NO NAKARAWA ‘UNTIL DECEMBER’
GLASGOW Warriors second row Leone Nakarawa is still grieving the loss of a close family member and won’t return to Scotland from Fiji until he has come to terms with his bereavement.
Combined with an expected call-up from Fiji for the Autumn Nations Cup in November and December, plus the fact he will have to selfisolate when he returns, he’s unlikely to play for the Scotstoun club until mid-December at the earliest.
‘We expect him to be here in the next ten to 14 days,’ said Glasgow Warriors assistant head coach Kenny Murray. ‘The issue was initially with Covid-19 and he’s also had a bereavement in his family, so it has been a tough time for him.
‘He’s had a few tough things to deal with back home like the Covid initially, then this bereavement, and a new baby, so there has been a whole host of things that have been difficult for him. I suppose it is never ideal but that’s where we are at the moment.’
The second row had his contract torn up by previous club Racing 92 when they lost patience with him after he didn’t return to Paris from Fiji on time following the 2019 World Cup.
He initially went on loan to Glasgow but hardly played before the pandemic shut down the Pro14 league. He returned to Fiji at the start of the outbreak in Scotland and has not been back since.
Last month, Glasgow head coach Danny Wilson said the player — who signed a one-year contract with the club after his loan spell — would not be back in time to play in either of the back-to-back Pro14 derby matches against Edinburgh.
But, in the same conversation, he did say he was due on a plane back to Scotland the following week and would return in plenty of time to play in the first game of the new Pro14 season against Connacht in Galway a week tomorrow. That evidently will now not be the case.
‘Danny has spoken to him and he’s got good friendships with a few of the players, particularly Ryan Wilson, so Ryan has been speaking to Leone daily,’ said Murray.
‘There’s never really been an issue regarding where he is and what he’s doing, there have just been a few difficulties around him managing to get back because of personal circumstances.’
When asked if there was a chance that Nakarawa wouldn’t be available until December, Murray added: ‘There’s a good chance he’ll be selected in the Fiji squad and that’s a probability rather than a possibility, so we just need to deal with that.’
Meanwhile, Scottish referees Mike Adamson and Hollie Davidson have been selected to take charge of matches in the Autumn Test window.
Adamson, a former Scotland Sevens player, takes charge of his first Tier One international match when England host the Barbarians at Twickenham in October.
Davidson, who has officiated in 11 women’s international matches, will referee the Ireland v Italy and England v France matches in October and November.
She said: ‘This is a huge year for women’s rugby with all roads leading to the World Cup. I’m just excited to have rugby back and get the opportunity.’