All Blacks prop punished for breaking team protocol
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.
Latest Comments
You and I are never going to agree. He was brilliant in the Final. You just do not like him because he is/was a Crusader.
Go to commentsKeep? Do you have any idea what league is like? That is what rugby has turned into, not where it's trying to go. The universal body type of mass, the game needs to stop heading towards the physically gifted and go back to its roots of how it's played. Much like how SA are trying to add to their game by taking advantage of new laws.
That's what's happening, but as Nick suggests the slow tempo team can still too easyily dictate how the fast tempo team can play.
You mean how rugby used to be before teams started trying to manipulate everything to take advantage for their own gain to the discredit of the game.
Go to comments