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All Blacks prop punished for breaking team protocol
By Ben Smith
All Blacks loosehead prop Ethan de Groot's omission from the team to face England at Twickenham is punishment for breaking team protocols.
Crusaders prop Tamaiti Williams will wear the No 1 jersey in De Groot's place as he sits out a one-week ban, with Blues prop Ofa Tu'ungafasi named as the reserve loosehead on the bench.
Just what exactly De Groot did is unclear, with head coach Scott Robertson stating internal standards had not been met and the reasons were "off-field related".
De Groot is the first All Black under Scott Robertson to be disciplined for breaking team protocol, the last being Mark Tele'a during last year's Rugby World Cup run where he was stood down for the quarter-final against Ireland.
First five-eighth Damian McKenzie wasn't disciplined for missing the team bus after the All Blacks faced Fiji in San Diego, however McKenzie had to make his own way to LAX to make the flight home.
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Latest Comments
You have to have dreams to reach for the stars, but without believing it, it won't ever happen. It's one thing to say things to the media, quite another to believe what you regurgitate just for the journalists and the public. No one is fooled, and it's the one game they knew Wales will get smashed. The Boks won 10 games without being at their best. Even on their baddest day they will smash this Wales team.
I don't really blame the players. I blame the WRU. Their best players is not available due to restrictions, small change as pay and an overly believe in their own power that amounts to nothing. Get rid of them and Gatland, and maybe their will be an upwards curve. They will lose against the Boks, and also all the games in the 6N if they keep the current board. Italy will be able to smash them.
Go to commentsFrance 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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