All Black bolter candidate announces Japan move

They are haemorrhaging mid-tier players, and their juniors are being short changed and whacked, but it is their choice to spend at the top of pyramid.

There may be a rethinking at the NZR if the ABs will be whacked in their 4 tests tour of SA

With Parker’s new contract, NZR likely couldn’t offer him anything near this Japanese contract.

its really sad as he is a good player for the hurricanes and hawkes bay and i think he would be very close to wearing an allblack jersey this year

What an indictment on the Hurricanes, that he refers to them as a Wellington team. They should be a LNI club and would probably have been a lot better of financially if they had ran like one.

Brain dead move.

Flanders could have been an All Black, but that wasn’t certain either… maybe he’d heard that he wouldn’t be selected. It’s another very good player leaving, from that well-known in-between age group… someone who has already had a taste of the lower selections, Māori, and the All Blacks XV.

Once again, it raises questions about NZR’s selection policy. This restriction of only selecting players who are playing in New Zealand doesn’t allow them to keep hold of them. One after another, they leave to earn three or four times more money overseas, mainly in Japan.

From a sporting point of view, Flanders had made a superb start to the season but seemed to slow down just a little over the past two or three matches. It was Lose who played against the Crusaders. There’s still depth for the All Blacks with Frizell returning, the emergence of Segner, not to mention players like Parker and Finau who probably deserve another look. Lose and Howden shouldn’t be ruled out either.

I’m not worried, but it’s still one very good player less.

There are several possible explanations here - One is that there hasn't been any comms to players on the AB radar. Maybe, they are going to open it up and select some offshore players who have played 4 or 5 domestic seasons?

I don’t see how NZ will be able to compete in the long term with their current eligibility rules.

These are the players who left last year and have announced leaving at the end of this season (so 2025 and 2026 Super seasons):

Pouri Rakete-Stones

Dalton Papali'i

Sevu Reece

Hoskins Sotutu 

Shaun Stevenson

Harry Plummer

Braydon Ennor

Fehi Fineanganofo

Etene Nanaï-Seturo

Dallas McLeod

Harry Plummer

Ricky Riccitelli

Shaun Stevenson

Sam Gilbert

Thomas Umaga-Jensen

Peter Umaga-Jensen

Mark Telea

Adrian Choat

Tom Christie

Zach Gallagher

Riley Higgins 

Xavier Roe 

Louie Chapman

Devan Flanders

NZ Rugby has, in effect, been asset-stripped, leaving Super Rugby NZ with Junior rugby players aged 20-23 who are gaining experience and are the next-gen ABs, along with a couple of senior pros and the current ABs.

That middle tier of players aged 25-28 is been stripped away - not healthy for the game, but when, according to the press, NZ Super players can generate a max of 250k in NZ, and they can triple that in a place like Japan - any surprise this is occurring?

Good grief. Couldnt even wait for Rennies first squad announcement. This like Fingeangofo’s departure is seriously bad.

This very worrisome.

An entire layer of young talent that have not yet made the ABs is being stripped away. Soon there won't be anyone left to step up if the selection policy doesn't change.