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Blues welcome back All Blacks pair into starting side for Highlanders clash as young lock handed debut

(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

The Blues have promoted two of their All Blacks props to their starting side to face the Highlanders at Eden Park on Sunday.

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Flexing their depth in the front row position, the Auckland franchise have named Karl Tu’inukuafe and Ofa Tuungafasi as their starting props.

The pair have swapped places James Lay and fellow All Blacks prop Nepo Laulala, with that duo named to start on the bench.

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They will be accompanied by fellow new front rower Luteru Tolai, who has come into the hooker spot in place of the benched Kurt Eklund.

The only other alteration in the forward pack comes at lock as young Canterbury product Sam Darry replaces Gerard Cowley-Tuoiti to make his Super Rugby Aotearoa debut.

In the backline, meanwhile, super-fit Jonathan Ruru, who won the franchise’s Bronco test during the pre-season with a time of four minutes and 16 seconds, gets his first start at halfback.

Ruru, who impressed in the Blues’ game-of-three-halves clash against the Crusaders by scoring a hat-trick, takes the place of Sam Nock, who has been demoted to the reserves.

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He, Eklund, Lay and Laulala will accompany Cowley-Tuioti and electric Bay of Plenty outside back Emoni Narawa as the new faces on the bench.

Blues team to face the Highlanders on Sunday

1. Karl Tu’inukuafe
2. Luteru Tolai
3. Ofa Tuungafasi
4. Patrick Tuipulotu (c)
5. Sam Darry
6. Akira Ioane
7. Dalton Papalii
8. Hoskins Sotutu
9. Jonathan Ruru
10. Otere Black
11. Caleb Clarke
12. Harry Plummer
13. Rieko Ioane
14. Mark Telea
15. Stephen Perofeta

Reserves:

16. Kurt Eklund
17. James Lay
18. Nepo Laulala
19. Gerard Cowley-Tuioti
20. Tom Robinson
21. Sam Nock
22. Tanielu Tele’a
23. Emoni Narawa

Listen to the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod:

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J
JW 4 hours ago
How the four-team format will help the Wallabies defeat the Lions

Have to imagine it was a one off sorta thing were they were there (saying playing against the best private schools) because that is the level they could play at. I think I got carried away and misintrepted what you were saying, or maybe it was just that I thought it was something that should be brought in.


Of course now school is seen as so much more important, and sports as much more important to schooling, that those rural/public gets get these scholarships/free entry to play at private schools.


This might only be relevant in the tradition private rugby schools, so not worth implementing, but the same drain has been seen in NZ to the point where the public schools are not just impacted by the lost of their best talent to private schools, there is a whole flow on effect of losing players to other sports their school can' still compete at the highest levels in, and staff quality etc. So now and of that traditional sort of rivalry is near lost as I understand it.


The idea to force the top level competition into having equal public school participation would be someway to 'force' that neglect into reverse. The problem with such a simple idea is of course that if good rugby talent decides to stay put in order to get easier exposure, they suffer academically on principle. I wonder if a kid who say got selected for a school rep 1st/2nd team before being scouted by a private school, or even just say had two or three years there, could choose to rep their old school for some of their rugby still?


Like say a new Cup style comp throughout the season, kid's playing for the private school in their own local/private school grade comp or whatever, but when its Cup games they switch back? Better represent, areas, get more 2nd players switching back for top level 1st comp at their old school etc? Just even in order to have cool stories where Ella or Barrett brothers all switch back to show their old school is actually the best of the best?

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