DEAL OR NO DEAL
Nakarawa told to earn new Glasgow contract
GLASGOW Warriors head coach Danny Wilson has thrown down the gauntlet to Fijian star Leone Nakarawa to show he deserves a new contract.
Nakarawa will make his longawaited comeback in Saturday’s rearranged Pro14 derby against Edinburgh at Scotstoun and Wilson has warned the former European Player of the Year that he must prove he still has the hunger to rediscover the heights he reached in his first spell at Glasgow.
‘A fit Leone, the Leone we have all seen, 100 per cent I would want to keep him,’ said Wilson. ‘But Leone and everybody else needs to see him be confident again, out on the field playing the style of rugby we all know he can play.
‘I’m sure we will see that in the coming weeks and then we will go from there.’
On his day, Nakarawa is one of the best players in world rugby but he has struggled with fitness in recent times and questions have also been asked over his attitude.
His fall began after he was sacked by Racing 92 for returning late to the club from the 2019 World Cup. He came to Glasgow on loan before signing a one-year contract that expires in the summer.
The 32-year- old lock has not played a single game for Glasgow since before the first lockdown back in March when he went back to his native Fiji to sit out the pandemic.
He missed pre-season training after staying longer than expected due to a family bereavement. When he returned, he was still carrying the knee injury he had before he left and it is only now after three months’ rehabilitation that he is ready to play again.
Having the derby postponed at Scotstoun last Friday due to a frozen pitch has been a blessing in disguise for Nakarawa who has had an extra week to reach full fitness.
‘He trained again on Tuesday in what we call a red session, which is a high-intensity session and he seems to have got through that okay,’ said Wilson.
‘Hopefully there will be no flareup with his knee and if that’s the case we should get him to a place where he’ll have some involvement this weekend against Edinburgh. If there’s any last-minute issues that might knock it on a week, which it has done before with Leone, but hopefully he’ll be involved this weekend.
‘When you lose so many players you need your other players to be available to you and Leone hasn’t been for the whole season up till now. You need your best players on the pitch as often as you can, and we just simply haven’t had them, like Leone, available to us anywhere near enough.’
Wilson admitted he had been left frustrated at not being able to play his star signing this season as his absence came at the same time as Richie Gray and Scott Cummings, hi s other t wo first- choice second rows, were unavailable. Gray was missing for a month with concussion while Cummings was away on Scotland duty for six weeks.
‘We didn’t have Leone here for a long period of time, which was very difficult,’ he said. ‘There were a lot of reasons for that, some of which were in his control and some that weren’t. We really supported everything he had to go through.
‘ When he came back, the frustrating part was he wasn’t where we needed him to be. With a long lay-off, and not being able to contact him or treat him when he was in Fiji, it was a real difficult situation.
‘For the last couple of months, Leone has worked hard to get back to fitness, to get his knee strengthened and get to a place where we can put him out on the field. Fingers crossed, touch wood, we get there this week.’
Wilson plans to take advantage of Nakarawa’s versatility if and when the Fijian, Gray and Cummings are all fit at the same time.
‘When we went to sign Leone, it was based upon playing second row and back row,’ said the Warriors head coach. ‘When he’s fully fit, the athlete that he is can play both, there’s no doubt about that and maybe even No 8.
‘Right now, he’s coming back from a long-term injury, so the best option for him is in the second row when there’s not so much of a demand in the open spaces. He hasn’t played for almost a year now, since last February, which is such a long time. With the knee injury he’s had, he has to get the right exposure in the right position.’
With Brandon Thomson toiling for form and Peter Horne struggling with concussion, Wilson is in the market for an experienced fly-half with former Irish international Ian Keatley, 33, set to be brought in from Benetton from now until the end of the season.
‘We’ve got Brandon Thomson and Ross Thompson, but Ross is an academy player who’s getting some exposure now. We need something to tide us over, someone to come in at 10,’ he added.
Sean Kennedy, meanwhile, has signed a new two-year contract extension. Front-rowers Ewan McQuillin and Jonathan Matthews have also signed new deals.