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A 12-word Ngani Laumape tweet has whipped up his online followers
By Liam Heagney
Former All Blacks midfielder Ngani Laumape has ignited an online debate with his first Twitter message since suddenly exiting Stade Francais. The 29-year-old, who won the last of his 15 Test caps in November 2020, is currently a free agent after it was agreed by the Top 14 club to release the New Zealander from the remaining two years of his contract.
That confirmation emerged on August 1 and at the time Laumape, in a message posted to Facebook, spoke about his gratitude to Stade Francais for their understanding in allowing him to leave early.
“Thank you Stade Francais for the opportunity. Got to meet some amazing people during my time in Paris which I’ll never forget. Merci. Wish you guys all the best for the upcoming season,” wrote Laumape following his departure from the Top 14 club he played 22 games with following his 2021 arrival from the Hurricanes.”
It was speculated in the French media that the next stop for Laumape would potentially be the Top League in Japan but there has been nothing concrete about that link and a tweet posted to his Twitter account has now left fans debating when he should next try to play.
“Can’t wait for my first rugby game back wherever I end up,” wrote Laumape on Twitter, his first post on that particular social media platform since he retweeted a July 27 World Rugby video showing Maro Itoje presenting medals to kids on a recent trip to Kenya.
The tweet by Laumape, which has so far attracted more than 80 replies, over 40 retweets and nearly 700 likes, was quickly replied to by Lima Sopoaga, his fellow former All Blacks teammate who now plays his club rugby in France at Lyon. “Just tell the people,” he teased in a four-word response that was followed by three emoji faces with dollar symbols.
Numerous rugby fans from a wide variety of clubs around the world soon weighed in on the debate, appealing to Laumape to join their team. There was, in particular, much support for Laumape to return to New Zealand as this would make him eligible again for All Blacks selection. JJ Taulagi, the former Samoa centre who will play his club rugby for the 2022/23 season at Massy, added: “Hard out. This guy’s playing with people’s emotions. Dammit.”
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis 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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