Munster announce Malakai Fekitoa will depart at end of season

LEAVING: Malakai Fekitoa during a Munster training session. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Munster are to cut ties with Malakai Fekitoa at the end of the season, the province announced on Tuesday, ending the former All Blacks’ stay midway through his two-year contract.

The 2015 World Cup-winning centre, who now represents his native Tonga at Test level, has made 11 appearances this season, nine of them starts, having joined Munster last summer from Wasps but has found game time limited with head coach Graham Rowntree settling on fellow pre-season signing Antoine Frisch at 13 and rotating a number of players in the inside centre role.

The 30-year-old former Toulon star was not selected for the first three pool games of Munster’s Heineken Champions Cup campaign but did make an impressive European debut in Toulouse last month when coming off the bench.

“Munster Rugby can confirm that Malakai Fekitoa will depart at the end of the campaign after one year at the province,” the province said in a statement published on their official website.

Fekitoa had signed a two-year deal last summer that should have made him a Munster player until the summer of 2024.