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Kaino move to Europe imminent, two clubs fighting for signature - reports
By Ian Cameron
Media outlets in New Zealand are reporting that Jerome Kaino's long-heralded move to France is set to go ahead in the next few weeks
The NZ Herald say that the decorated All Black could be set for a move either Toulouse or Toulon.
Kaino had been linked to Toulon as a replacement for Duane Vermuelen, but the galacticos club announced the signing of fellow All Black veteran Liam Messam back in January.
While pen has not been put to paper on the deal, it is expected to go ahead over the course of the next few weeks.
Toulouse's current backrow is not brimming with star power, especially compared with Toulon, and they have yet to find a replacement for Louis Picamoles who signed for Northampton Saints before moving to Montpellier.
Meanwhile Toulon - no longer the biggest spenders in France - can boast Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Facunda Isa, Mamuka Gorgodze, Raphel Lafakia and Manu Samoa.
While Toulon lose Vermuelen, they will be replacing him with Messam, who offers a similar skill set to Kaino.
At 34 Kaino is no spring chicken and he will no doubt look to the success of fellow All Black Victor Vito at La Rochelle, who won Top14 player of the season for 2016/17.
If he is to capitalise on a big European paycheck, now is certainly the time for 6'5, 112kg looseforward.
Kaino’s starting position with his native All Blacks has been under pressure with Liam Squire and Vaea Fifita putting in some big performances while the 81 Test cap All Black was absent in recent times.
The 34-year-old moved to Auckland from American Samoa with his family when he was a child and played league before switching to rugby while at Papakura High School. After playing at centre and fullback as a teenager, Kaino developed into one of New Zealand’s most promising young loose forwards.
He has been capped 81 times for the All Blacks.
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Latest Comments
Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".
But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.
The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.
Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?
Go to commentsI think they just need to judge better when it's on and when it's not. If there is a disjointed chase and WJ has a forward in front of him and some space to work with then he should have a crack every time.
If the chase is perfect and the defence is numbered up then it needs to get sent back. From memory they have not really developed a plan for what to do if they take the ball on/in the 22 with a good chase and no counter attacking opportunity.
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