Quate signs with Japanese club

Daniel Quate

Southland lock Daniel Quate has signed a two-year deal with Japanese rugby club Toyota.

Quate will join a team that until recently featured former All Black Troy Flavell, who has now returned to New Zealand to chase a 2007 World Cup spot.

New Zealanders at Toyota include former national sevens representative Orene Ai'i and big Wellington and Hurricanes No 8 Filo Tiatia.

Quate's Japanese signing is the second this week after Southland first five-eighth Richard Apanui confirmed he had signed with Secom.

Southland No 8 Paul Miller will also be playing in Japan next season.

The contract begins in June but Quate will get an early taste of the Japanese culture when he travels there to inspect the club on January 10 during a break from his current tour with Italian team Amatori Catania.

Prop Craig Dunlea, who played for Southland in this year's NPC, has been signed by the Llanelli Scarlets until the end of the season.

The 29-year-old, who played for Otago against the touring British and Irish Lions this year, had a spell in Scotland with Borders in the 2002/03 season.

- NZPA