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