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Report: Two French clubs looking to swoop in on young All Black

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Recently capped All Black and Crusaders winger Leicester Fainga’anuku has become the target for two interested Top 14 clubs according to French publication RugbyRama.

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The Bordeaux Begles and Clermont are the two interested clubs in pursuit of the powerful Crusaders outside back who can play wing or outside centre.

Clermont have lost French international Damian Penaud to rivals Bordeaux, who are now looking for a suitable replacement, while Bordeaux has been active in recent years recruiting star outside backs.

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Despite signing Penaud, the Begles are set to lose Argentinian Santiago Cordero in addition to Geoffrey Cros and Italian Federico Mori, the other wingers on the roster and are looking to make another splash signing in the market.

The 23-year-old is off contract after 2023 with New Zealand Rugby and would be a shock loss to lose the young star so early in his career to France.

After debuting in 2019 with the Crusaders, Fainga’anuku has become a mainstay of Scott Robertson’s champion side covering at centre frequently when injuries struck.

The blockbusting outside back has scored 37 tries in 42 Super games for the Crusaders in just over three full seasons since his lone appearance in 2019, while winning two Super Rugby Aotearoa titles and the inaugual Super Rugby Pacific competition last year.

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His Crusaders form led to an All Blacks debut, he was called into the All Blacks squad for their series against Ireland and made his debut in the first test at Eden Park, a 42-19 win.

He retained his starting spot for the second test but a horror night for the All Blacks saw the young Crusader become a casualty for the series decider.

After missing selection for The Rugby Championship, he was recalled for the end-of-year-tour but stepped down for family reasons and travelled home from Japan.

A move to France would spell the end of Fainga’anuku’s short All Black career with the current restrictions on overseas-based players, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the end of his international days.

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The son of former Tongan international prop Malakai Fainga’anuku could complete an eligibility switch with a three-year stand down and follow in his father’s footsteps.

Leicester’s brother Tima, currently with Moana Pasifika, completed a two-year stint in France with Perpignan and has been capped by Tonga six times to date.

If a transfer is completed, Fainga’anuku would become the second debutant from the 2022 crop of All Blacks to move on, with Chiefs No 8 Pita Gus Sowakula having already confirmed a move to France.

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Comments

4 Comments
S
Sione 670 days ago

Best time for him to move on. He'll earn more money for his family and than consider retiring young and do something else.

J
Jmann 671 days ago

maybe they could have a wee think about developing some of their own talent?...for a change...

S
Shane 671 days ago

What a joke ae per usual all our young talent being scooped up by overseas eventually we will be left no stars of young talent everbody just seems to be packing up and leaving,doesint help with fozzie not selecting these players either

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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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