Exodus 2018
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Excellent. They’re kind of my team (I’ve recently also been supporting Kubota a bit too). During the season, I’ll try to head along to a game and give a report - although I should mention that the last game had free flow Champagne and a bento box from a Michelin started restaurant and as a result I can't even tell you what team Kubota was playing
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Shields buzzing off to Wasps: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=11945394
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Seems an odd article really. ABS had Whitelock and Akira over yet they supposedly called up Shields and unsurprisingly he knocked them back with one eye on an England jersey
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Just to be clear, if true, he'd be leaving after the 2018 SR season.
@tim said in Exodus 2017:
At best he's been the seventh [1] highest rated 6 or 8 in NZ, so the AB's can't complain too much if he decides he'll have a better career overseas.
[1] Currently he's behind Read, Kaino, Squire, Fifita, Ioane, and Whitelock.
According to some of the media, he was asked to join the AB squad and Whitelock was only called in after Shields refused.
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@kiwimurph said in Exodus 2017:
@rocky-rockbottom Agreed. He joins a list of players in a similar boat - Bundee Aki, Steven Luatua, Hadleigh Parkes.....
Not in same boat as Luatua, who has been capped.
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@stargazer said in Exodus 2017:
Just to be clear, if true, he'd be leaving after the 2018 SR season.
@tim said in Exodus 2017:
At best he's been the seventh [1] highest rated 6 or 8 in NZ, so the AB's can't complain too much if he decides he'll have a better career overseas.
[1] Currently he's behind Read, Kaino, Squire, Fifita, Ioane, and Whitelock.
According to some of the media, he was asked to join the AB squad and Whitelock was only called in after Shields refused.
Makes it more bizarre really...so Whitelock was that far down the list yet still made captain?
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@taniwharugby Yeah, it's all a bit weird. You have take what the media says with a lot more than a pinch of salt these days. Maybe they didn't get enough clicks this week.
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Oh, hey wait, this all comes from an article in the Daily Telegraph.
The NZ media just added a few "details". -
Damn, that's brave to turn down an AB jersey. I reckon even after 50 caps with England he'd still regret not being an AB. But I guess it's good to know you were in line for one.
@taniwharugby said in Exodus 2017:
@stargazer said in Exodus 2017:
Just to be clear, if true, he'd be leaving after the 2018 SR season.
@tim said in Exodus 2017:
At best he's been the seventh [1] highest rated 6 or 8 in NZ, so the AB's can't complain too much if he decides he'll have a better career overseas.
[1] Currently he's behind Read, Kaino, Squire, Fifita, Ioane, and Whitelock.
According to some of the media, he was asked to join the AB squad and Whitelock was only called in after Shields refused.
Makes it more bizarre really...so Whitelock was that far down the list yet still made captain?
Tour match captain isn't really relevant to where a player sits in the pecking order really. From how Hansen says it he was just the best option for captain at the time.
Damn, Shields may have missed out on being AB captain as well.
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Plenty of stuff in the media about Brad Shields heading to England.
Stokes Valley contact of mine tells me his parents have moved back to England and it is all pretty much a done deal.
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@stargazer said in Exodus 2017:
Oh, hey wait, this all comes from an article in the Daily Telegraph.
The NZ media just added a few "details".An unsubstantiated piece from two halfwit journalists. One of whom penned about how Ben May is faster than Usain Bolt. I shit you not.
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@nepia still a small number of players that get to captain The All Blacks.
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@rugger-quizzes Interesting. The articles posted contain so much clickbait material that you wouldn't know what's true or not true. Considering that Brad Shields and his partner have just become parents themselves, it wouldn't be strange if they'd be looking to settle close the Brad's folks either if he is looking to play overseas. He'll never be an AB regular anyway, so good on him if he wants to move, whether it's to be close to his parents, for the $$ or a chance in the England jersey.
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@taniwharugby said in Exodus 2017:
@nepia still a small number of players that get to captain The All Blacks.
One of them is named John Mitchell - it aint that exclusive a club for the midweek teams.
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By my reading Shields hasn't actually signed a NH contract yet? Savvy call by him, if he plays a game for the ABs as an injury fill in then never gets another shot he's no chance to play test rugby for anyone else. He appears to be far down the pecking order and this is a real possibility. Shame all the same
