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Breakout Blues star preparing for rare opportunity
By AAP
Auckland Blues hooker Kurt Eklund says being locked down over the past two weeks had made for some "interesting times" but he was looking forward to getting back onto the pitch for this weekend's North-South rugby match in Wellington.
Eklund was named in the 'North' squad for Saturday's match between composite teams representing the country's two main islands, but has not been able to do any real training for more than two weeks.
New Zealand's largest city was placed into lockdown on August 12 after a fresh outbreak of the novel coronavirus, while social distancing measures were also introduced for the rest of the country.
The lockdown was lifted on Sunday, allowing Auckland-based players to travel to Wellington, although social distancing measures remain in place until September 6, ensuring the match will be played without a crowd.
"It has made for interesting times," Eklund told reporters on Monday after the teams assembled in Wellington.
"But it's exciting to get down here and start rubbing shoulders with the boys that we'll play with on Saturday.
"The boys are still in pretty good condition. We've had a bit of a rest so I'm looking forward to getting into a good training week."
New Zealand Rugby had originally scheduled the match for August 29 in Auckland but postponed it for a week once the lockdown was imposed and placed Wellington Regional Stadium on standby.
The game, which was an annual fixture on the New Zealand rugby calendar for much of the 20th century, should be the final chance for players to impress All Blacks coach Ian Foster before he names his first squad on Sunday.
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Latest Comments
My takeaway from the game was that Ireland are a team in decline.
It's a very old squad, and you wonder how long the likes of JGP, Lowe, Aki, Murray, Henshaw, Ringrose, Healy - all players in their early to mid 30's will be able to continue to perform.
When you have a 35-year-old in Murray replacing JGP for the AB game is very telling and that a 37 Cian Healy is still playing at this level, which means as he only plays limited minutes running down World Class talent Porter into the ground.
That Argentina was able to chase Ireland down and be in a position to draw or win in the last play of the game was telling. A couple of years ago, Argentina would have been blown off the park but now...
So yip, I think by the 2027 WC Ireland will very much have fallen back into the pack - will still have a great pack but will not be among the favourites for the WC.
Go to commentsThe draw was made using the rankings from just after RWC 2019 (when England, Wales were in top4 and Scotland were ranked #9). Literally the rankings between world cups counted for nothing. What is the point of the rankings (beyond confusing SA and NZ supporters)? Bill Beamont was apologizing for the draw being 3 years before the RWC knowing full well the rankings were 4 years out. It's downright suspicious. England for example nearly made a final over it.
If SA and NZ could have chosen a knock out match to face France and Ireland it would be the QFs. Their players had massive experience over two RWCs of winning KO matches including two world cups. Ireland and France had a combined total of zero experience. Yes SA and NZ had to be beaten on the way but France and Ireland's best shot was in a semi with a QF won and all teams with a hard match in their legs.
Imagine that semi final line up? Takem away by World Rugby for non transparent reasons.
Spare a thought for Scotland having World Champs and World no1s in their group and they would have had to play NZ in a QF had they staggered through. They were ranked #5 but were ranked #9 just after RWC 2019 so they were eliminated from 2023 more or less based on their 2023 performance.
I don't believe this was a competence issue. The SF lineup was almost NZ/WAL and SA/ENG. That's how important the seedings are. Ireland, France and Scotland put admirable efforts into major improvements only to end up in farce pools. Not good enough.
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