Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Brumbies fans pay tribute to 'Warrior of a man' Leali'ifano

After it was announced that Brumbies captain Christian Leali’ifano would be leaving Australia for Japan at the end of the year, fans have paid tribute to one of rugby’s most inspiring careers.

ADVERTISEMENT

This comes after Leali’ifano led the Brumbies to the Australian Conference in Super Rugby, and a quarter-final berth against the Sharks next week.

The fly-half will join the Top League ahead of the 2020 season, which would end his international career (as he has under 60 caps), which many fans want to see revived after a stellar season with the Canberra-based outfit.

However, it is Lealiifano’s story which is why he has garnered so much respect from the rugby world. Having been diagnosed with leukemia in 2016, the 31-year-old made his comeback the following year during a short stint with Irish province Ulster.

He quickly became a fan-favourite in Ulster, as he has always been at the Brumbies over the past 12 years.

In light of his incredible story, one fan described him as a “classy brave true warrior of a man”, after a career that has been defined by what has happened off the pitch as much as on it.

His scintillating form on the pitch this season has led to many fans wanting a recall to the Wallabies for the 19-cap international. The last of his caps came in 2016 against England, but his form this season certainly warrants a recall from Michael Cheika, with many believing his form is currently better than that of his competitors for a gold jersey, Bernard Foley and Quade Cooper.

ADVERTISEMENT

This is what the fans have said about Leali’ifano’s career and form:

With the Rugby Championship before the World Cup, Cheika has the perfect opportunity to give Leali’ifano another chance for his nation before the World Cup.

For now, the fly-half still has a job to do with the Brumbies, and will hope to extend his time with the club beyond this weekend’s quarter-final.

ADVERTISEMENT

Regardless, after the career he has had, he will bow out a legend.

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
Search