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Vaea Fifita in doubt for World Cup after mystery injury

Vaea Fifita to the Chiefs? (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

NZ Herald

Vaea Fifita’s dream of making the All Blacks‘ 2019 Rugby World Cup squad is in jeopardy after being a late scratch from Wellington’s Mitre 10 Cup game with a knee injury last night.

Wellington scored their first win of the Mitre 10 Cup rugby season, holding on 23-22 to continue Canterbury’s losing start, but they did it without Fifita, who was a surprise omission with an as-yet unspecified knee complaint.

Fifita was one of nine All Blacks released to play in the Mitre 10 Cup ahead of the All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup squad announcement on Wednesday, and missed out on one final chance to impress in the final push to make the Cup squad.

Fifita is likely up against Liam Squire – if he makes himself available – and Jackson Hemopo for one of the loose forward spots in the 31-man squad, but will now have to hope that he is both fit enough, and has done enough, to be selected.

Without Fifita, Wellington trailed 10-8 at the break but stormed to a 20-10 lead with two tries in the opening four minutes of the second half. Canterbury forced their way back into the match with two tries, the last in the 77th minute from a lineout maul closing the gap to a single point, but could not quite finish the job.

This is unfamiliar territory for the red and blacks, who lost last year’s final to Auckland having won nine of the previous 10 national provincial titles, but have now lost their first three games in 2019, a slump they haven’t suffered the likes of in over 20 years.

They will not get a better opportunity to win next weekend however, hosting a Southland side on a 23-match losing streak.

Wellington 23 (Vince Aso, Du’Plessis Kirifi, Alex Fidow tries; Jackson Garden-Bachop con, 2 pens)
Canterbury 22 (Josh McKay, Mitchell Dunshea, Harry Allan tries; Brett Cameron 2 cons, pen)
HT: 8-10.

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished again with permission.

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Tom 58 minutes ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

I'm not sure about the Earl incident. I recall him missing an important tackle but he's certainly a quick flanker. SB has him cover centre when doing 6-2, fortunately we've never had to see how that would play out.


I'm not getting on board I'm afraid. The fact that England are scoring tries and being competitive despite being so amazingly disorganised and managing to lose every match is even more frustrating. The players front up and make a good account of themselves physically but the defence since Felix Jones is so much less organised. Players are flying out the line all over the place, there is no cohesion at all... And the attack... Literally it's just Marcus Smith.. and a bit of Feyi Waboso. Almost every player in the backline has done nothing offensively because the structure just isn't there for it, there's nothing creative or innovative to challenge the defense. The last 20 mins against the Boks it was just runners on crash ball off the 9, over and over getting smashed behind the gainline and turned over. These players are capable of doing much better.


We did score tries under Eddie but the backs didn't create anything. It worked well for a while but when we no longer had a big pack with the likes of Haskell and the Vunipolas playing well, it stopped working very rapidly. Once we started losing the gainline and couldn't exert so much pressure through bullying, they suddenly all looked clueless and we finished 5th in consecutive six nations.


I'd love to be on board, I've watched every game for the last 15 years and what I see is just super frustrating. It's groundhog day. The same mistakes over and over and no sign of progress. They've pushed some good sides close in this series but there is no acknowledgement of the issues, they keep saying how close they are and they're a growing team etc... he's been in charge for 2 years and has hundreds of caps in the side. This will end poorly, he's not the right guy, but thank you for trying.

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