Scotland friends turn to foes for former Fijian Warriors

Leone Nakarawa,centre, in action for Glasgow Warriors against Guinness Pro12 rivals Zebre last year.

Leone Nakarawa makes no bones about his affiliation with the place that welcomed him in and turned him from a rugby-playing Fijian soldier into an international star.

Don’t expect that to mean he will tone things down when he faces Scotland on Saturday. Even best friend and regular contact Ryan Wilson, pictured, whose children relish their regular chats with “Uncle Naknak”, won’t be spared.

“For 80 minutes on Saturday, he is my enemy – the rest of the time, he is my brother,” Nakarawa said as he basked in the humid heat of his homeland.

“Glasgow has a special place in my heart, that is somethiing I have been saying for a couple of years. It is the place I got my first professional contract. I played in Fiji, but that was my first time overseas.

“Glasgow was my first club, so they became my friends, my close brothers, including the coaches who taught me a lot – positional roles and responsibilities during games. I want to thank them for that, for what they did for me. They have helped me so much in my rugby career.”

It is one of those oddities that two of the main players in the Fiji side both got their breaks from Gregor Townsend, then the Glasgow Warriors coach, but now in charge of Scotland. Both  Nakarawa and Niko Matalwalu, the scrum-half, arrived as unknowns and left on big-money deals.

For all that, there are good grounds for suggesting that no other coach has harnessed either player’s talents with quite the same sure-footed certainly that Townsend managed. Maybe because he was a bit of a maverick as a player himself, he seemed to understand them both and found ways to let them showcase their unique  talents without destroying the team structure.

“He is one of the best coaches I have worked under,” Nakarawa said. “He taught me a lot, things like offloading. He told me how to do it, when to do it. He has helped me a lot in my rugby career.”

The disadvantage, as Nakarawa observed wryly, is that the Glasgow boys know all about him, too, as he found to his cost when his current club, Racing 92, visited Scotstoun in the European Champions Cup.

“They tried to do things to make me angry because they know me very well, they know I have a short fuse,” he recalled.

“I am emotional, but I have moved on. I have a new team and a new family back in Paris with the Paris boys. If I were soft against Scotland and the Glasgow boys, I would not be helping my team. They will try to get to me on Saturday, but I am going to stay cool and I will have my [Fiji] team-mates to help me play well.”

It was not all one-way traffic. Not only did those two play key roles in elevating Glasgow from brave losers to title winners, but they also helped younger players at the club develop the style Townsend wanted. In  Nakarawa’s case, it was Jonny Gray: “I message him every day, I call him Baby Brother,” he said. “When I was there he was still just 19 years old.

“When the Lions team was announced I was hoping he would be in. He was one of the best locks in the Six Nations. I told him not to worry, he is still young. Maybe one day he will be the Lions captain.”

Matawalu has stayed in the UK, first with Bath and now Exeter, and was back in Glasgow a few weeks ago for the final game of the season against Edinburgh.

Though he acknowledges the Townsend influence – “His style of game is like a Fijian style; he loves offloads,” he said – Matawalu also did his bit for Ali Price, who was in the Academy at the time and will probably be his opposite number on Saturday.

“I remember I told him: ‘One day, when I go, you will be the No 1 choice for Scotland’. I was right. His style of game is quick,” Matawalu said.