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Fijian Sam Matavesi is about to make a massive leap... from mid-table English Championship to trophy-chasing in France
By Online Editors
Fijian hooker Sam Matavesi has landed himself an incredible end-of-season move, trading Cornish Pirates’ mid-table Championship battle in England for the white heat of the trophy-chasing business end of the campaign with Toulouse, the French league leaders and Champions Cup semi-finalists.
Toulouse have been looking for a replacement hooker for several weeks following the season-ending injuries to two of their Test level No2s, skipper Julien Marchand and Italy’s Leonardo Ghiraldini who each suffered a serious knee injury on respective Six Nations duty for France and Italy
The 27-year-old Matavesi, who played in Cornish’s March 30 defeat to likely Championship champions London Irish, is reportedly due to arrived at State Ernest-Wallon on Sunday as a medical joker and commence training this week
Minus both their internationals, Toulouse had been relying on their two remaining specialists: 22-year-old Peato Mauvaka, who put in an eye-catching performance in the European quarter-final win at Racing last Sunday, and 20-year-old Guillaume Marchand, the younger brother of Julien and an Under-20s World Cup winner last summer with France.
This shortage has pointed Toulouse in the direction of Cornwall and the well-known Matavesi family. Sam’s dad Sereli was the first Fijian to play for Camborne and Cornwall after his arrival in the 1980s, and his brothers Josh and Joel have also made their mark in the game.
The Toulouse signing joined Cornish in December 2017 having played for Camborne, Plymouth and Redruth and last November the five-time Fijian international bridged a five-year gap between caps when chosen to start for the first time since 2013 in matches versus Scotland and France.
That latter cap resulted in a shock Fijian victory over the French and now, five months later, Truro-born Matavesi will call France his temporary home having previously combined his rugby at Cornish with work as a supply chain logistician at the Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose near Helston.
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Latest Comments
Yes that’s what WR needs to look at. Football had the same problem with european powerhouses getting all the latin talent then you’re gaurenteed to get the odd late bloomer (21/22 etc, all the best footballers can play for the country much younger to get locked) star changing his allegiance.
They used youth rep selection for locking national elifibilty at one point etc. Then later only counted residency after the age of 18 (make clubs/nations like in this case wait even longer).
That’s what I’m talking about, not changing allegiance in rugby (were it can only be captured by the senior side), where it is still the senior side. Oh yeah, good point about CJ, so in most cases we probably want kids to be able to switch allegiance, were say someone like Lemoto could rep Tonga (if he wasn’t so good) but still play for Australia’s seniors, while in someone like Kite’s (the last aussie kid to go to France) case he’ll be French qualified via 5 years residency at the age of 21, so France to lock him up before Aussie even get a chance to select him. But if we use footballs regulations, who I’m suggesting WR need to get their a into g replicating, he would only start his 5 years once he turns 18 or whatever, meaning 23 yo is as soon as anyone can switch, and when if they’re good enough teams like NZ and Aus can select them (France don’t give a f, they select anybody just to lock them).
Go to commentsThe only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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