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'If they need me, I'm ready' - Karl Tu'inukuafe's World Cup hopes still alive following All Blacks axing

Karl Tu'inukuafe. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/Getty Images)

Axed All Blacks prop Karl Tu’inukafe is keeping his slim World Cup aspirations alive as he prepares for his third Mitre 10 Cup outing with North Harbour this year.

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The 26-year-old was one of five players cut from the All Blacks’ 39-man Rugby Championship squad ahead of the Bledisloe Cup series earlier this month, with head coach Steve Hansen citing a lack of mobility as the key reason behind his culling.

“When you talk about mobility, you’re talking about people’s ability to get back up from the ground and defend and get back and be a ball player,” Hansen said of the reasoning behind Tu’inukuafe’s dropping.

“In today’s game you need props that can do more than just scrum and lift in the lineout so that’s been our challenge in the last 12 months that we’ve put to our front rowers and some of them are progressing really well with it and others are struggling.”

A renowned scrummager, Tu’inukuafe has impressed with his ball-playing ability since returning to provincial rugby, playing a starring role in North Harbour’s season-opening 28-all draw with Auckland at Eden Park a fortnight ago.

A leg injury forced him from the field against Counties Manukau last week, but the 13-test loosehead has been named to start against Southland in Invercargill on Sunday, and will look to build on his impressive display from two weeks ago.

He needs to, as it will be his last chance to sway Hansen and his fellow All Blacks selectors before New Zealand’s World Cup squad is named on Wednesday.

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Considered an unlikely chance to make the side, Tu’inukuafe knows the decision may be out of his hands, but is ready for an international re-call if given the opportunity.

Karl Tu’inukuafe is carried from the field after injuring himself against Counties Manukau last week. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

“I’m just trying to give my best for North Harbour, whatever it is, hopefully it gets us the result,” Tu’inukuafe told TVNZ.

“Whatever the plan is with the coaches.

“Every player brings a different type of thing to the table. Whatever I can bring, if they need it and if they need me, [then] I’m ready whenever.”

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His well-documented rise from a nightclub bouncer to an All Black within the space of a few years has made Tu’inukuafe a fan favourite among the New Zealand faithful, but the man himself conceded that his chance to play test rugby only came about due to a run of injuries to other props throughout the country.

Subsequently, it has made his task of reclaiming a place in the national set-up a difficult one.

“I always knew when I came in [to the All Blacks], there was always guys that opened the opportunity for me.

“Being injured, they opened that door [and] I took my opportunity.

“When they came back into form, it was easy to know what they were looking for, the selectors.

“They knew what they were looking for before they got injured, and then to go back to them was probably the easy decision.”

The All Blacks are likely to take five props to the World Cup in Japan next month, with Owen Franks, Joe Moody, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Nepo Laulala, Angus Ta’avao and Atu Moli all in the current enlarged squad.

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JW 1 hour ago
James O'Connor, the Lions and the great club v country conundrum

Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

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