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'It's up to us': Rising star Love backed as one of 'four' Hurricanes RWC 'bolters'
By Finn Morton
Hurricanes coach Jason Holland believes the team can have “three or four” All Blacks bolters at this year’s Rugby World Cup, including rising star Ruben Love.
Before they were legends, some of the greatest players in the history of rugby union were once considered bolters for the sport’s most prestigious event.
All Blacks Michael Jones, Jonah Lomu and Nehe Milner-Skudder, as well as Wallabies great John Eales, are among the greatest no-names to take the tournament by storm.
There’s truly something special about players coming from nowhere to achieve the impossible, as they etch their names into rugby folklore with startling performances.
Every four years, fans from around the world debate the topic with purpose: who will be the next great World Cup bolter?
Wallaby Mark Nawaqanitawase and Chiefs fullback Shaun Stevenson are seemingly among the frontrunners,.
But don’t sleep on the Hurricanes.
Playmaker Ruben Love played a starring role in the Wellington Lions’ NPC triumph last season, and was also among the standouts at Super Rugby level.
The 21-year-old also played representative rugby with the All Blacks Maori and All Blacks XV. Clearly, Love is the cusp of greatness; he’s certainly in the mix for higher honours.
“He had a pretty special season for the Lions at 15, Rubes,” coach Jason Holland said.
“The time and space thing was awesome for him and we saw how effective he is with ball in hand.
“We take a lot of satisfaction in players being selected as All Blacks, especially the bolters who haven’t had a look in before.
“Behind the scenes we have a drive as a management to get as many players into that All Blacks set-up, and hopefully there’s more than Rubes as we reckon we could have three or four bolters.
“It’s up to us to play some good footy and to win some footy so they get those rewards.”
Holland added that Jordie Barrett is set to play at inside centre this season for the Hurricanes, which could see love play regular minutes out the back in the No. 15 jersey.
The Hurricanes begin their Super Rugby Pacific campaign with a trip across the ditch, where they’ll face the Reds at Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium on February 25.
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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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