2019 under 20's
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Kaliopasi Uluilakepa is from Wellington, is that Manawatu a typo or has he signed for them?
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@mariner4life said in 2019 under 20's:
@taniwharugby said in 2019 under 20's:
A World Rugby trial sees a 13-man bench, with eight players able to be used as replacements during the match.
Sheesh!
WHAT??!! That's the last thing the game needs!!
I'm starting to believe World Rugby hates the game.
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@Stargazer said in 2019 under 20's:
A World Rugby trial sees a 13-man bench, with eight players able to be used as replacements during the match.
Looks simply to be some sort of organised payback to the jersey manufacturers if all teams have to have jerseys numbered from sixteen through to and including twenty eight. Not sure what the rationale behind it is as most club sides below Premier struggle to have more than three or four on their bench at the best of times.
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@Canes4life said in 2019 under 20's:
Kaliopasi Uluilakepa is from Wellington, is that Manawatu a typo or has he signed for them?
Not really, he was "encouraged" to come to Wellington by a paid employee of the WRFU and surprise surprise ended up playing for a club the paid employee has had an association with.
http://www.clubrugby.nz/2019/04/17/pasi-uluilakepa-working-hard-for-rugby-success/ -
@Higgins One rationale could be to prevent a situation like in the Reds v Crusaders match, where a player goes off and the replacement player gets injured, and the team is not able to replace the injured player because they've run out of players on the bench that can replace him. With the new rule, they won't be able to sub more players than is the case now, but they have a larger number of players to pick their subs from.
As WR is very focused on player welfare in most of its law trials, I assume there's a player welfare reason behind it.
It's only a trial; there's no way we can predict whether they aim to introduce this new law at all levels of rugby (if at all). Maybe only for U20, or only for national representative teams.
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@Higgins I don't mean he was born here, I was meaning that he is playing his rugby in Wellington. Must be a shocking culture at the Lions - that's Carlos Price, Malo Tuitama, Uluilakepa and Walker-Leawere all deciding to move on from Wellington Rugby.
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@Stargazer I think in the event that 2 TH props or 2 hookers or 2 LH props are injured in a game (must be fairly rare, although not unheard of) having to go back to golden oldies isnt a huge deal for as how infrequently it will happen, cos we know this is where the concerns are mostly...
Of those 13 on the bench, assume it will be pretty heavy (front rowers) that reason?
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@Canes4life Only one of those three are from Wellington in the first place so don't really hold any affiliation or affection to the place. Maybe it is simply a financial reason with the WRFU not having as much ready cash available for Mitre10 Cup salaries as some other provinces. Maybe John Plumtree has got his six foot eleven lock ready to go and has offered him to the WRFU for Mitre10 Cup use and IWL seeing the writing on the wall and leaving for greener pastures where he does not have James Blackwell to contend with for a starting spot.
Not sure how Waikato are managing to hoover up a number of new signings recently as it was not long ago that they were almost booted out of Rugby Park through not paying their rent. Maybe they have got a whizz bank sponsorship seller on their payroll that has the ability to elicit vast amounts of money from sponsors? -
@Higgins It's the time and effort spent on these guys and their development that pisses me off. I don't get what the point of an academy is when these guys end up playing elsewhere anyway.
Doubt Wellington Rugby have anyone in line to take Walker-Leawere's spot, history suggests they are too stupid and will most likely pin their hopes on green horns like Ah Koui and Plumtree.
Just simply stupidity all around from a region that gives jobs to the boys and wonders why they never win anything.
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@Canes4life I think IWL has signed with another Super team or else it was better for his career to stay with WRU.
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@Nepia I think he probably just wants to be closer to home in moving to Hawkes Bay. Defs don't think he will move Super franchise when that young core of Numia, Aumua, Fidow and himself have come through the grades together and formed a very promising tight five together.
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@Canes4life said in 2019 under 20's:
@Nepia I think he probably just wants to be closer to home in moving to Hawkes Bay. Defs don't think he will move Super franchise when that young core of Numia, Aumua, Fidow and himself have come through the grades together and formed a very promising tight five together.
He’s not starting in a team playing a midget lock, some islander dude has leap frogged him, and the coach keeps bleating on about getting a gigantic South African lock in - I think there’s a huge chance he’s going somewhere else.
I assume he would fly from Welly to Gizzy, the drive up from HB is ages on shitty roads.
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@Canes4life said in 2019 under 20's:
@Higgins It's the time and effort spent on these guys and their development that pisses me off. I don't get what the point of an academy is when these guys end up playing elsewhere anyway.
Doubt Wellington Rugby have anyone in line to take Walker-Leawere's spot, history suggests they are too stupid and will most likely pin their hopes on green horns like Ah Koui and Plumtree.
Just simply stupidity all around from a region that gives jobs to the boys and wonders why they never win anything.
Naitoa Akuoi is about as injury prone as the infamous Christian Lloyd and the almost as permanently injured Geoffrey Cridge so the WRFU would be well advised to tread with caution there.
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@Higgins don't think he's injury prone - he decided to have surgery on both his hips to get himself right before professional footy. Will see how he goes in the 20s match.
A recent article on Uluilakepa gives me doubts that he has signed with Manawatu - http://www.clubrugby.nz/2019/04/17/pasi-uluilakepa-working-hard-for-rugby-success/
