Daily Times

Experienced Fiji hooker Sam Matavesi has demanded “change” at his country’s rugby union as he settles into life at French Top 14 club Lyon before heading to La Rochelle on Saturday.

Matavesi was part of the Flying Fijians’ squad which threatened to strike over unpaid salaries from the union at last year’s Rugby World Cup. The 32-year-old as well as leading players such as regular captain Waisea Nayacalevu and flanker Levani Botia have spoken recently about the chaotic build-up to the quarter-final defeat to England last October.

“It’s a crazy matter,” Matavesi told AFP on Thursday.

“Going forward I think there needs to be serious change on the Fiji rugby board.

“Everyone needs to be pulling in the right direction.

“If you want to see Fiji in more World Cup quarter-finals and the top eight or six of the world rankings then there needs to be serious change,” he added.

Fiji’s next set of games after their second-string side won the Pacific Nations Cup in September are in November as they head to Scotland, Wales, Spain and Ireland.

The trip to Edinburgh is being played outside the window for internationals but Matavesi and his Lyon team-mate Semi Radradra have put their hand up for selection for three other games despite the off-field issues. “We’re both available,” Matavesi said. “If the game’s in the window, we’re free to play, the next thing is just getting picked,” he added jokingly. Matavesi, who made his Test debut in 2013, moved to Lyon at the start of the season after five seasons with English club Northampton.

“So far it’s been amazing, a completely different way of life,” Cornwall-born Matavesi said.

“We’re settling in, the kids are at a local French school.

“We have a routine now, we’re having espressos in the morning at our local cafe and things like that,” he added.

His departure from Franklin’s Gardens coincided with English rugby’s deepening financial problems and the sport in France flourishing.

One of Matavesi’s early tastes of the Top 14 was a trip to newly-promoted Vannes, the first outfit from Brittany to feature in the first division. “We went to Vannes in the last away game, it was incredible, the noise, how busy it was,” Matavesi said. “On the morning of the game we want for team walk, we had people booing, cheering, beeping their horns at us, a completely different vibe out here.

“The atmosphere is a lot more like a party atmosphere,” he added.

Matavesi’s focus this weekend will be a trip to La Rochelle and a reunion with fellow former Truro College student in ex-England centre Jack Nowell.

“I know him well,” Matavesi said. “He’s come out here and shown what he can do. “It’s fascinating to see.