Family affair at Montpellier with Nadolo's brother arriving as medical joker

Montpellier have beefed up for their run-in to the end of the Top 14 season with an interesting choice of a medical joker. 

Vern Cotter’s side have been enduring a miserable season, knocked out of the Champions Cup with a defeat at Edinburgh while their inconsistent league form sees them placed in ninth spot nine points outside the sixth and final play-off spot. 

That has led to speculation that the future of Cotter, who arrived in summer 2017, is under threat as last year’s Top 14 finalists have nose-dived this term despite their budget being one of the biggest in France. 

They didn’t have to search to far to compensate for the absence of Benjamin Fall, who has suffered a foot fracture. Needing to quickly solve an emergency, they turned to Chris Kuridrani who is the younger brother of Nemani Nadolo.

The Brisbane-born 27-year-old, who can double job on the wing and at full-back, is a former Queensland Reds Super Rugby player who has also had a stint in Japan with the Honda Heat. 

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Standing at 1.9 metres and weighing 100kgs, he is the younger brother of Nadolo, the Fijian flyer who recently announced his retirement from international rugby in advance of this year’s World Cup in Japan (Nadolo is his Nemani's mother's maiden name). 

“I’ve been thinking about this decision for 12 months,” said Nadolo when explaining his reason to concentrate on playing only for Montpellier. 

“I called the club two days before making it public. Everyone was surprised, shocked. He [Vern Cotter] was looking for a joker to replace me during the World Cup.

“When I played last June, I had a thought: if you wake up one day and you hesitate about your job, it is the moment to stop. This is what happened to me with the Fijian team, whereas I feel that I still have a lot to give in Montpellier.”