Well, the All Blacks have last night announced our 2021 squad for the one off test against Tonga at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland (On the same day as the Maori All Blacks face Samoa again in the last of the 2 match series) & the 2 match test series against Fiji in both Dunedin & Hamilton just 2 days after the Blues (Coached by Leon 'Rangi' MacDonald (Former Marlborough, Canterbury, Chiefs, Crusaders & AB's player) who became only the 3rd different individual to win a Super Rugby title as both a player & coach, following in the footsteps of former Crusaders players who are now coaches of Scott 'Razor' Robertson (Crusaders coach which won 3 consecutive Super Rugby titles in 2017, 2018 & 2019 & 2 Super Rugby Aotearoa titles in a row when they won both last year & this year) & Brad 'Thorny' Thorn (Reds coach which won a Super Rugby AU title & ended a 10 year drought after last winning a Super Rugby title in 2011) triumphed after 18 long years (The last time the Blues had done it was in 2003 when they won their last Super Rugby title during the Super 12 era until last Saturday) to win the historic first ever Super Rugby Trans-Tasman championship against the Highlanders in the final at Eden Park in Auckland in front of 36,000 die hard rugby fans so here is the list of players selected for the team:
FORWARDS (FORWARD PACK)
HOOKERS
Asafo Aumua (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Dane Coles (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Codie Taylor (Crusaders/Canterbury)
PROP FORWARDS
George Bower (Crusaders/Otago) *1
Ethan de Groot (Highlanders/Southland) *1
Nepo Laulala (Blues/Counties Manukau)
Tyrel Lomax (Hurricanes/Tasman)
Aidan Ross (Chiefs/Bay Of Plenty) *3
Angus Ta'avao (Chiefs/Auckland)
Karl Tu'inukuafe (Blues/North Harbour)
SECOND ROWERS
Scott Barrett (Crusaders/Taranaki)
Brodie Retallick (Chiefs/Hawke's Bay)
Patrick Tuipulotu (Blues/Auckland)
Tupou Vaa'i (Chiefs/Taranaki)
Sam Whitelock (Captain, Crusaders/Canterbury)
BACK ROWERS
Ethan Blackadder (Crusaders/Tasman) *1
Shannon Frizell (Highlanders/Tasman)
Akira Ioane (Blues/Auckland)
Luke Jacobson (Chiefs/Waikato)
Dalton Papali'i (Blues/Counties Manukau)
Ardie Savea (Hurricanes/Wellington)
Hoskins Sotutu (Blues/Counties Manukau)
BACKS (BACK LINE)
HALFBACKS
Finlay Christie (Blues/Tasman) *1
Aaron Smith (Highlanders/Manawatu)
Brad Weber (Chiefs/Hawke's Bay)
FIRST-FIVE EIGHTHS
Beauden Barrett (Blues/Taranaki)
Richie Mo'unga (Crusaders/Canterbury)
MIDFIELDERS
Braydon Ennor (Crusaders/Canterbury) *2
David Havili (Crusaders/Tasman)
Rieko Ioane (Blues/Auckland)
Anton Lienert-Brown (Chiefs/Waikato)
Quinn Tupaea (Chiefs/Waikato) *1
OUTSIDE BACKS
Jordie Barrett (Hurricanes/Taranaki)
George Bridge (Crusaders/Canterbury)
Will Jordan (Crusaders/Tasman)
Damian McKenzie (Chiefs/Waikato)
Sevu Reece (Crusaders/Tasman)
PLAYERS UNAVAILABLE THROUGH INJURY
Sam Cane (Chiefs/Bay Of Plenty, broken pectorals)
Jack Goodhue (Crusaders/Northland, torn ACL)
Joe Moody (Crusaders/Canterbury, foot)
Ofa Tu'ungafasi (Blues/Auckland, knee)
*1: Uncapped
*2: Withdrawn from the squad
*3: Called up as injury cover for Karl Tu'inukuafe
And what do I think of the All Blacks squad selection for 2021 so far? Well, no Alex Hodgman (He got suspended before for 3 weeks which cost him a selection after a red card for a dangerous tackle on Highlanders player James Lentjes), Leicester Fainga'anuku (Who narrowly missed out on selection for the AB's because the selectors were in favor of Quinn Tupaea), Cullen Grace (Who was the latest All Black player at #1192) & Jona Nareki in fact to say the least because they narrowly missed out on a place but 4 newcomers such as Ethan Blackadder (He was the better player than Cullen Grace & follows the footsteps of his famous father Todd), Finlay Christie (Who had a blinder of a season when he played for the Blues