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Chiefs back cohesion, add a splash of X-factor in 2025 squad

Leroy Carter of New Zealand celebrates his try during Madrid Rugby Sevens at Civitas Metropolitano Stadium on Jun 01, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Alberto Gardin/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

After back-to-back final losses, the Chiefs have backed continuity in their 2025 DHL Super Rugby Pacific squad, while injecting some exciting new talent behind the established starters.

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All Blacks Sevens ace Leroy Carter joins the club, with the ability to play across the backline, including at halfback.

An unexpected coup sees the Chiefs land All Blacks XV hooker Brodie McAlister to replace the departing Tyrone Thompson, who is making a code switch to join his twin brother in the NRL.

Among the Super Rugby rookies is towering Taranaki lock Fiti Sa, while the likes of Josh Jacomb and New Zealand U20 star Malachi Wrampling also graduate to the top squad from the development group in 2024.

“The obvious thing is that there is a lot of consistency in the selection of the group,” Chiefs Head Coach Clayton McMillan said of the squad naming.

“I’m a big believer in cohesion. So, having guys that have played together for a while and experienced the highs and lows together. They learn and then create opportunities in the new season to put those learnings into practice and go one step further.”

Promising young All Blacks like Cortez Ratima, Wallace Sititi, Tupou Vaa’i, Emoni Narawaa, Josh Lord and Samipeni Finau return for the 2025 campaign, along with established international talents like Anton Lienert-Brown, Damian McKenzie, Luke Jacobson and Samisoni Taukei’aho.

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“I really love the team that we’ve got. I think it’s got great balance, great depth, and our collective experiences will put us in good stead to give the competition a real shake. That’s what we’ll be aiming to do,” said McMillan.

Related

2025 Gallagher Chiefs Squad (Provincial Union, Chiefs caps):

Aidan Ross (Bay of Plenty, 88)
Anton Lienert-Brown (Waikato, 120)
Bradley Slater (Taranaki, 60)
Brodie McAlister (Canterbury, 0)
Cortez Ratima (Waikato, 42)
Damian McKenzie (Waikato, 126)
Daniel Rona (Taranaki, 23)
Emoni Narawa (Bay of Plenty, 33)
Etene Nanai-Seturo (Counties Manukau, 60)
Fiti Sa (Taranaki, 0)*
George Dyer (Waikato, 37)
Gideon Wrampling (Waikato, 3)
Jahrome Brown (Waikato, 0)
Jared Proffit (Taranaki, 15)
Jimmy Tupou (Counties Manukau, 10)
Josh Jacomb (Taranaki, 4)*
Josh Lord (Taranaki, 22)
Kaleb Trask (Bay of Plenty, 23)
Kaylum Boshier (Taranaki, 29)
Leroy Carter (Bay of Plenty, 0)*
Liam Coombes-Fabling (Waikato, 9)
Luke Jacobson (Waikato, 78) (Captain)
Malachi Wrampling (Waikato, 0)
Manaaki Selby-Rickit (Bay of Plenty, 15)
Naitoa Ah Kuoi (Bay of Plenty, 62)
Ollie Norris (Waikato, 54)
Quinn Tupaea (Waikato, 48)
Rameka Poihipi (Canterbury, 44)
Reuben O’Neill (Taranaki, 29)
Samipeni Finau (Waikato, 45)
Samisoni Taukei’aho (Waikato, 92)
Shaun Stevenson (North Harbour, 96)
Simon Parker (Northland, 22)
Sione Ahio (Auckland, 4)
Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi (Bay of Plenty, 54)
Tupou Vaa’i (Taranaki, 58)
Wallace Sititi (North Harbour, 13)
Xavier Roe (Waikato, 31)

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Comments

1 Comment
J
JW 9 days ago

Triple T is back again haha, nice. Not too much of a drop from Tyrone, Slater got preferential treatment this year so a real threat should be good for the team. Love the threat of this team it just needs a few to put their stamp on their positions. Hoping for even more improvement from ENS next year as well, such a shame him and Sotutu were injured and not touring north.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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