Fijian flair frightens the French
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:44
England may have disposed of the Pacific Islands easily enough last Saturday, but France will not be taking them for granted this Saturday - least of all their two flying Fijian wings Napoleoni Nalaga and Vilimoni Delasau.
Both are well known to the French having light up the French championship with their try-scoring exploits for Clermont and now for Delasau at Montauban - where the 31-year-old has already scored nine in his first season for them.
Nalaga, 22, was electrifying for Clermont last season notching up 18 as both of them carried on the rich tradition of Fijian try-scorers in the French championship, following in the footsteps of another wing Rupeni Caucaunibuca, who scored 16 tries in the 2004/05 season and then 17 in the following season for Agen.
For Clermont vice-president Jean-Marc Lhermet it is no surprise that Fiji (with a population of 900,000) churns out top class wings.
"The Fijians are a little like the Brazilians in football," said Lhermet.
"They learn to play on the beach and their training is spent a lot on the sevens discipline, which places a lot of emphasis on speed and ball-handling."
However, while both Nalaga and Delasau are of similar build according to Lhermet they could not be more different in styles.
"Nalaga [who can run 40 metres in less than five seconds] is more of an English style player, he is very powerful, more a 'bulldozer' than Delasau, who plays more on his sidesteps, on his speed and his flair."
For Delasau's club coach Laurent Labit it is his sidesteps that make him such a problem to handle.
"He [Delasau] fills his rugby with his extraordinary sidesteps which makes him so unpredictable a quarry for his opponent," said Labit.
"His ability to accelerate is phenomenal."
However, Lhermet did caution that with their superb natural abilities there also came some evident weaknesses.
"They do have their defects as well as their qualities," said Lhermet.
"They are so unpredictable, that they have trouble entering into the system of the play of the club, especially in defence."
It will be surprisingly one of the few occasions the two Fijians have played together with them only starting three times in the same Clermont side last term - they faced stiff competition from French duo Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu - with Nalaga replacing Delasau on the latter's final appearance for the team in May.
There will be no question of that on Saturday and France would be justified in thinking that should both of them get a lot of ball then they could be in for a long hard 80 minutes of chasing.
AFP
