Levi Aumua would be a very handy pick-up for the Crusaders or Blues in 2024, as first reported by the Herald yesterday. It would also be a major blow for Moana Pasifika, given he’s been their leading light over the opening two years of thecompetition.
There’s plenty of balls in the air over where Aumua and others might land but Moana Pasifika — who need players like Aumua more so than the Blues and Crusaders — stand to lose.
I would hate to see Moana Pasifika become a holding warehouse of talent for the big-ticket Super Rugby sides to lure away once they have been blooded and proven themselves at that level.
The franchise is never going to grow that way and it reinforces the feeling they’re at the wrong end of the big table or perhaps even have a limited shelf life in this competition.
These worries were around when they launched two years ago. That’s not to say their talent should be ringfenced — part and parcel of being in a professional sports team is having to recruit talent and do enough to retain it.
It just does seem particularly tough to take a marquee player out of a struggling franchise. Perhaps losing Aumua might be the wake-up call several parties need around where Moana is going.
An explanation...
It’s got be asked though, why his talents — which have also been on show at Tasman for several seasons — have been overlooked by other franchises when they had him right under their noses.
They were not harnessed by the Blues in his previous stint at the franchise in 2019 when he played just four games and could only find a start against the lowly Sunwolves.
He was at the Chiefs too the previous year, but injury curtailed that season. Similar questions should be asked too of the Crusaders, a player that has sat in their Super Rugby franchise base on-and-off since 2017 and didn’t get a look-in there.
Now he’s firmly in the All Blacks mix, his stocks have risen, but his talents were bizarrely not able to be spotted by some of the other New Zealand franchises until he got a regular run-around for Moana.
Aumua isn’t the finished product but credit to Moana’s coaching staff for lifting his game over the past two seasons in the irresistible partnership he’s formed with Timoci Tavatavanawai.
A question...
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck during a Blues training session. Photo / Photosport
Surely this is the end of the line for Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s dream to make the All Blacks’ Rugby World Cup squad?
After a patchy season interrupted by injury, Tuivasa-Sheck needs strong performances in the final games of the Super Rugby campaign to put his hand up in the tightly contested battle for the All Blacks midfield spots.
But by being left out of the Blues’ first-choice 23 to play the Crusaders tomorrow night, with Harry Plummer preferred at 12 and Bryce Heem on the bench, the indications are stronger than ever that Tuivasa-Sheck will head back to the Warriors without adding to his three test appearances.
I’ve spoken to Tuivasa-Sheck a few times since he made the switch back and I’ve never doubted his commitment to the cause and focusing on the Blues and the All Blacks. Even when the going appeared tough.
His time may yet come again, but with the Blues coaches are preferring Plummer for a crunch match like tomorrow night and Tuivasa-Sheck unable to even nab a bench spot, it’s hard to see the leap being made to the All Blacks.
Warriors fans have cried out for an early release, but given how committed Tuivasa-Sheck has genuinely seemed to union — even with his signing back to NRL next year — he won’t let this go without a fight.
A suggestion...
I dare suggest the concept of Super Rugby sides playing Japanese League One sides in friendlies will excite no-one.
However, the NZR-Japan Memorandum of Understanding will be intriguing to see how it plays out otherwise — it’s important for the rebuilding of Japan as a rugby market.
The League One is going some way to doing that but Japan has only had six home tests since the end of the World Cup in 2019.
Having been on the ground in 2019, it felt like a market ready to launch on and off the field after that tournament, before Covid stopped it just months later.
Even late last year when the All Blacks returned and were lucky to win, Japan was still in the grip of the pandemic and only just allowing tourists back in.
Japan is a major commercial market for NZ Rugby, but importantly, unlike North America it’s a giant wide awake to rugby.
