The Silver Fern

Joseph did mention that the first two scrum penalties were against de Groot. He was penalised three times and got a YC.

Tele'a has been dropped. "Tanielu made too many mistakes".

Have they named the extra players in the touring party?

@Tim Udo was always short and chubby, but he's piled on the kgs since the 1980s.

Cashmore is training and close to returning.

‘We’ve dropped the ball’: Sir Gordon Tietjens slams state of New Zealand men’s sevens

The Post

The Aust teams have to rest current and potential Wallabies. Some were "managed" last week, others this week.

A select group of managed players who can not play more than six games in a row, barring extreme circumstances, with the Wallabies' upcoming Test season in mind.

Hayden Michaels must really be in the doghouse.

There's only a few players from the 2024 NZ U20 squad they are eligible again this year. Of those that played in Taupō that was:

Dylan Pledger
Mosese Bason
Rico Simpson
Sika Pole
Stanley Solomon

Logan Wallace, Manumaua Letiu, Xavier Tito-Harris and Frank Vaenuku were the others that are either injured or with other commitments.

The first two above are a good chance to be the captain and vice-captain (either order). The question will be if many of the players in their first year out of school make the cut, or they focus on players with a year of club rugby and S&C behind them. Those that have played some NPC are even more valuable, particularly in the forwards. There is also a long list of other players that must also be injured, as well as Oli Mathis and Joey Taumateine (AB7s).

A 3-0 win in the end but for 60 mins New Caledonia kept the All Whites at bay. What a time to score your first international goal for Boxall after 50+ games.

@booboo said in All Whites:

And was his YC deserved for signing autographs?

He got the YC for entering the stands with the crowd. Sometimes sport can't help itself.

@nzzp said in All Whites:

Streaming on TVNZ2 and TVNZ+ by the look of it. Come on the AW's

Also on FIFA+, which presumably will work for anyone overseas.

7 pm kickoff.

Bump.

A big game at Eden Park tonight when the All Whites play New Caledonia in the Oceania World Cup qualifying final. Win this, and they book a place at the 2026 WC joining co-hosts United States, Canada and Mexico. Expanding the WC to 48 teams has made qualifying from Oceania much easier now but it will still be the last chance for some veterans to go to a WC.

This article states that the tournament will be held in South Africa this year. I haven't seen any dates but the U20 WC is in June and July in Italy so presumably in May or early June. The article from SA suggests it is yet to be confirmed by SANZAAR.

Both Australia and SA are well advanced as they have already named wider squads, with SA having held training camps already.

Chris Whitaker is the new Aust U20 coach while another familiar name is now the SA U20 coach - Kevin Foote.

As far as the NZ U20s, there were some people in their Adidas kit watching from the sidelines in Taupō, presumably part of this years coaching group.

Nathan Williamson  /  Mar 20

New coach Whitaker names first Australia U20s squad of 2025

Mar 19

Junior Boks gear up for third camp in Stellenbosch

The Junior Springboks are set to reconvene at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport (SAS) next week with a squad of 41 players for their third training camp of the year, and the first gathering since their return from a successful tour in Georgia three weeks ago.

I've finally had a chance to watch the final. It was a game that could have went either way in the end, as the Chiefs did well to fight back when the reserves came on. The Chiefs' lineout was a little compromised with three short loose forwards. Having Sa at 6 would have given another big target. They haven't had much luck with injuries in this tournament in the last 2 years losing starters before and during the tournament.

Now we wait for the first NZ U20 squad. Hopefully the injured players are all available for selection.

Not having read the thread, many of the worst performers for the Blues were ABs. I was surprised Cotter didn't replace Perofeta and Taʻavao at HT.

We had the Damon flavour in the 2nd half but he wasn't to blame for the Highlanders' scrum issues. Game lost there.

I don't remember Tangitau looking so quick in sevens. Maybe it's because the opposition always had speedy players too.

As Earle Kirton said: you can't beat gas.

Surprise, surprise, the schools aren't happy with the move to a NZ U18 team. From a Gregor Paul paywalled article, so no idea of the content.

I assume it's because the NZ Schools team won't get to play the Australian U18s (the irony).

Robinson is nearly 26, so not really in the "young" category.