Northern Edition

Select Edition

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

Nations Cup blow for Fiji as Semi Radradra ruled out until the end of November

(Photo by INPHO via EPCR)

Test rugby fans looking forward to Semi Radradra adding his Bristol frills to Fiji when they compete in next month’s Autumn Nations Cup have had their hopes dashed. Radradra limped out of the closing stages of Bristol’s Challenge Cup final win over Toulon in Aix-en-Provence last Friday and the club have now given an injury update. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“Semi Radradra sustained a hamstring injury in the European title victory and the centre will be ruled out until the end of November,” read the Bristol statement. 

That prognosis will come as a real disappointment to Fijian Test fans as the midfielder had lit up the Gallagher Premiership and was also a class apart in the knockout stages of the European campaign following his summer move from Bordeaux. 

Video Spacer

Dylan Hartley’s crazy Eddie Jones selection story

Video Spacer

Dylan Hartley’s crazy Eddie Jones selection story

Capped ten times by his country, most recently in their 2019 World Cup match versus Wales at Oita, 28-year-old Radradra was expected to have heavily featured in the Nations Cup tournament where Fiji are scheduled to face France, Italy and Scotland on successive weekends with a fourth game to follow in early December. 

Radradra’s impact at Bristol was again evident last weekend’s final, the midfielder having two involvements in the creation of the try scored after just 15 seconds by Harry Randall, the quickest ever in European Cup history.

Radradra gathered the Toulon kick in the 22 and the Fijian centre attracted the attention of three players as he looked inside and ran towards the left touchline, pulling Bryce Heem in off his wing. A brilliant pass out of contact to wing Alapati Leiua allowed the Samoan to race up the touchline to halfway before transferring back inside to the supporting Radradra.

He then gave scrum-half Randall the assist to allow him to scamper 40 metres to the line to open the scoring. Radradra hasn’t been the only player in the wars at Bristol recently, either. Former All Black Charles Piutau continues to rehabilitate from a long-standing achilles injury, with a projected to return to action in January 2021.

ADVERTISEMENT

England back row Nathan Hughes had a minor surgical procedure this week to solve a long-standing knee issue, while Andy Uren, who also missed the Challenge Cup final, isn’t expected back until the end of November due to a training ground foot injury.

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

J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

147 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Razor's 2024 All Blacks Christmas wish list Razor's 2024 Christmas wishlist
Search