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Blues sign up former Under 20s prop on three-year deal
By Sam Smith
Promising young prop Josh Fusitu’a has signed with the Blues on a three-year contract through to 2025.
Fusitu’a, a West Auckland product, came through Auckland Grammar into the Auckland Academy and Blues development programme. He also plays for the Grammar TEC club in Auckland.
The 1.83m, 118kg loosehead prop was selected for the New Zealand Under 20s in 2021 although the Covid-19 pandemic restricted the team to a domestic programme.
He came into the Blues as a replacement player in 2022, making his debut against Moana Pasifika.
Fusitu’a said he is still in shock after receiving his first Blues contract.
“I’m lost for words; I can’t believe it happened so fast. I’m very blessed to receive this contract and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in for the team, ” said Fusitu’a.
The Fusitu’a family are no strangers to the New Zealand sporting landscape, with older brother David representing New Zealand and Tonga in rugby league along with a lengthy career at the Warriors before moving to the Leeds Rhinos in England.
“My brother has always been a big role model in my life, especially around professional footy,” said Fusitu’a.
“David paved the way for our family and for a lot of young aspiring Tongan athletes. He’s helped me heaps and set the benchmark for me to reach - I’m still on that journey,” he said.
Blues head coach, Leon MacDonald, said Fusitu’a will complement the experienced group of front rowers already at the club.
“Josh is a very promising prop who’s come through our development programme and now gets his chance,” said MacDonald.
“He’s really physical, we noticed he didn’t take a backward step, even to some of the international level props we’ve got. You can tell he has a real inner drive to succeed.”
Meanwhile, Fusitu’a was quick to quip that his skills firmly lie with the front-row fraternity.
“I don’t have much ‘razzle,’ but I know how to work hard - I’m excited to see how I can bring that quality to this team.”
MacDonald said while Fusitu’a was a big, mobile unit on the field, his off-field qualities were equally impressive.
“Character is really important to us. The times we’ve seen Josh in the Blues environment have given us a good look at his attitude, his coachability and his determination.
“He’s a fantastic learner and hard worker - you can see him processing information from coaching staff and his peers then going out and implementing that on the grass.”
- Blues Rugby
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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