Back in late November 2021, I ended up with a lot more time on my hands than I expected when Munster got swallowed up in the Omicron Incident in South Africa. Two games were postponed, players got stuck in hotels on two continents and there was a real danger that the upcoming game against Wasps would end up getting cancelled. Once it became clear that Munster would be playing Wasps come hell or high water, I spent a lot of time looking at Wasps up to that point during this season and also the year before to get an idea of what we might expect from them.
As I went through their games, one thought began to get clearer and clearer in my mind and it was this.
“I’m really glad Malakai Fekitoa isn’t playing.”
Fekitoa had been injured against Bristol earlier in 2021/22 – a dislocated shoulder in the first game of the season – and my overriding feeling was relief. It’s not that I didn’t want to see great players playing because who doesn’t? It’s just that my overriding feeling going into any game that Munster are playing in is that I want Munster to win and without Malakai Fekitoa playing, Munster were incrementally more likely to beat Wasps.
Because Malakai Fekitoa is that good.
Recency bias might make you think that Fekitoa is somehow injury prone. He’s had a bad 2021/22 on that front, to be fair. He had a dislocated shoulder that stole a few months from him before a rib injury sustained in his comeback game against Exeter stole a few more, but that is an outlier for Fekitoa over his career to date. Prior to this season, Fekitoa averaged 1,298 minutes per campaign for Wasps, Toulon and the Highlanders including his 25 tests for the All Blacks so I don’t really have any concerns there. Of course, injury can strike at any time regardless of your record – RG Snyman will tell you about that – but nothing about what I’ve seen of Fekitoa would suggest he’s any more of a risk than anyone else.
The key will be his usage – what has he been signed to Munster to be?
You could be forgiven for thinking that, given he’s ostensibly replacing Damian De Allende, who will be leaving Munster for an unknown club at the end of this season, that Fekitoa will be coming in to play primarily at inside centre. While that’s certainly a possibility, Fekitoa is not who I would sign if I was looking for a #12. He’s played there before, of course, but only on 11% of his 142 starts in the midfield. Fekitoa is, on the vast, vast majority of his starts for three different clubs, an outside centre and, while it’s certainly possible to get lost in the weeds on jersey numbers, I would describe Fekitoa’s optimum role type as a Power Winger Hybrid.
What is a Power Winger Hybrid? It’s a player with all the impact in the carry, speed, short/mid-range passing and explosive finishing of a classic Power Winger combined with the defensive impact, durability and positional intelligence of a midfielder. That type of roleset isn’t a natural fit at #12, for me, without a very specific, incredibly expansive scheme to put the player into the position where they are most effective – which is in the outside edge spaces.
At a very basic level, Malakai Fekitoa is the player you want to be receiving the ball second to last in a sequence, not passing to the guy who receives the ball second to last in a sequence.
Watch Fekitoa’s line of approach on this clip off a lineout for Wasps and just appreciate the timing of his run onto the third pass off the lineout.
That is a rough approximation of where you want the majority of Fekitoa’s offensive involvements to be on the edge of the attack at the end of a passing sequence where he can play a form of “isolation ball” on those edge defenders. There are few midfielders in the game – maybe Semi Radradra – who are as dangerous in that edge space as a breaking threat. You don’t really get that as often when he’s at #12.
The interesting question is if this opens up more scope for Chris Farrell to spend more time at #12? In the same way that Fekitoa has spent most of his career at #13, the exact same is true of Chris Farrell bar his first season at Ulster and a few games for Ireland. Of the two players, I think Farrell has the highest capacity to excel in a narrower midfield role. Farrell’s range of passing and collision winning ability could really work in that space to get the best out of a guy like Fekitoa as a top-class edge attacker.
Keeping Fekitoa at #13 also increases his ability to impact as a transition attacker alongside Haley, Zebo, Carbery and others. His handling ability on transition is really good and it’s where his willingness and ability to offload comes to the fore.
Defensively, Fekitoa is a devastatingly aggressive and impactful edge defender and a real menace on defensive kick transition. Like Farrell, Fekitoa makes sure you stay hit.
All those qualities make him a hugely effective player on both sides of the ball that should allow Munster to beef up our attack in a way that is different from De Allende but has the potential to be even more effective with the right personnel around him.
