'It gave us a Caucaunibuca': Biarritz in dark over AWOL Kuridrani

Relegated Biarritz have admitted they are in the dark as to the whereabouts of former Wallabies midfielder Tevita Kuridrani, who missed training all last week and didn’t play in the club’s final match of their top-flight season at Toulouse on Sunday night.

Promoted to the Top 14 with a dramatic penalty shoutout won over Bayonne last year, the 31-year-old Kuridrani was a headline recruit for Biarritz in their hopes of successfully being able to make the step up to the top tier of French club rugby.

That aspiration didn’t work out so well as Biarritz were relegated long before the finish of the season. They won just five matches and their 21st and last defeat, a horrible 80-7 loss at defending champions Toulouse, was compounded by Kuridrani going AWOL.

Rugbyrugby.fr reported heading into the match that Kuridrani had disappeared and was apparently uncontactable amid suggestions that he had gone on his holidays early to Fiji. A report read: “Is Tevita Kuridrani a rebellious teenager? Maybe... by skipping a week of training, the Fijian does not stand out for the right reasons and there is worry on the Basque coast.

“The leaders of Biarritz have no more news from their midfielder and therefore cannot count on him for the perilous trip to Toulouse.”

In the run-up to the match, Biarritz president Jean-Baptiste Aldige quipped, “Tevita must have made a mistake in reading the schedules. He thought we were on vacation this week. We had so many goodbye ceremonies that he must have thought the season was over. It’s what we call Fijian weather. It gave us a Caucaunibuca. Luckily we don't have a Top 14 final to play for."

Kuridrani has played in 20 of his team’s 26 Top 14 matches, starting in 18, and even if he does return to the club for pre-season training ahead of their new campaign in Pro D2, he won’t have ex-All Blacks centre Francis Saili for company in the midfield as his fellow 31-year-old has been linked with a switch to Bordeaux. Saili could be replaced by the Australian Joe Tomane.

Biarritz, though, have confirmed one definite new signing for 2022/23, Perpignan hooker Killian Taofifenua who is the 21-year-old younger brother of Sebastien and Romain. He has signed until 2024.