1
'He was desperate': The legacy Fekitoa is driven to leave at Wasps
By Liam Heagney
Lee Blackett has enthusiastically explained that ex-All Blacks midfielder Malakai Fekitoa is desperate to end his stint at Wasps as positively as possible before he links up with Irish province Munster next season.
Injuries have hugely restricted the soon-to-be 30-year-old’s involvement this term but so determined is he to leave on a high after three seasons at the club, he sought out his coach last week and asked could he make a return in a low-profile Premiership Cup game.
Fekitoa dislocated his shoulder in the opening league match of the season last September and after working his way back to fitness to return for two more Premiership games following a four-month layoff, he then suffered an early February injury that further set him back.
Wasps had targetted his latest comeback for this Saturday’s Premiership game at home to Newcastle but so keen was the powerhouse to get back into action that he approach Blackett last week asking could he play with the kids at Sale in the Premiership Cup.
This he did, coming off the bench for the closing half-hour and his coach now can’t wait for him to tackle the end-of-season run-in.
“Malakai is heavily driven to leave a legacy at the club,” enthused Blackett when asked by RugbyPass how important it was for soon-to-leave players like Fekitoa to do their best to depart having given their all. “He is the one last week that came to me at the start of the week and asked to play. Our aim was for him to play this weekend’s game but he just wanted to go a week early, he was desperate.
“We were looking at getting a couple of weeks’ training in him but he wanted to play last week. He is desperate to help the boys, that is how he views it, to get out there and help get wins and I have got the utmost respect for Mala.
“Everything with Mala is about the team. He never takes anything personally. Everything he does is for his teammates so he is desperate to end well. I know when he had his last little injury he was so gutted because he wants to end his Wasps career on a high.”
Born in Tonga, Fekitoa made his name with the All Blacks but he has since secured his eligibility to play at Test level for his native country after playing for them in last June’s Olympic sevens qualifier in Monaco. He kept busy during his latest layoff drawing great awareness to the plight of the island nation following the tsunami disaster that struck in mid-January.
“It’s brilliant,” added the Wasps boss when asked about how selfless Fekitoa has been to get the message out that Tonga needs every help it can get. “What Mala went through with his family and everyone in Tonga, for him to help in the way he has is a credit to Mala. He should be really proud of what he has done.”
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
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.
Go to comments