- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
There’s news that All Black centurion Mils Muliaina may be signing with Irish province Connacht next season. Apparently, nothing has been finalised yet but the former New Zealand star has reportedly been in contact with Connacht coach Pat Lam.
Muliaina is currently under contract to the Waikato Chiefs and Lam has already signed Chiefs’ players, Craig Clarke and Bundee Aki. Neither Muliaina nor Connacht would confirm or deny these rumours.
Muliaina played in 100 Tests for New Zealand, where he scored 33 tries. He retired from international rugby in 2011 after winning that year’s World Cup tournament (though he was injured for the final).
Muliaina also won several tournaments as a sevens player and played over 100 games in Super Rugby for the Auckland Blues (who he won the tournament with in 2003) and the Waikato Chiefs.
After retiring from international rugby, Muliaina played rugby in Japan before returning to the Chiefs last year on a one-year deal. He only played two games for the Chiefs before getting injured, though, and has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
It’s unclear whether the Chiefs will renew his contract, which leaves the door open for a move to Connacht where Muliaina may take on a player-coach role.
Muliaina would be a great boost to the province, indeed to any team. Though at 33 he’s past his prime, he still has a lot to offer as he showed with the Chiefs before getting injured. Hopefully, if he does end up signing with Connacht, his experiences will prove to be better than those of Christian Cullen.
Cullen was an All Black legend who signed with Munster back in 2003 for 300,000 Euro on a three-year contract. Unfortunately, he battled with injury and loss of form his whole time with the province and failed to achieve anything of significance.
Muliaina will be hoping his experience is more like Doug Howlett’s, who won a Heineken Cup in his first season with Munster (2008) and went on to become an integral part of the team..
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.