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'Let those people keep disrespecting my name, because I'm going to turn up every week'

(Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images)

Hurricanes centre Ngani Laumape fired off at his critics following his game-breaking performance against the Blues in Super Rugby Aotearoa. The All Black centre enjoyed a fine shift at 12 which saw him run rough-shod over the Blues defence, notably burning Hurricanes defector Beauden Barrett on the way to a remarkable early try.

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In the third minute the ball was spun wide to Laumape who was positioned out on the wing with space in front of him. Barrett was playing at fullback but had to rush forward to meet the oncoming Laumape. While the Hurricanes second five is better known for running through players, the former rugby league player instead stepped to the side and burst past Barrett – leaving the fullback clutching at air.

Barrett gave chase and dived to try and bring down Laumape but couldn’t get hands on the rampaging midfielder. Instead, Blues 10 Otere Black (who also started his career with the Hurricanes) was forced to attempt to take Laumape down metres in front of the tryline. Of course, Black stood no chance – and Laumape burst over for the opening try of the match.

Minutes later, Laumape bowled through Barrett in almost the exact same location and came close to scoring a second try but Emoni Narawa managed to bring the blockbusting centre to ground.

When interviewed directly after the match, Laumape words were as direct as his running, as he fired off at critics of his ‘style of rugby’.

“It’s good to be out here and to perform the way I did. A lot of people have been disrespecting my name and I wanted to come out and show everyone the way that I play.

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“I’m happy with that. Let those people keep disrespecting my name, because I’m going to turn up every week.”

“Too much people talking, I’m just going to be me.”

Laumape was widely considered one of the unluckiest men in New Zealand to miss selection for the All Blacks at last year’s World Cup but with Ryan Crotty and Sonny Bill Williams heading overseas, a couple of new spots have opened up in the NZ midfield.

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J
JW 24 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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LONG READ Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones
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