I must say that it really blows my mind the hate this guy receives from my fellow Australians.
Yes, he made some mistakes but surely he deserves a second chance? QC got one after calling out Deans and the whole Wallabies program, KB has had several after a string of alcohol related incidents - including punching a teammate. What had JOC really done apart in the grand scheme of things? Sure, he has had a bad attitude and by many reports has been a bit of a prick. However after his reputation being dragged through the mud and a forced exile, chances are he has got the message and will sort himself out. I think he deserves the second chance and find it amazing so many others disagree. We all make mistakes.. especially at 23 years of age.
As for his talent - the guy can play. If he is at his best the Wallabies wingers in 2015 will be JOC and Speight. Yes, he is better than the Honey Badger. If he can prove he had grown up - he could easily go on to being a 100 Test player.
As nzlizard points out, the view a lot of people have is that this will be his 5th or 6th chance as it is. He was kicked out of several clubs for off-field indiscretions while he was here remember.
All the same, I haven't seen too much "hate" for him to be honest ... not on this site anyway. But he really did seem to go out of his way to make himself unwanted when he was in Australia mate... you don't get a situation where none of our 5 franchises show any interest in you in spite of your obvious talent without doing a fair bit to rub people the wrong way. Around the time he was forced out, the stories of him were pretty bad too. I'd heard people say that even blokes who played at school with him wouldn't talk to him anymore because he was a pretty nasty and manipulative character... basically the picture that was painted of him by his peers was one of a narcissistic sociopath that didn't give a toss about anyone but himself and enjoyed f###ing with people around him. Team culture is important, and whilst we don't know all the details about what he did to make himself so disliked by so many of his teammates, the general view was that he was bad for pretty well every team culture he got involved with.
It was all hearsay of course, but you don't get that sort of reputation for nothing and it didn't seem like too many teams were unhappy he wasn't going to be around.
To be fair though, he's got glowing reviews from the London Irish, so hopefully he's pulled his head in and pulled down that wanky website of his describing himself as an "Australian Rugby Superstar" replete with wanky picture of him in a hoody looking disinterested against a graffitied wall.
Sorry but this is the craziest thing I have heard all year.
Naiyaravoro has a bit of time to make a name for himself before O'Connor comes over, and if the Waratahs can get his skills up, that sort of size could come in very handy against the increasingly large backlines the Wallabies face now. O'Connor is good, but he definitely won't push out Speight if he's not injured, so he'll have to push out AAC or the Honey Badger, or go on the bench. If he goes on the Bench, then that's where Naiyaravoro might be a problem, as a big guy like that might be more useful in the back end of games.
