Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Nalaga scores four as Clermont dismiss Toulon

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Nalaga scores four as Clermont dismiss Toulon

Toulon slipped into the relegation zone on the weekend after being beaten 32-5 by Clermont Auvergne in the Top 14. Flying Fijian Napolioni Nalaga crossed four times, keeping up his impressive try scoring record for the French side.

His tally for the season is now ten, scoring twice either side of half time. His hulking frame, flamboyant skills, and speed off the mark have seen him acknowledged by Planet Rugby as one of the best wingers in the world, making their team of the year.

As for Toulon, they couldn’t repeat their win over the same side in the opening round of the season, and now face the reality of going back to the Pro D2.

They managed a solitary try from Normaan Jordaan, but it was not enough as the loss results in them now being just one point ahead of bottom placed Mont-de-Marsan.

Tana Umaga and the rest of the highly paid signings may soon find themselves looking for a way out, or facing the ominous tast of heading back to the second division.

Toulon's assistant coach, Aubin Hueber, was full of praise for the opposition though.

"We came up against an excellent Clermont team, who were more dominating and organised than us with leaders who made the difference such as Nalaga who was magnificent. We would really like him in our team!"

Time: 05:00

This guy is a huge huge star for the future, despite being already a major threat to any team!!!
Power skill, size and speed, a Lomu in the making?

Rokx

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 10:27 am
Horrible defence by Toulon no wonder their doing so poorly.
Also even though we all know how devastating Nalaga is in attack is he any good in defense? Cause i saw a vid on RD were Rory Lamont ran straight through him twice. But i havent seen enough footage of him to judge so please let me know?

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 11:58 am
i'm happy to see nalaga back.
he was suspended for few weeks after a coathanger on elissade.

as clermont begin their come-back in top14, nalaga will help with his devastating runs, i enjoy the way he can join the forwards

By Flooz, at January 06, 2009 12:32 pm
Aubin Hueber probably went up to him after the match and offered him a nice sum of money to come to toulon lol...

french rugby becoming more about the money? i hear Giteau is going to bayonne too

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 12:34 pm
Hes like every other fijian winger, Great attacker but poor in defence.
Cool name though lol

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 12:58 pm
what has happened to sonny bill williams?

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 1:18 pm
I've watched this kid in more or less every game he has played for Clermont in 2007-2008, and I've only seen him get shown up once in defense. As stated earlier Rory Lamont bounced off his tackle and scored. The mistake he did in that game was he tried to shoulder charge Lamont, which he should've been carded for, but Lamont just bounced and spun out of the tackle. Apart from that incident he is pretty good in defense...Howlett had 3 1 vs 1 opportunities against him but couldn't get past.

Defense will always be a big problem with big wingers, I've lost count the number of times the likes of Alesana Tuilagi, Matt Banahan and Vainikolo have been shown up in defense.

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 2:33 pm
re: 2nd try

who was the 1st defender he beat? SBW?

Samoan utility back Tusi Pisi is no slouch in defense, but Nalaga just bounced him off with ease. 4 defenders near the sideline with rougly 60m to the try line and they couldn't stop him, TOULON ARE CRAP.

re: 3rd Try

LMAO@SBW....Loic the Clermont 2nd rower side stepped a center. What was SBW doing? embarrassing

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 2:42 pm
ENORME! Naps

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 4:34 pm
the "almost 2nd try" was some cool jonah-lomu stuff

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 5:01 pm
so then can anyone sort some stats? is he as big as lomu, me thinks not lomu was 19stone in his prime that is massive... he was lightning too. the thing with lomu compared to a alot of so called big wingers like banahan, vainikolo and tuilangi is that he was so fast. nalaga doesnt look as quick.

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 6:15 pm
last anonymous, you are a joke.
nalaga is lightning quick, probably even quicker than lomu was, with all due respect

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 6:23 pm
I'm frenh, sorry for my poor english.

Nalagua is a deadly finisher, a try-hunter, clearly one of the best winger in the world ball in hand.

But apart from that, he has real weaknesses, especially under high ball and defence. Like many Pacific wingers (with all the respect due to them), he doesn't like to catch high balls behind him, moreover he doesn't catch the pressure very well.

Concerning his defence, well, he's not a so bad bad tackler (easy when you're more than 100kg), but he has real lacks in his defensive positionning and is sometimes not as commited as he should be.

