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Watch: Barrett brothers feature strongly as new All Blacks lock scores with first touch of the ball

Tupou Vaa'i. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Welcome back to rugby’s heartland, Tupou Vaa’i.

The 20-year-old lock who only made his first Chiefs appearance during Super Rugby Aotearoa and was named in the first All Blacks squad of the year earlier this month has now made an instant impact back with Taranaki.

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Vaa’i debuted for Taranaki in 2018 as an 18-year-old and despite not having a Super Rugby contract at the start of the year, could run out for the All Blacks next month when they play Australia.

Before that, however, Vaa’i has some business to undertake with Taranaki.

In the Bulls’ opening game of the season, against recent Premiership promotees Bay of Plenty, Vaa’i was joined by fellow All Blacks Beauden and Jordie Barrett. The latter, despite being five years into his professional rugby career, was making his debut in the amber and black stripes having first played his provincial rugby for Canterbury.

It was the debutant that sparked Taranaki’s first try of the game, with the fullback collecting an ill-placed clearing kick from Bay of Plenty and making a bee-line towards the Steamers’ goal line.

Barrett spun the ball wide to older brother Beauden who fed sevens international Lewis Ormond.

Vaa’i, like any good second-rower, was lurking on the sideline and an audacious offload from Ormond found the lumbering lock – who trundled over for his first provincial touchdown.

The sweeping movement highlighted the talent in Taranaki’s backline, with Super Rugby starters Sean Wainui and Teihorangi Walden also on deck as well as 19-year-old wunderkind Jacob Ratumaitavaki-Kneepkens.

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Bay of Plenty, loaded with plenty of sevens stars of their own, didn’t retreat into their shells, however. Come the halftime break, the Bulls had just nudged ahead 24-19 courtesy of tries to Vaa’i and Taranaki debutant Ben May (plus a last-minute penalty try). The Steamers’ five-pointers, meanwhile, were scored by Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Keepa Mewett and Emoni Narawa.

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Hellhound 20 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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