as they conquered the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition (And was picked because Folau got injured & TJ Perenara not being available), Ethan de Groot (Who had never been suspended before because that's why he was picked ahead of Hodgman) & Quinn Tupaea (He was selected (After being originally named in the Maori All Blacks squad) with Lienert-Brown unfortunately got injured as well as Leicester Fainga'anuku came so close of getting picked & was possibly named after the famous New Zealand rugby commentator of Keith Quinn (Once the voice of New Zealand rugby before Grant Nisbett took over & is currently holding that position as the voice of NZ rugby), how? Because all 4 of them are based on good performances during the course of the Super Rugby Aotearoa & Trans-Tasman seasons.
And finally that there is some decent rugby on this weekend since the end of the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition such as the Maori All Blacks (Led by the Hawke's Bay skipper & Highlanders co-captain with Aaron Smith, Ash Dixon) taking on Samoa (With Leinster bound Crusaders & Manawatu player Michael Alaalatoa (Son of former Western Samoa player Vili & brother of Brumbies captain & Wallabies player Allan) at the helm) in the 1st of a 2 match series at Sky Stadium in Wellington (Which will be held under alert level 2 (There had been a confirmed case of the corona virus on Wednesday but there had been no confirmed cases overnight since) in the greater Wellington area (Although there was a netball match due to be held which had to be postponed) to do it without their friends & whanau but the match will be held without spectators since the match had been given the go ahead) followed by the British & Irish Lions (Who'll head on tour to South Africa) facing Japan (Who have never played a test since they previously hosted the last Rugby World Cup in 2019 in which they went down to the eventual champions the Springboks in the quarterfinal (And it was revenge of the Miracle of Brighton in which the Japanese famously salvaged & slayed the Boks to seal a famous historic upset win of all time at a Rugby World Cup in 2015) at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland in what would be the B&I Lions 1st home game in 16 years (The last time the Lions had hosted a test match at home was in 2005 when they took on Argentina at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, where the match had ended in a draw) + there is the Gallagher Premiership final at Twickenham in London, England between the Exeter Chiefs (Who'll have a chance to defend the title that they won last year after their semifinal victory against the Sale Sharks at Sandy Park in Exeter) against the Harlequins (Who completed the greatest comeback possible in which they defeated the Bristol Bears in the semifinal at Ashton Gate in Bristol) then there's also the Top 14 final at the Stade de France (Venue for much of the 2023 Rugby World Cup) in Saint-Denis between La Rochelle & Toulouse in a rematch of the Champions Cup final in front of a reduced crowd (Mainly because it is under COVID-19 capacity due to the capacity restrictions) at Twickenham in which Toulouse prevailed by 5 points.
So that is my 424th blog of the year 2021 (MMXXI) & my 44th of this year.
P.S. And I remember that comment made by Tana Umaga during a Super 12 game back in 2003 for the Hurricanes against the Crusaders ''We're not playing tiddlywinks'' I was like when Umaga made that famous comment to the referee now that's hilarious...But I also remember Zaki's comment made on Facebook about Carole being rested & getting tired after having that huge breakfast at a cafe over in Waiheke Island back in February this year when she went with Pops days before the shutdown ''Where am I when you need me'' And I was like, funny that.
No comments:
Post a Comment