Clermont terminate Nalaga's contract

[TRF_Cymro]

Top 14 champions Clermont and Napolioni Nalaga have reached an agreement to terminate the absent Fijian wing's contract.

The Nalaga saga seems to have reached an end. Having not returned to Clermont since heading home to Fiji to get married in November, the club have finally given up on their record try scorer.

Nalaga's life was thrown into disarray when his fiance was involved in car accident leading him to fall into a "deep depression."

Clermont did everything they could to convince him to come back to France, including sending manager Neil McIlroy to Fiji after hearing nothing from Nalaga for weeks.

"Even though the club was prepared to draw a line under this season and look forward to the next one, the Fijian player was not able to guarantee that he would come back for next season," the club said in a statement.

"The two parties therefore came to a mutual agreement that they should terminate the contract between Napolioni Nalaga and ASM Clermont Auvergne."

"We've reached the end of the road," said club vice-president Jean-Marc Lhermet.

"We did everything to put the pieces back together again, but I don't think there was anything we could have done to get Napolioni back in the Auvergne.

"We're disappointed to have reached this point but there was no other solution.

"We are running a professional rugby club and we need assusrances," added Llhermet, who will now have to look for a replacement.

Nalaga, who has twice been the French championship's top try scorer, and has score 61 tries for les Jaunards (51 in the Top 14 and 10 in the Heineken Cup).

Lhermet, who was visibly saddened by the decision, has however not excluded the possibility of Nalaga one day returning to France once his personal problems have been resolved.

http://www.planet-rugby.co.uk/story/0,25883,16024_6822758,00.html​

 

[TRF_Cymro]

A few weeks ago, we lamented the unfortunate behaviour of Napolioni Nalaga in the matter of his contractual breakdown with Clermont, and his apparent complete lack of respect in the way he went incommunicado.

Well, French journalists, never shy of heading off the the Pacific Islands in hunt of a good story (you may remember we once recounted the odyssey of the journalist who travelled off to track down an errant Rupeni Caucaunibuca), did not let the Nalaga story rest there.

A good job too, for the truth may never have come out. According to Marc Duzan's article in Midi-Olympique, it seems Nalaga is in his hometown of Sigatoka, stuck there not because he is depressed over his fiancee's car crash, but because he has fallen out with his mother over who he ought to be heading down the aisle with!

'Napo" was wanting to marry a local girl who he had met two years previously, and with whom he has a 10 month old son, Napolioni Junior, with a view to returning together to France. His family and particularly his mother, had other ideas, having arranged a marriage to the daughter of a well-to-do family from Suva, a thing commonly done in Fiji, where many villages are still controlled by a 'senior' or chief, who oversees daily life.

The 'accident story' was fabricated by the 'entourage' around Nalaga to buy time to sort the mess out - apparently his mother had the right to block his bank account, thus preventing him paying paternal contributions to his son and girlfriend.

The Fijian courts subsequently stopped him from leaving until the matter was settled. He is quoted as saying, "he wishes to return to France after the World Cup", thus turning his back on his mother and family, together with his fiancee and son.

So we owe Nalaga an apology it seems. And his mother may possibly be the most unpopular person in the Auvergne...

http://www.planet-rugby.co.uk/story/0,25883,16016_6894895,00.html​

 

[nickdnz]

http://www.planet-rugby.co.uk/story/0,25883,16016_6894895,00.html​

Wow...interesting development. Does this mean he will not be able to play for Fiji in the RWC?

 

[TRF_Cymro]

I dunno, but explains where he has gotten to.

 

[M Two One]

That's really sad actually. Hopefully he'll return to France one day.

 

[monkeypigeon]

Must be a pretty 'well to do; if it's worth not letting him make a bucket of dosh in France over. He's a fecking eejit for bringing the money back into FIji if that sort of thing could happen.

Edit: Oh yeah, Poor Clermont & Poor him. All very sad,

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Must be a pretty 'well to do; if it's worth not letting him make a bucket of dosh in France over. He's a fecking eejit for bringing the money back into FIji if that sort of thing could happen.

Edit: Oh yeah, Poor Clermont & Poor him. All very sad,

Wow what a response ... you do hear about things like this going on in Fiji where the parents of a person holds onto the financial accounts of her siblings, its unfortunate but hopefully he will be back in France / Europe.