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Ioane chalks up half century and Nonu starts in first Blues team of 2019
By Online Editors
While just 23 years of age, outstanding No8 Akira Ioane will celebrate his 50th game for the Blues in Saturday’s Super Rugby opener against the Crusaders at Eden Park.
Ioane has showed his resilience in amassing 48 Super games and the memorable win over the Lions, playing in every Super game for the Blues over the last two seasons.
While he plays his 50th, Otere Black has shown his patience to make his long-awaited debut at first five after missing the entire 2018 Super season with injury.
Strong pre-season form has been rewarded with the inclusion of North Harbour’s Sione Mafileo at tighthead prop, Northland’s Josh Goodhue at lock, Auckland captain TJ Faiane in the midfield and the debut of robust loose forward Tom Robinson from Northland.
There will be considerable interest in the inclusion of Ma’a Nonu at centre, returning to the Blues for a third time and for his 161st Super Rugby game, the most capped player in the competition.
With the Rugby World Cup year firmly on the horizon, new coach Leon Macdonald is required to manage the playing minutes of returning of All Blacks with Patrick Tuipulotu to captain the side at lock, exciting loose forward Dalton Papalii and Rieko Ioane on the left wing.
There is an ominous look to the Blues bench that includes All Blacks Karl Tu’inukuafe, Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Sonny Bill Williams, along with the experienced Augustine Pulu, Northland captain Matt Moulds and Gerard Cowley-Tuioti along with the exciting Harry Plummer, who is set to make his debut off the bench.
BLUES
15 Michael Collins, 14 Melani Nanai, 13 Ma’a Nonu, 12 TJ Faiane, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Otere Black, 9 Jonathan Ruru; 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Dalton Papalii, 6 Tom Robinson, 5 Josh Goodhue, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu ©, 3 Sione Mafileo, 2 James Parsons, 1 Alex Hodgman. Reserves: 16 Matt Moulds, 17 Karl Tu’inukuafe, 18 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 19 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 20 Matt Matich, 21 Augustine Pulu, 22 Harry Plummer, 23 Sonny Bill Williams.
Players not considered because of injury include co-captain Blake Gibson (ankle), Stephen Perofeta (pectoral), Leni Apisai (neck), Jed Brown (calf), Ezekiel Lindenmuth (knee), Sam Nock (calf), Jacob Pierce (ankle), Jimmy Tupou (knee), Jordan Trainor (thigh), Matt Duffie (hamstring), Scott Scrafton (knee).
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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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