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Brad Shields' parting gift for All Black teammates

Brad Shields (L) and Beauden Barrett. Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images

England loose forward Brad Shields has revealed he had a few parting gifts for former Hurricanes teammates Beauden Barrett and Dane Coles before he made the move north.

“I left a trail of England shirts around,” Shields told The Daily Mail. “There was one in Beaudy’s drawer and another in Colesey’s. I’m not sure if they’ve worn them in training, hopefully they’ve not burned them.”

The 27-year-old is hoping to meet the All Blacks at Twickenham in two weeks time when the pair meet during the latter’s northern tour.

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It hasn’t been a smooth transition for Shields after his highly-publicized shift to England. He has trotted out for new club Wasps just three times this season after breaking his jaw on debut last month.

“A broken face wasn’t the perfect start,” he told the Daily Mail. “My cheekbone cracked and moved along a bit, so they basically had to pull it back into place and screw it. They put a plate on my eyebrow and another one in my cheekbone through the inside of my mouth. Two titanium plates and a couple of screws. It’s fine now and I’m good to go. I’m not Wolverine just yet.”

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Shields’ England debut during the mid-year internationals came as such a surprise to the loose forward that he was forced to miss his own stag do. But Shields’ friends didn’t let his absence stand in their way.

“They planned a weekend up in Auckland,” the former Hurricanes captain said. “Next thing I know, I’m off to South Africa but my mates didn’t want to cancel the trip. They went ahead without me and took along this cardboard cut-out instead. They chucked all sorts on it.

“Our game was at 4am NZ time and the guys had been drinking all day. At fulltime I checked my phone and I’d been sent a Snapchat of them watching the match: one guy was awake but the rest were in some sort of coma. It looked like they had a pretty good time without me.”

Shield, who qualifies for England through his parents, represented New Zealand at the Under 20 level and is looking forward to facing the full-fledged national side.

“They’re [the All Blacks] obviously a quality side but, mate, any team is beatable,” Shields said.

England host the All Blacks at Twickenham on November 11. It will be their first meeting since 2014.

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J
JW 53 minutes 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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