Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Blues welcome back two All Blacks as two others rested for Highlanders clash

Akira Ioane and Ofa Tuungafasi of the Blues celebrate after the Super Rugby Pacific Semi Final match between the Blues and the Brumbies at Eden Park on June 11, 2022 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

The Blues have named a strong team for their first New Zealand derby of the season with the Highlanders on Friday night in the Super round boosted by the return of two All Blacks.

ADVERTISEMENT

After comfortably beating the Fijian Drua 34-10 in the opening round, prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi and blindside flanker Akira Ioane return to the starting lineup adding more power to an already formidable unit.

However, due to All Blacks resting protocols star centre Rieko Ioane and halfback Finlay Christie will miss the Super round derby.

“It’s great to welcome back Akira and Ofa this weekend, both are high quality players who we’re sure will make a big impact on Friday night,” said Cotter.

“Ofa joins a new-look front row for this match, it’s crucial we build depth in those tight forward positions and to welcome someone of his calibre back to the starting team is very pleasing.”

“Akira is a big, bruising loosie who imposes himself on any match. He’s starting to dial it up at training so it will be good to let him loose on the opposition this weekend.”

Related

Video Spacer
Video Spacer

After a starring man-of-the-match performance last week with two tries, Hoskins Sotutu leads the loose forwards at No 8 alongside Dalton Papalii while Ioane replaces German-born Anton Segner. Adrian Choat is reserve loose forward cover.

The ‘new-look’ front row features Tu’ungafasi, Ricky Riccitelli, and Marcel Renata. Last weeks starters Joshua Fusitu’a and Angus Ta’avao return to the bench.

In the second row Laghlan McWhannell joins Sam Darry for a new locking combination.

“Laghlan McWhannell gets his crack at lock, he’s been impressive through the pre-season and is itching to get out there. We were really impressed with Josh Beehre in his debut match last weekend and we’re happy with the depth we are building in that position,” said Cotter.

In the backs, exciting halfback Taufa Funaki has been handed a start in the halves with Stephen Perofeta, while in the midfield Rieko Ioane has been rested allowing AJ Lam to start in the No 13 jersey alongside veteran Bryce Heem.

The blistering back three of Mark Telea, Caleb Clarke and Zarn Sullivan remain unchanged.

Blues team to play Highlanders:

1. Ofa Tu’ungafasi
2, Ricky Riccitelli
3. Marcel Renata
4. Laghlan McWhannell
5. Sam Darry
6. Akira Ioane
7. Dalton Papali’i (c)
8. Hoskins Sotutu
9. Taufa Funaki
10. Stephen Perofeta
11. Caleb Clarke
12. Bryce Heem
13. AJ Lam
14. Mark Tele’a
15. Zarn Sullivan

Reserves: 

16. Soane Vikena
17. Joshua Fusitu’a
18. Angus Ta’avao
19. Josh Beehre
20. Adrian Choat
21. Sam Nock
22. Harry Plummer
23. Cole Forbes

Related

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Boks Office | Episode 31 | Investec Champions Cup Review

Global Schools Challenge | Day 2 Replay

The Backyard Bunch | The USA's Belmont Shore

Loughborough Lightning vs Harlequins | PWR 2024/25 | Full Match Replay

Round 9 Highlights | PWR 2024/25

AUSTRALIA vs USA behind the scenes | HSBC SVNS Embedded | E04

South Africa v France | HSBC SVNS Cape Town 2024 | Men's Final Match Highlights

Two Sides - Behind the scenes with the British & Irish Lions in South Africa | E01

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

1 Comment
A
Andrew 297 days ago

“Akira is a big, bruising loosie who imposes himself on any match. “ Is this satire? Where has this ever been seen?

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 4 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

144 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Does South Africa have a future in European competition? Does South Africa have a future in European competition?
Search