1
Calls mount for Hoskins Sotutu allegiance switch with 3 possibilities
By Josh Raisey
No sooner had Blues No8 Hoskins Sotutu failed to make Scott Robertson’s first All Blacks squad on Monday than calls were rising for the 25-year-old to make an allegiance switch.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Blues forward was the headline omission from Robertson’s 32-player squad, with Chiefs No8 Wallace Sititi getting the nod instead.
Sotutu put forward a convincing case to earn a recall this season for the Blues, not only winning the Super Rugby Pacific title, but by scoring twelve tries in the process (joint-top with Sevu Reece).
Though he does of course have the option of fighting for a place in the All Blacks squad, he does have alternative routes back to the Test stage.
The 14-cap All Black qualifies for Fiji through his father and England through his mother and, having earned his last cap in 2022, qualifies for both next year after a three-year stand-down period.
Eddie Jones did indeed pursue the No8 in 2020 before he was capped by Ian Foster, and he may turn some RFU heads again with this latest squad announcement.
With England in New Zealand for their two-Test series with the All Blacks, Steve Borthwick might even use this as an opportunity to strike up a dialogue with the spurned All Black.
ADVERTISEMENT
The No8 position has been the cause of contention in England as well, with the likes of Alfie Barbeary and Zach Mercer failing to make Steve Borthwick’s squad with a burgeoning list of players at the back of the scrum at his disposal. Mercer, coincidentally, is now eligible to play for New Zealand through his father, a former New Zealand rugby league international, and having last played for England in 2018.
Former Fiji head coach Simon Raiwalui has already called for Sotutu to make an international switch as well, taking to X soon after the All Blacks squad was announced to write: “Congratulations to Wallace Sititi, but seriously no Hoskins Sotutu….come and play for Fiji!”
Whatever Sotutu chooses next year, there is little doubt that he will be an asset to any Test side.
Congratulations to Wallace Sititi, but seriously no Hoskins Sotutu….come and play for Fiji!
— Simon Raiwalui (@SimonRaiwalui) June 24, 2024
I was looking forward to Razor taking over for so long but when you have clear bias towards your old club despite them being useless all year followed by more clear bias towards the 3rd best team at the expense of the actual deserving All Black Captain (a.k.a most recent World Player of the year) and the 2 best teams it is very disappointing.
The team was, yes, but that was because they didn’t have their All Blacks. When selected players like Blackadder came back they were won of the best. Better than the Blues in fact.
Two Cents rugby did a great analysis and Sotutu comes last in all defence stats compared to all other chosen loosies. And in Tests both sides of the ball are important. His attack is well made up with Ardie in the team and a starting 8. Also, Sotutu can only play 8 when all other loosies can play one more position at this level. Lastly dude is a man-child, an Instagram sulk and a show-pony. Glad he’s not in the team.
Hoskins, my man, in the immortal words of Sam Smith “Stay with me”, 😂
Dear RUGBY, You sound like a Schoolteacher or a Boer or both. The Christie reference gave you away and your lack of “humour”
I tell people to keep away from Negative people like you. You are a S.N.I.O.P Subject To The Negative Influence Of Other People.
English speaking South Africans are educated and well mannered, unlike you. Your abuse is obviously part of your nature. That doesn’t worry me at all.
Your “negativity” seems to indicate you are “Unhappy” and that does concern me.
I want to help you Rugby.
Just sit down, chill out and have a couple of Boerewors, a dozen Castle Lager and watch a highlights reel of the Crusaders greatest WINS. You will feel so much better.
Hopefully you will see Robertson do his “Break Dance” I know you Boers just love that!
Then you will better informed of how the “Greatest Rugby Coach of the modern era” operates to WIN 7 Consecutive Super Rugby Championships OR you can
Raak net befok jou idioot
Too much Kava
Luckily us “boere” have things we call self respect and manners. You would do well to learn about these traits.
