Wame Naituvi

Wame Naituvi agreed to join Racing 92 in 2022 and Mont-de-Marsan refused to release him, with a year still to run. He took the club to an employment tribunal to force the move. He lost, and played another season in the Landes.

A winger, 1.80m and 92kg, on Racing 92‘s books at 30.

Born in Nabau in Nadroga province, he arrived at the Clermont academy in November 2016 and never played a first-team match for them. Mont-de-Marsan took him for 2017-18 and kept him for six years.

He was a prolific finisher there. Nine tries made him the leading scorer in the second division in 2020, and he was part of the side beaten in the 2022 promotion final.

The tribunal season ended with a serious shoulder injury against Agen that cost him months. He finally joined Racing in the summer of 2023 and started well, with six tries in fifteen matches, before rupturing cruciate ligaments in a Champions Cup last-sixteen tie against Stade Toulousain. He came back in November 2024, against Pau.

In May 2026, with Biarritz among the clubs interested, he signed a new contract to 2028. Nine seasons in France, two serious injuries, and a Top 14 place held at 30.

The tribunal case is worth understanding rather than judging. A player at 26 with one year left and a top-flight offer in hand has a narrow window, and the club that held his registration had every legal right to keep him. Both things were true, and the year cost him a shoulder.

A powerful finisher whose career has been shaped as much by contracts and surgery as by anything that happened on a pitch.