Caption: Joeli Lutumailagi gets ready for the match against Espoir at the RCNM changing room. Photo: Courtesy of JOELI LUTUMAILAGI.
By JOSEPHINE NAVULA
Former Fiji 7s flyer and Nadroga centre Joeli Lutumailagi played his first rugby match for his French ProD2 club, Narborne, on Sunday after being sidelined for nine months due to a neck injury he sustained from a friendly match against Beziers last year.
They defeated top 14 club Espoir at the RCNM grounds, 12-6.
“It was my decision to play, because I wanted to see if I had really recovered and I’m really glad I took the chance,” Lutumailagi said.
Lutumailagi said the match was really a big achievement for him.
“This is match was really big thing for me, even though it was just a club game, I really looked at it as a big progress since this is the first time I had just recovered from a major injury,” he said.
Lutumailagi is also training in different fields of sports in order to get better in his performance.
“I am also training in judo and boxing so that I can improve my tackles, which I really need to improve on,” he said.
Lutumailagi also confirms he has started playing now to warm himself up for the upcoming IRB 7s World Cup on June 28th-30th, in Russia.