He won a title with the blues ….and performed day in and out….razor it’s like training in the old days you show up you train you play simple and he’s a big and up coming asset …loosing to men good players to other countries
There has been several comments made since the team announcement about Razors Crusaders bias. Just a quick question Do those who have made such comments remember how the last Blues v Crusaders match turned out?
Yep according to a few Crusader zealots the Crusaders destroyed us by 2 points….
Sorry mate don't remember, I guess that was months ago because the Crusaders haven’t been in the competition for sometime now unlike every other N.Z team. FYI im pretty sure that Trophy the Blues have will help them forget the 2 L's they got between all those W's
While all the individual analysis makes sense - work rates, post contact metres, (body language?) etc…. The Blues pack absolutely dominated the Chiefs pack, in fact the Chiefs forwards were not great throughout the entire SR season. The only time they laid a platform against another good team all year was in the SF vs the Canes. And they did thoroughly outplay a much hyped Canes forward pack.
Yet 4 of the chiefs forwards, who repeatedly came up second best when faced with another good pack are in the squad, and would probably be 5 if Samisoni was fit.
If their forwards are so great at all the intangibles Robertson and Ryan have mentioned in interviews, why did they not dominate more games?
Same across the whole Chiefs team really. They make up a huge amount of the ABs squad, but only really turned up to one game all season.
They are all great players for sure, but if you look at the results across the season…. Maybe the stats the selectors are looking at aren’t the ones that matter to actually get results? Otherwise surely the Crusaders and Chiefs would have had better results?
Because, like with you’re back three theories, those intangibles are crap!
They played well against the Reds as well.
Two players made a significant difference to the performances of the Blues and the Chiefs, respectively. That is Tuipolutu for the Blues and Takei’aho for the Chiefs. When the Blues lost Tuipolutu for a few weeks, the Blues did enough to beat weaker teams without impressing. When the Chiefs lost Taukei’aho in the semi, again it was transformative.
The same is true when you consider the Crusaders missing key forwards at various points through the year.
The selectors are looking at how individuals perform in all situations - whether the team around them is performing or not.
So he has a year to get himself in that All Black environment. My money is on Hoskins cracking that in this years 3 squads, and once he is in, they will find there is every reason he should stay there.
He is the perfect foil to help Ardie reach the World Cup. Leon on the breakdown talked about picking wingers who are able to make those last few meters to get across the try line from close range. It’s not my wish but they appear to going the scientific route and manipulating their way forward to the goal line, and rather that someone likes Read’s linebreaking, they will want to ensure the forwards have that ability to get across the line through simple tactics. Ardie does, and Sotutu has both assisted others in it, and done it himself expertly this year. We saw Akira putting that skill on display for the first try in last weeks final, otherwise, players Riccitelli, didn’t have the physique or skill to do it against the Chiefs top defence. The All Blacks have been very guilty of not being able to take such opportunities in the last 4 years. Sititi doesn’t yet have that experience, he is more of the natural runner that Read was, but will serve as a great foil filling in at 8 this year, but I think it will be Sotutu that we see brought in to start the games in place of Ardie, whos had to play back to back competitions since Super Rugby started last year.
WRU needs to close this loophole, it only benefits the home unions. Hoskins was born in NZ, has been developed and played all his professional rugby in NZ. There should be no right for England or any other tier one nation to select him now. Fiji and the other small island state’s is a different story, that should be okay but not the UK with its already massive player base.
Isn’t NZ far and away the biggest beneficiary of allowing national team players not born in the country? Don’t they always get the cream of the crop from other Pacific nations? People compare NZ to SA but SA isn’t routinely selecting people born elsewhere. Yes NZ exports a ton of rugby players but they always have the best of the guys from the islands.
Soon as you say things like that, the nation’s that tend to benefit from the SH sides doing 99% of the work, time, and development of a player shout “professional game! “. But as John Smit said, if that’s so, why is rugby one of the few “professional” sports not to have transfer fees? The SH sides would be rolling in it if there was.
