ONE OF rugby's more controversial characters has passed away. Former Fiji captain Esala Teleni, below, has died having first come to our attention in 1985 when he not only captained the Fijians on their tour of Wales but was also involved in a diplomatic incident when he and a number of teammates were arrested for shoplifting.
Only after frenzied highpowered interventions were the charges dropped on the eve of their Test against Wales at the Arms Park, a game which Wales won 40-3 and which was the last Rugby Union game Terry Holmes, below, ever played before ‘Going North'.
A powerful, squat No.8, Teleni made 23 Test match appearances for Fiji, the last being in 1989 when he scored one of their four tries in their 58-23 defeat to England at Twickenham.
A Naval office by training, Teleni courted controversy off the field as well. He was a huge supporter of prime minister Frank Bainimarama, another rugbyplaying Naval man, who seized control in Fiji after a military coup in 2006, a coup which among other things resulted in Fiji being barred from the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games Sevens.
Under Bainimarama, Teleni became commissioner of the Fiji Police, for which his qualifications were not entirely clear, and then ambassador to China although he was recalled from Beijing in 2014 after allegations of bribery.
