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Why Lima Sopoaga left New Zealand and forfeited the chance to play at a Rugby World Cup

Lima Sopoaga. (Photos by Getty Images)

It was 2017 when All Black Lima Sopoaga was initially approached by Wasps to join their set-up in England. It created a massive crossroads in the then 26-year-old’s career – should he forge ahead and try to earn a spot in the 2019 World Cup squad, achieving the ultimate dream of many a young New Zealand rugby player, or take the money and begin a new journey on foreign shores? You have to wind the clock back to understand how Sopoaga reached his ultimate decision.

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It wasn’t the first time that the Wellington-born first five had received offers from overseas. Sopoaga had considered a move as early as 2013 when he was only a few years into his professional rugby career. The Highlanders had just completed their year from hell, finishing 14th on the competition ladder despite having brought in a number of experienced operators to complement their young talent.

“I’d actually been given an offer in Japan and I was about to take it,” Sopoaga told RugbyPass. “I learned that I didn’t even have to be an All Black to make good money. In 2013, we had the disaster in Dunedin. The rock stars came in and we still did ****. I was like ‘stuff that, I’m going to go’.”

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But Sopoaga didn’t take the offer, instead choosing to stay in Dunedin and push harder. “I had some pretty honest conversations with a lot of people – one of them was Nasi Manu,” said Sopoaga. “We sat down and I remember he said: ‘You’ll know when your time is to leave.’ He believed that the best was yet to come for me and that I should keep at it and not to tap out when I was about to. That was essentially what had happened – we just decided to stay and I just gave it everything.”

It’s fair to say the decision paid off for the Highlanders pivot – less than two years later, the Highlanders were crowned Super Rugby champions and Sopoaga, who was the competition’s top scorer, received his first call-up to the All Blacks. Those two significant achievements make it one of Sopoaga’s most memorable seasons. “I had the best time ever, not only on the field but off the field,” said Sopoaga. “I achieved my dream and did something with some people that are pretty special to me.”

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Sopoaga’s first game for New Zealand came at first five against South Africa in Johannesburg with The Rugby Championship still on the line. As far as debuts go, they simply don’t come any tougher. Sopoaga took it all in his stride and did everything that was asked of him on the day, with the All Blacks emerging 27-20 victors. Then everything came crashing down. “It was like a fairy tale,” Sopoaga said. “It was like a fairy tale – but without the happy ending.”

Despite his exceptional performances for both the Highlanders and the All Blacks, Sopoaga was surplus requirements for the 2015 World Cup later that year. Instead, Steve Hansen opted to take Dan Carter, Colin Slade and Beauden Barrett to England. After playing his guts out and showing that he was one of the best playmakers in the country, Sopoaga was still left wanting.

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“Obviously, people can say ‘if you play good enough, then you’re going to get picked’,” Sopoaga said. “But sometimes when you go to World Cups, it’s not just about how good you are but it’s also about the balance of the team. You can only take 31 guys and you may not necessarily take three specialist tens, you may only take two.”

It’s that rejection that played a major role in Sopoaga choosing to head offshore in 2018. “There was an opportunity here (in England) and it probably just came down to looking at some of the options for the All Blacks for 2019,” Sopoaga said. The No10 spot was well contested at the time and Sopoaga was just one option of many with two years still to play before the World Cup.

“When you’ve got someone like Damian McKenzie, you’ve got Richie (Mo’unga), you’ve got Beaudie (Barrett), Jodie Barrett is an option… not that I didn’t back myself, but I’d already gone through the heartbreak of missing 2015 and everything I went through that year, having to pull myself out of the gutter.”

There was also the issue that Sopoaga, despite being a superb flyhalf, wasn’t practised at covering any other positions. Contrast that to the Barrett brothers and McKenzie, who are all equally as capable at fullback as they are in the first-receiver role. “It was basically just a straight shoot-out between me and Richie,” said Sopoaga.

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“So a lot of those things I thought about and I didn’t know if I was prepared to go through the heartbreak of missing out on selection or staying and missing out through injury a la someone like Damian McKenzie, who ended up sitting out through doing his ACL.”

It was these factors that ultimately led to Sopoaga making the call to sign overseas and head to England in 2018 instead of holding out and hoping to do the same with the All Blacks for the World Cup a year later. “The selection for a Rugby World Cup is never really yours,” Sopoaga said.

“I’d already gone through that heartbreak. I’d just had my first daughter and Wasps put in a great offer. Having someone else decide my fate just wasn’t something I wanted to go through again. So I decided to take the future into my own hands and let what will be, be.”

It’s a decision that the now-Wasps pivot has never regretted, despite some tough times in England. “I had a great time playing this game in NZ – and I’m still having a great time. I’m still having experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I’d stayed in New Zealand. It’s not too bad, whichever way you flip the coin.”

Ultimately, Hansen took Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo’unga as his two first fives – although the former never started a game at flyhalf, instead being utilised exclusively at fullback. Meanwhile, Jordie Barrett had a crack in the 10 jersey against Namibia. That doesn’t faze the now 29-year-old Sopoaga. “This is a decision that I made and I put it to bed a long time ago and I’m just happy for those guys that are still there,” he said.

“If someone said I was going to play 20 odd times for the All Blacks and travel around the world, make a debut in South Africa and kill it then, as a kid, I would have taken that with two hands and said thank you very much. I’ve been able to achieve a dream that so many kids around the world would love to achieve. I’m happy with what I’ve done and I was glad to leave it at that, move on and try something else.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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