Rugby: Faumuina in new start

Former North Queensland Cowboys and Warriors player Sione Faumuina yesterday made the start to his rugby career. Photo / Getty Images

Former bad boy and Kiwi test forward Sione Faumuina had his first game of rugby yesterday.

Faumuina has switched codes and is now playing for the Brisbane club Norths Eagles, coached by former Wallaby loose forward Chris Roche - and is said to be determined to put his controversial past behind him.

The former Warriors, Cowboys, Harlequins and Castleford back-rower has been dumped or disciplined at his last four league clubs after being involved in off-field incidents.

However, Roche said the 29-year-old was intent on making a name for himself on the field in rugby.

"Sione has been one of our best trainers," Roche said. "He is enormously talented, but more importantly is diligent, an active listener and a man on a mission. I support him 100 per cent."

Previously a ball-playing forward, Faumuina played inside centre in his rugby union debut against Wests yesterday.

Norths have been perennial competition battlers but have risen under Roche in recent seasons. They are the club of Wallabies halfback Will Genia.

Faumuina played two tests for the Kiwis during his five-year stint with the Warriors, which ended in 2006 following repeated cases of alcohol-related misconduct.

He then signed with English Super League club Harlequins but had his contract torn up in the pre-season.

Faumuina returned to Australia to play with the North Queensland Cowboys but was again caught up in a controversy of his own making when he was forced to observe strict behavioural guidelines placed on him by the club after a car accident during the 2008 season. No other vehicle was involved.

British Super League club Castleford then recruited him but he left the club after being dropped for disciplinary reasons by coach Terry Matterson.

His departure was tinged in more controversy with English reports he missed a court hearing in August on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm at a Yorkshire nightclub in February.

Faumuina originally sought interest from Queensland Cup league clubs before starting pre-season training with the Eagles.

If Faumuina's league career is over, that of another Kiwi - Luke Covell - is almost literally hanging on a knife edge.

Covell this week became the first NRL player to undergo the radical ligament augmentation knee surgery performed on Swans player Nick Malceski in a bid to salvage his career.

After rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in his side's 11-0 win over Parramatta, Covell's season was in tatters and his career uncertain. He is unsigned beyond this year.

After telling Sharks medicos he had "nothing to lose", the 28-year-old underwent the revolutionary ligament augmentation and reconstructive system (LARS) operation at St Vincent's Hospital.

If the operation is as successful for Covell as it was for Malceski, he could be playing within 12 weeks - slashing his recovery time by nine months.

The procedure - performed by leading Sydney orthopaedic surgeon Craig Waller - involves two industrial-strength synthetic fibres being inserted into his knee to act as his ACL ligament. Ground-breaking French surgeon JP Laboreau performed the same surgery on Malceski.

Three weeks later he was riding a stationary bike and running a week later - something that would normally have taken 12 to 16 weeks.

Malceski returned to the field three months after suffering the injury, much to the amazement of the AFL world. So successful was it for Malceski, it became known as the "Malceski op".

However, the procedure remains untested in the NRL, with Waller adding extra fibre to strengthen Covell's knee.