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The Rugby Championship

All Blacks confirm two absentees from South Africa tour squad

By Ned Lester

197 days ago

Stephen Perofeta of the All Blacks makes a break. Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images

The All Blacks will once more be without the services of Stephen Perofeta and Patrick Tuipulotu for their two upcoming Tests against the world champions in South Africa.

Rounds three and four of The Rugby Championship see the Kiwis travel deep into the heart of Springbok rugby with Tests at Emirates Airline Park (previously Ellis Park Stadium) and Capetown’s DHL Stadium against the famous rivals.

Unfortunately for head coach Scott Robertson, two of his starters from the opening Tests of the year against England will miss the tour as they both nurse calf injuries that have kept them out of New Zealand’s three contests since.

Patrick Tuipulotu has been replaced by Josh Lord in the 36-man travelling squad while Stephen Perofeta’s absence has made way for fellow 2024 Super Rugby Pacific champion Harry Plummer.

Despite playing career-best rugby in the No. 10 jersey in 2024, Plummer has been named as an outside back in the team’s official travelling squad, named on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old offers plenty of versatility with a large chunk of his Super Rugby experience coming in the midfield. He is the only uncapped player of the 36 players travelling to South Africa over the coming days.

Hookers
Asafo Aumua (Hurricanes / Wellington)
Codie Taylor (Crusaders / Canterbury)
George Bell (Crusaders / Canterbury)

Props
Ethan De Groot (Highlanders / Southland)
Tyrel Lomax (Hurricanes / Tasman)
Fletcher Newell (Crusaders / Canterbury)
Pasilio Tosi (Hurricanes / Bay of Plenty)
Ofa Tu’ungafasi (Blues / Northland)
Tamaiti Williams (Crusaders / Canterbury)

Locks
Scott Barrett (Crusaders / Taranaki) (Captain)
Sam Darry (Blues / Canterbury)
Josh Lord (Chiefs / Taranaki)
Tupou Vaa’i (Chiefs / Taranaki)

Loose Forwards
Ethan Blackadder (Crusaders / Tasman)
Sam Cane (Chiefs / Bay of Plenty)
Samipeni Finau (Chiefs / Waikato)
Luke Jacobson (Chiefs / Waikato)
Dalton Papali’i (Blues / Counties Manukau)
Ardie Savea (Moana Pasifika / Wellington) (Vice Captain)
Wallace Sititi (Chiefs / North Harbour)

Halfbacks
Noah Hotham (Crusaders / Tasman)
TJ Perenara (Hurricanes / Wellington)
Cortez Ratima (Chiefs / Waikato)

First five-eighths
Beauden Barrett (Blues / Taranaki)
Damian McKenzie (Chiefs / Waikato)

Mid-fielders
Jordie Barrett (Hurricanes / Taranaki) (Vice Captain)
David Havili (Crusaders / Tasman)
Rieko Ioane (Blues / Auckland)
Anton Lienert-Brown (Chiefs / Waikato)
Billy Proctor (Hurricanes / Wellington)

Outside backs
Caleb Clarke (Blues / Auckland)
Will Jordan (Crusaders / Tasman)
Ruben Love (Hurricanes / Wellington)
Harry Plummer (Blues/Auckland)
Sevu Reece (Crusaders / Southland)
Mark Tele’a (Blues / North Harbour)

UNAVAILABLE DUE TO INJURY: Patrick Tuipulotu (calf), Stephen Perofeta (calf).

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Comments on RugbyPass

JW 10 minutes ago

New Zealand Rugby should avoid a deal with Kalyn Ponga

33, unlikely?

It’s actually an interesting question, how does his RL career impact you perception of his ‘rugby age’?

I’d imagine he’s fresher than a 26 yo rugby player, he’s fitting and done more k’s, but had less impacts (unsure of his injuries).

Anyway, your conclusion doesn’t really hit the mark. What you’ve not asked yourself is would he be better at 33, with 6 years under his belt, than 28/9, and only 2 years experience. If he really is considering it a major goal of course, he may just want an Olympic medal and leave etc.

Still, in relation to your topic, what I suspected would be his thinking is the ever increasing value in playing in Japan. Perhaps he’d try and give this first WC a go, trying to make it in the All Blacks, obviously playing Super Rugby, then he’d take a much bigger contract in Japan? Learn how to run around people with better accuracy and consistency (rofl), and then return to NZ as an improved player to Australia 2027, with the hope to fine tune further and make the most of his marketability in the bonanza that America 2031 is going to leave behind. 33 is still prime earning age and who knows what the MLR market is going to be like them, if teams have started to have major backers etc.

It’s all about the money afterall (yes, I wasn’t referring to his ability re USA31’)!

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JW 35 minutes ago

France change two for Ireland but stick with 7-1 bench tactic

No, just an overly zealous fan who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

45 Go to comments

JW 35 minutes ago

France change two for Ireland but stick with 7-1 bench tactic

Injurying a player like that means a straight red. No exploitation possible.

45 Go to comments

JW 37 minutes ago

France change two for Ireland but stick with 7-1 bench tactic

Train him up for the front row!

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OrdonezRicci 51 minutes ago

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JW 54 minutes ago

France change two for Ireland but stick with 7-1 bench tactic

I hope super bee and mopar didn’t read it all.

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JW 1 hour ago

The numbers show Super Rugby Pacific just got even tougher

“The competition is tough, because you’ve got to spit out performances every week, and to be able to do that consistently you’ve got to have good depth.”

You’ve got to look forward to next weekend more than anything too.

The bonus points view is a good one. The majority of bonus points earned in the first three rounds last season were for scoring three tries more than the opposition, while three quarters of bonus points in 2025 have gone to the losing side getting to within seven points of the victors.

They really use this sorta system? Much smaller pool of bonus points available, that would mean they have far less impact. Interestingly you must be withen winning range/chance in France’s Top 14 league, rather that just draw territory, so 6 points instead of 7. Fairly arbitrary and pointless (something the NRL would do to try and look cool), but kinda cool.

I said it Nick’s and other articles, I’m not sure about the fixed nature of matchups in these opening rounds. For instance, I would be interested in seeing an improved ranking/prediction/reflection ladder to what we had last year, were some author here game so rejigged list of teams purely based of ‘who had played who’ so far in the competition. It was designed to analyze the ladder and better predict what the real order would be after the full round robin had completed. It needed some improvement, like factoring in historical data as well, as it was a bit skiwif, but it is the sort of thing that would give a better depiction of what sort of contests weve had so far, because just using my intuition, the matchups have been very ‘level appropriate’ so far, and were jet to get the other end of the spectrum, season ranked bottom sides v top sides etc.

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dw 3 hours ago

Will Vern Cotter succumb to second season Blues in Auckland?

They have picked a relatively big tight head prop off the bench and I hope Blake Schoup kicks on as a decent scrummager. Am a little concerned about Slips but let’s hope he proves me wrong tonight