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Brad Shields finally gets his All Blacks jersey

Brad Shields and Dane Coles. Photo / Instagram/bradshields

Brad Shields has finally received an All Blacks jersey – but not in the way he might have thought.

After spending seven seasons with the Hurricanes and not being able to crack the national side, Shields shifted north to England – the country where both his parents were born – to chase his dream of playing international rugby, leaving any hopes of wearing the black jersey behind.

But after facing the country he represented at Under 20 level for the first time on Saturday – the All Blacks defeated England 16-15 at Twickenham – Shields managed to finally get his hands on an All Blacks jersey thanks to an old friend.

Shields and his former Hurricanes teammate Dane Coles swapped jerseys after the clash before posting identical pictures on social media to mark the ‘weird’ occasion.

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A post shared by Brad Shields (@bradshields) on

“Who would have thought.! Cheers bro for the swapsies. Such an honour to play against you mate,” Shields wrote on Instagram.

Coles shared Shield’s sentiment, writing “Huge battle against the English. Weird but huge honour to play against my mate” on his own post.

Wasps loose forward Shields made his test debut for England while still based in New Zealand, appearing during their June international series against South Africa after gaining dispensation to play.

Shields unfortunately had to leave Saturday’s match early to undergo a head injury assessment, but had been part of a staunch English defence during his stint on field.

England will next play Japan while the All Blacks head to Dublin to play Ireland next weekend.

In other news:

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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