Still, he remains an impressive player. I'd rather like Clermont to give Malzieu game time in orer to have a worthy French team for the Six Nations.

But, in france, you know, nobody really understand that we have to give young guys their chance in order to win international games. And in the same time, clubs only care of victory &/or money... As long as clubs will be the priority over national teams in the northern hemisphere (an don't come telling me that it's wrong), we won't win any other RWC...

I am very happy to see Toulon being in this situation, it shows that money doesn't make everything. To me, they're just a mercenarie band, leaded by the worst thing that ever happened to rugby : Boudjellal. This thing has never touched any rugby ball in his life, the only reason why he's interesting in rugby is because he felt he could get money and celebrity from it. He has no respect to rugby valors, he should have spent his money in Football where he could have find bastards president like him.

And, in order to keep things clean in our beloved sports, let's bring quotas of SH players in the Northern Teams (yeah yeah sweet dreams...), it would be better for everyone in the end...

I fell, i went a little far away of the original subject, no ? Excuse me.

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 6:35 pm
he actually gets five accordin to the commentators

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 7:13 pm
I doubt Nalaga is as fast as Lomu, but he does have something special.

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 8:05 pm
@MPC33

I agree with your notion giving Malzieu more game time, but, if a player like Nalaga is used on the bench for Clermont, he will look else where. He would't have any problem getting signed by another top T14 club. Clermont would rather have a player like him on their side then on the opposition team.

By Anonymous, at January 06, 2009 8:09 pm
Nice 2nd try.

Nalaga is a mini-lomu...Nalaga basically has the strength and speed to get him there...but not he's certainly not as fast and strong as lomu. I saw him literally stumbling to make each try. But if there's one thing this kid doesn't have that Lomu had...that's finesse.

By Don, at January 07, 2009 12:45 am
with all due respect to the people saying Lomu was so much better than Nalaga you have to remember that he was playing at the dawn of the professional era, where many players simply didn't have the size, strength or defensive tactics to stop him. The way the game has evolved now, it's pretty astounding that Nalaga is so effective. I think given time he could grow to be even better than Lomu was (absolutely no disrespect to Lomu. The guy was and still is a legend)

By Anonymous, at January 07, 2009 8:09 am
I totally agree with the last Anon, taking nothing away from Lomu, he did play at a time where wingers and backs in rugby were small. Today, more or less every back, even fly-halfs are between 6ft2"-6ft7" and most weigh above 100kg.

It's unfair comparing this 22yr old kid to a legend like Lomu, many big wingers have carried the "next Lomu" title, but more or less all have failed to live up to the name. I wouldn't go as far as saying Nalaga is the next Lomu, because imo he is a totally different type of player. He's work rate is unbelievable, at times I'm confused wether he's a winger or a flanker, because I'm always finding him popping up around the ruck area, unlike some wingers who sit on their hands waiting for a miracle to happen, this kid goes looking for work for the full 80mins.

Some wingers get hyped up but fail to deliver, Nalaga has impressed, improved and been consistent in his performance. This is only his 2nd season with ASM/T14 rugby, and he's already at the top of the try scoring table.

re: defense
most big wingers are poor defenders, Lomu was devasting with the ball but not a very good defender...easily turned

By Anonymous, at January 07, 2009 11:52 am
re: Nalaga's speed

He does not look fast, but, I've seen a youtube vid where he skinned Delasau and easily burned him off in a 30-40m foot race to the try line. I expected Delasau to catch him but with every stride Nalaga pulled away. Not a lot of wingers can say they beat Delasau in a foot race.

By Anonymous, at January 07, 2009 12:02 pm
Lomu had finesse?? lol

uhhh?? I doubt it, he was a 6ft5"/120kg winger playing against opposition wingers who were half his size. Lomu was all about speed, power & strength, but finesse is a word I wouldn't use to describe him.

By Anonymous, at January 07, 2009 12:11 pm
Toulon are hardly the best team either

By Anonymous, at January 07, 2009 6:30 pm
I agree Toulon are not a good team, but they do have class players in their outfit.

How many carries and line-breaks did Nalaga get in the Munster game? I seem to recall him breaking through tackles several times and making a lot of yards in that game.

By Anonymous, at January 08, 2009 2:29 pm