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Brad Shields finally gets his All Blacks jersey

By Online Editors
Brad Shields and Dane Coles. Photo / Instagram/bradshields

Brad Shields has finally received an All Blacks jersey – but not in the way he might have thought.

After spending seven seasons with the Hurricanes and not being able to crack the national side, Shields shifted north to England – the country where both his parents were born – to chase his dream of playing international rugby, leaving any hopes of wearing the black jersey behind.

But after facing the country he represented at Under 20 level for the first time on Saturday – the All Blacks defeated England 16-15 at Twickenham – Shields managed to finally get his hands on an All Blacks jersey thanks to an old friend.

Shields and his former Hurricanes teammate Dane Coles swapped jerseys after the clash before posting identical pictures on social media to mark the ‘weird’ occasion.

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A post shared by Brad Shields (@bradshields) on

“Who would have thought.! Cheers bro for the swapsies. Such an honour to play against you mate,” Shields wrote on Instagram.

Coles shared Shield’s sentiment, writing “Huge battle against the English. Weird but huge honour to play against my mate” on his own post.

Wasps loose forward Shields made his test debut for England while still based in New Zealand, appearing during their June international series against South Africa after gaining dispensation to play.

Shields unfortunately had to leave Saturday’s match early to undergo a head injury assessment, but had been part of a staunch English defence during his stint on field.

England will next play Japan while the All Blacks head to Dublin to play Ireland next weekend.

In other news:

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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