The Hurricanes have announced the re-signings of talented outside backs Harry Godfrey and Ngatungane Punivai for at least the next two seasons.
Dylan Pledger made such an impression at King’s High School in Dunedin that former Otago outside back and Sports Director Glenn Dickson declared Pledger, “the most impressive” athlete from the school he’s seen.
Knowing they effectively had a ‘gimme’ versus minnows Spain on match day three, they rested numerous first-choice players but they will now run out at the DHL Stadium with a team that has 10 alterations from last Tuesday in Stellenbosch.
It was January 2023 when a Champions Cup hammering at home to Leicester spelled the end for the 47-year-old at a club he agreed to join for the 2021/22 season on a three-year deal from La Rochelle.
Graham Jack, the lanky lock’s father, was a 1998 Super Rugby champion playing in the Crusaders engine room.
The Baby Blacks trailed 0-11 at the break following an opening period where they were heavily penalised on the penalty count, culminating in a yellow card for Andrew Smith.
The New Zealand U20 have opened their World Championship campaign in South Africa with a 41-34 win over a resilient Wales side.
New Zealand U20 opener their U20 Championship campaign against Wales U20 on Sunday morning (NZST).
For a country with a glittering heritage in the tournament, especially in the early years when they won four in a row, seventh place in 2023 wasn’t the desired outcome for Clark Laidlaw’s squad.
It was music to New Zealand ears. They had won the final of the U19s tournament that was staged in Ireland in 2007, and it was only natural that they carried over that success into the following year at U20s level with a 38-3 win in the final in Wales in June 2008.