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'Show me how good you are' - Ngani Laumape's random recruitment pitch to pro players
By Online Editors
Hurricanes and All Blacks star Ngani Laumape has taken to Twitter to recruit for his home town Mitre 10 province Manawatu in an unconventional and unusual fashion.
The bulldozing second five missed out on World Cup selection and spent the rest of the season tormenting Mitre 10 Cup sides with breakaway performances for his Turbos outfit, showing the All Blacks just what they had missed out on.
Now the former NRL star has laid down the challenge for other players to 'come play for a small town like Manawatu' instead of 'hiding behind the bigger cities'.
It is difficult to determine who exactly Ngani's message is meant for, but the centre wants others to 'show me how good you are' playing for a smaller provincial region.
His message was met with a response from fans and pro players alike with former All Black and current Wasps' flyhalf Lima Sopoaga replying with 'Stagnation'.
After one punter suggest Laumape isn't good enough for the big city teams despite Laumape playing for his country and Super Rugby with a franchise in New Zealand's second-biggest city, teammate Ardie Savea labeled the assertion the 'joke of the year'.
Laumape has publicly dealt with his World Cup omission admirably by returning to the Turbos and playing out the season without any fuss despite the circumstances.
The Turbos made the Championship semi-finals before coming undone by Bay of Plenty in a lop-sided match.
With Super Rugby just around the corner, Laumape will soon be pushing for an All Black re-call with Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty moving offshore after the World Cup.
It's unknown yet whether Laumape's recruitment pitch will help the Turbos bring any new players to the Manawatu for next season.
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Latest Comments
The Saracens players are the ones who brought this habit into the England team and to be fair they rarely lose, they have a very strong winning culture. It is however very embarrassing when you suck.
Go to commentsYes but it will be very hard game for the ABs, Ireland will want some pay back and they are a fine team who can play the running dynamic game like we do. It was 3 tries all in the QF with some great rugby by both sides. We will probably see a good game and as you say not much in it. I am less worried than normal as I feel like our team is changing for the future at the moment, with the new coach, so we will get better over time. There is a lot of new talent coming through.
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