ITALIAN coach Conor O’Shea says Fiji has some really special rugby players and refers to Vodafone Flying Fijians and Racing 92 lock Leone Nakarawa as “one in a generation player”.
O’Shea said they had been working on ways to stop the man rated in the world as the king of off-loads.
“We have had long good conversations on trying to stop Nakarawa. I never pronounced his name right, but what a special rugby player he is in the second row. A one in a generation player in terms of his skill set,” O’Shea said.
The former Irish international said they would be looking forward to watching him play.
“I’m looking forward to watching him and I hope that he does not cause us too many problems.”
The Flying Fijians lock will be facing down Italy’s Dean Budd who plays for Bennetton Rugby alongside teammate and Marco Fuser.
New Zealand-born Italian lock Budd said they were looking forward to the challenge against some very talented Fijian players.
“It’s always exciting to play against a good player like him (Nakarawa).
“I played against him when he played for Glasgow Warriors,” Budd said.
“It’s a challenge to try and stop those off-loads that he can seem to throw from between his legs and behind his head. Yeah it’s going to be a nice challenge.”
Meanwhile, Nakarawa finished the game against Australia where Fiji lost 37-14, with a tally of 11 off-loads, two clean line-breaks and made 65 metres run for the Flying Fijians.