The heritage link is ridiculous, because 99% of these players have never stepped foot in these countries, let alone played there at all. It certainly doesn't tend to make the smaller nations actually any more competitive filling their squads with ex Wallabies and All Blacks going through the motions. All the nations shouting about things being “professional” are also the same ones who voted for Beaumont instead of Pichot, including the kiwified Tongan and Samoan squads. Pichot was going to crack down on this nonsense, thus these teams filled with imports were never going to vote for him.
Frankly though, from Sotutu’s posts and attitude about again being overlooked, it’s easy to see why they don’t want him around.
I disagree, this is a profession for these men and they should be able to ply their trade where there is demand for their services. It is not a “loop hole” - it is intentional to allow the best players to play at the highest level. Three years is an ample stand down period, and generally indicative that a country’s selectors are done with a player.
The thing I would add is that tier 1 countries should pay a transfer fee to the union the player is transferring from to reflect the investment in that player. Someone like Sotutu who has gone all the way through age grades, NPC, SR to the ABs has probably had 6 figures directly invested in their development.
This should apply to any player who has played representative rugby for their country or province starting from age grade, with the transfer fee varying depending on what level they reached before leaving their country’s system.
Correct. It is about money in these cases. World Rugby should match any offer of a Teir 1 nation for the Tier 2 nation. Hence removing money from a players decision making.
The 21yo Sititi’s defensive workrate is already so superior to Sotutu’s and that was probably the difference. There wasn't room in the squad for a third 8.
Will be soon though.
Sititi looked far more impactful but is too short for an eight. Should be moved into hooker.
There are always winners & losers, especially with the talent there is in some positions. As Razor mentioned, selectors had to look at players on both sides of the ball, the ability to go forward & good on defence. Time will tell. It’s a tough sport these days, just look at the injured players not available for selection.
Just ‘good’ on defence? Would love to hear where those margins are for the team, at the moment they just sound excuses.
Blackadder? Why not Baldrick too? Smacks of the kind of Crusaders-centric selections (like Bell over Riccitelli) that Jason Ryan promoted in that AB XV last year (remember those Crusaders props we’ve never since heard of, and the Dominic Gardiners etc?). Seems that if it’s close, go the Saders option. I wonder if there’ll be any resentment harboured by the Blues in that AB squad, who see a guy like Sotutu miss out? Razor looked nervous and shifty. With three shortish locks by international standards, that 3rd line out option is really important. If Finau isn’t the 6, or gets injured, Razor’s telling us that Blackadder is a viable 3rd line out option? Don’t believe you, Razor - the likes of Hooper and Du Toit will catch you out. Sotutu would have been that man, and given us the option of playing Savea at 7 and Papali’i at 6.
The players will quickly get to the crux of it on the training paddock. The selections will be judged by them over the next few weeks, so we’ll hve to wait and see. They have another lock training with them (they have chosen 36, the TRC squad size, no idea why they need to be a separate category, they want them playing club footy next month instead of being training dummies?) so no doubt Barrett can be pushed out to 6 if needed at short notice. Would assume Blackadder is most likely to come on in that position during the game though. England are the opposition, and Fiji, and they look relatively short as well. All these things would have been taken into consideration and balanced out, don’t worry ;)
So which props are you referring to?
“Razor looked nervous & shifty”??!! He’s definitely awkward at the prepared speech part but fell easily into his groove at interview stage. And as he said, loosies took the longest to discuss, they were looking for players capable on both sides of the ball, & acknowledged it’s a highly attritional position. Also, it’s for 3 tests so Hooper & Du Toit are irrelevant for now. Plus, Ryan definitely knows what he’s doing. The way he transformed the ABs pack from 2022 was immense.
Surely if we learnt one thing under Foster it's that we can't afford two ball playing loosies like Savea and Sotutu and only a fool would drop Ardie.
If Blackadder is injured he's replaced but if he's fit he's in the 23. Huge workrate and hits hard.
No surprises here. It’s a global meat market at the end of the day. I expect we’ll see players like Akira, Faianganuku, Nankerville, Mounga, Burke, others, turn out in different colours at RWC2027.
I assume akira is avaible for Japan
Wasnt he born there?