Bath face fight to keep England star
Winger’s former club reportedly want to secure return of their academy product
LONDON Irish are primed to try and lure their former academy product Joe Cokanasiga back from Bath Rugby, according to the latest reports.
Cokanasiga, 24, is understood to be out of contract at Bath this summer having moved to the Rec in 2018 after coming through the Exiles’ academy to play first-team rugby for the now Brentford-based side in the Championship and then Premiership following their promotion.
A serious knee injury on England duty in 2019 has blighted the Fijianborn giant winger’s time at Bath and in four and half seasons in Blue,
Black and White he only made his 50th appearance for the club last month.
However, Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan explained earlier this season how he and attack coach Joe Maddock have changed the way Cokanasiga, inset, is utilised at the club to get him involved more and it is getting results.
Speaking after a barnstorming game against Gloucester back in October, van Graan said: “He is fit, he is confident. We have tried to use him a bit differently to in the past and I believe it is bearing fruit. There is a real hunger from him. I went into the changing rooms and I said to him, ‘I think that was your best game in the last two seasons.’
Van Graan is highly likely to want to keep Cokanasiga at Bath beyond this season with the former Munster head coach understandably fixated on having players who can repeatedly get gain line success, as he stated when he signed powerful England international centre Ollie Lawrence following Worcester Warriors’ demise.
After the first eight rounds of the Gallagher Premiership, despite Bath starting the campaign poorly, Cokanasiga had made more contact metres (123m) than any other back in the league. And the Bath winger carried that form onto the international stage on Sunday where he scored his 12th try in 13 Tests with a fine finish in England’s 29-30 defeat to Argentina at Twickenham in their Autumn Nations Series opener.
The Times report Cokanasiga is wanted back at London Irish with the club set to lose Ollie Hassell-Collins to Leicester Tigers when his contract expires in June. The publication reports that part of the deal is done.
Hassell-Collins is set to arrive at Welford Road with Fijian star Nemani Nadolo leaving in mid-season to join Super Rugby side the Waratahs for the 2023 Super Rugby season.