1
Video: Malakai Fekitoa's cracking early try was his painful last act in Premiership semi-final win
By Liam Heagney
Former All Black Malakai Fekitoa was tipped to be one of the key players in Saturday's Gallagher Premiership semi-final between his club Wasps and Bristol at the Ricoh Arena.
The bulwark midfielder went down for treatment in the opening exchanges of a match where his duel with Bristol's Semi Radradra was hyped as a huge battle.
However, rather than shake off the problem, Fekitoa departed the semi-final after scoring under the posts with only nine minutes gone in Coventry.
Attacking off lineout possession secured by Joe Launchbury, Wasps initially mauled their way forward before the ball came to Dan Robson who dinked a delicious kick in behind the Bristol cover.
Fekitoa sprinted to get onto the bobbling ball and he gathered just short of the posts and dived in under them to score just before Piers O'Conor arrived to try and make a late intervention.
There were no huge celebrations from Fekitoa, though, as he knew his day was done. Speaking during the first-half on BT Sport, Wasps attack coach Martin Gleeson said: " I think he has got a groin pull. We're just waiting to hear back on the severity of that."
Former Wasps back row Nizaam Carr had earlier set the scene for Fekitoa's hugely anticipated clash with Radradra, telling RugbyPass: “The battle between Malakai Fekitoa and Semi Radradra of Bristol will be really important and they know each other from their time at Toulon.
"I learnt a lot from Malakai and he is a really humble guy and I’m taking what he has taught me into my game. Radradra has so many things he can deliver and is a key man, but having Malakai means there will be a real contest.”
With the Premiership final set to be played at Twickenham on October 24, Wasps will be hoping the injury to Fekitoa isn't too serious after the 47-24 win that was ignited by the midfielder's opening try.
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