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Bristol statement: The signing of Viliame Mata

Viliame Mata in action with Fiji (Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)

Pat Lam’s Bristol have won the race to recruit Fiji No8 Viliame Mata for next season. The Pacific Islander is currently playing his eighth season with Edinburgh in the URC, but he is now a confirmed signing for the Gallager Premiership.

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A statement read: “Fijian back row sensation Viliame ‘Bill’ Mata will join Bristol Bears from Edinburgh ahead of the 2024/25 season. The 32-year-old, one of the game’s most exciting superstars, was a standout player at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, scoring against England in the quarter-final.

“Mata, who stands at 6ft 5ins and weighs in at 125kg, was nominated for EPCR player of the year and named Guinness PRO14 players’ player of the year in 2018/19 and won Olympic Gold with Fiji at Rio 2016.

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Sam Warburton on Leinster and Jacques Nienaber

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Sam Warburton on Leinster and Jacques Nienaber

“Big Bill has made more than 100 appearances for Edinburgh, becoming the first non-Scottish qualified player to become a club centurion.”

Bristol director of Rugby Lam, said: “Viliame is one of the most powerful and exciting back row players in the game, so we are delighted to be bolstering our forward pack with a player of his world-class calibre next season.

“While he is destructive and brings gain line on both sides of the ball, he also possesses the passing/offloading skills and experience that will add real value to our team.

“His performances as a centurion for Edinburgh and at the recent Rugby World Cup in France for Fiji showcased his experience and ability at the top level. We are pleased to be bringing him to the Bears and the Premiership next season.”

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Mata added: “I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Bristol Bears next season. I’m excited for the challenge of playing for a different team, in a different environment and a different league.”

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5 Comments
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Sumkunn Tsadmiova 322 days ago

The Pat Lam charitable retirement home for ageing Pacific Islanders. With a nice sideline in buying up props then stalling all their scrummaging ability to cost England RWC’s. When relegation is re-introduced they can vie with Newcastle for the trapdoor. And all on Stephen Lansdown’s chequebook.

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Tom 323 days ago

Great player but Bristol already have a lot of explosive power players. They really lack ballast. They have a lot of lightweight players and the heavy guys are mostly power guys like Genge, Sinckler, Vakatawa. They need some big gnarly grunts to glue it together. Mata would be a great signing for any other team but Bristol keep spending big on the type of player they already have.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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