Tuesday’s Rugby News criss-crosses the Pacific.
New Zealand, Australia, South America, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa all get a guernsey.
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Photo Courtesy of Keith McInnes
All Blacks Name their Squad
Much like their defensive line getting away just a little early so to have the All Blacks already announced their squad for the October and November internationals.
For the final Bledisloe test in Yokohama on 27 October they’ve announced a 32-man squad to which they’ll add another 19 players for the remainder of their end of year tests.
The initial squad,
Tight Forwards
Dane Coles
Nathan Harris
Codie Taylor
Owen Franks
Nepo Laulala
Joe Moody
Karl Tu’inukuafe
Ofa Tuungafasi
Scott Barrett
Brodie Retallick
Patrick Tuipulotu
Samuel Whitelock
Infringing Forwards
Vaea Fifita
Dalton Papalii (uncapped)
Kieran Read (captain, ooh, that lined up nicely)
Ardie Savea
Liam Squire
Matt Todd
Assistant Referees
TJ Perenara
Aaron Smith
Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi
Backs
Beauden Barrett
Damian McKenzie
Richie Mo’unga
Ryan Crotty
Jack Goodhue
Anton Lienert-Brown
Sonny Bill Williams
Jordie Barrett
Rieko Ioane
Waisake Naholo
Ben Smith
The other nineteen that will join them are Asafo Aumua, Liam Coltman, Tyrel Lomax, Reuben O’Neill, Tim Perry, Angus Ta’avao, Luke Romano, Jackson Hemopo, Gareth Evans, Dillon Hunt, Luke Whitelock, Mitchell Drummond, Bryn Hall, Brett Cameron, Ngani Laumape, Matt Proctor, George Bridge, David Havili and Nehe Milner-Skudder.
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RUPA select new CEO
The Rugby Union Players’ Association came into being in 1995 as part of the game turning professional. They set out to “directly promote and safeguard the interests of its members”. With (they claim) 100% of professional rugby players in Australia amongst their ranks it’s important they have the best people in place to look after the joint.
They have appointed a new chiekf executive officer after the previous, Ross Xenox, stood down having accepted a role with the Rebels.
Prataal Raj is the new person in the job and brings a wealth of experience having formerly held roles with the International Cricket Council and the Aussie GP.
All members of the selection committee (board members Sally Fielke and Dean Mumm, El Presidente Damien Fitzpatrick and chair Bruce Hodgkinson) voted for Raj with Hodgkinson describing the appointment as “ideal”.
“On behalf of the board, we are tremendously excited to work with Prataal in ensuring RUPA continues to deliver on its core purposes of protecting the standards of professional players, promoting the interests of the players and the game, and preparing players for their lives beyond rugby”, said Hodgkinson.
Raj was also excited with his new position, “I’m delighted to have been offered this role and look forward to working with the players to ensure their interests are staunchly represented,” he said.
“I’ve been a strong supporter of rugby my entire life and am excited about the opportunity to contribute to the strategic direction of the game. RUPA has built its reputation as a responsible and respected stakeholder in the game and I look forward to building upon this and working closely with Rugby Australia, state unions, RUPA’s existing commercial partners and government to further and strengthen the interests of players”.
“I’m also excited to continue driving the evolution of RUPA’s Player Development Program for both male and female rugby players, and I believe the game’s ongoing investment in its players is paramount.
“This investment, and rugby’s inclusivity, are areas the game prides itself on, and I’m looking forward to ensuring our members are supported off-field and that we continue to reinforce and enhance the link between well-being and high performance, and to follow through on RUPA’s mantra of helping our players become better people, better players, and live better lives.”
On a personal note, I hope this really is the culture they’re instilling in professional players across the code, although you could excuse my cynicism given the on-field realities not always matching the press conference sound bites.
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2018 Americas Pacific Challenge
Kicking off in 2016 to “boost the high-performance pathway for the test arena and to support the Americas Rugby Championship and Pacific Nations Cup as well as November international test window preparation” the long-winded preamble of the series stands in solidarity with the 9 days it took to play a grand total of 9 matches.
The teams contesting were Samoa A, Tonga A, Uruguay A, Argentina A, a USA ‘Select’ XV and Canada, eh.
The tournament runs as a “first past the post” set up so it could have faded into obscurity as the rounds wore on.
HOWEVER, as it turned out, the final match of the tournament would decide the overall winner and without Argentina in a position to challenge for the overall title the tournament was going to award the title to a team for the first time.
Uruguay A and Samoa A entered the 9th and final match without either side having tasted defeat and it all to play for.
Despite the hosts scoring the first try after only 5 minutes they were only up by 2 at the half and it was the Samoans that came home in style, running in 4 converted tries to lead 38-19 until the home side managed a late consolation try to leave the final score 38-26 and crown Samoa A as champions.
The tournament serves as an important testing ground for some of the teams on the periphery of the top echelons of the international game as they continue their preparations for next year’s world cup.
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NRC Expansion Talks
The Drua have been the form team of this year’s NRC. They’ve only lost the one match, and that was to last year’s premiers Queensland country, and have turned their home ground into absolute fortress this year amassing 194 points and only conceding 64 across four matches.
On the back of this success there’s been talk of possible expanding the NRC to include other teams from the Pacific. Namely, Samoa and Tonga.
RA’s high-performance boss Ben Whitaker is quoted in the Heckle saying, “We’ve had inquiries from World Rugby and clearly the other two nations they are keen to promote are Tonga and Samoa,” he said. “Fiji was a good three-and-a-half years in the making so it does take a bit of time to get things in order but that is a discussion that’s commenced.”
What may speed the process up is Samoa’s seat on the World Rugby Council they secured last week after jumping through (or demolishing) the requisite hoops.
Samoa Rugby Union chief executive Faleomavaega Vincent Fepulea’i outlined his union’s improved position in determining the direct the code takes in their region, “We now have a vote on the Council and this is where issues and directions of the development of rugby”.
“This has been long overdue, we have been left behind for a long time and our Chairman will be in (at) the forefront to advocate the issues for Samoa and our region with decision makers of World Rugby”.
The Drua’s participation in the NRC is funded by World Rugby so Samoa’s elevation to the Council might be the key for a greater presence from Pacific-based teams in years to come.
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