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'Common sense has prevailed': The Crusaders prop set for Moana Pasifika debut
Three-and-a-half weeks ago, Abraham Pole marked his Super Rugby Pacific debut by scoring a try for the Crusaders in their 33-12 victory over Moana Pasifika at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.
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Now the 20-year-old loosehead prop has jumped the fence and is primed to make his first appearance for Moana Pasifika against the Blues at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland on Tuesday.
It’s a groundbreaking feat for Pole, the non-contracted Super Rugby player who will play for two different franchises in the same season.
Few, if any, of his predecessors have ever done that in the history of the competition, and, according to Moana Pasifika head coach Aaron Mauger, Pole’s unusual mid-season transfer is a reflection of the Covid uncertainty Super Rugby Pacific franchises currently face.
“As far as I know, yeah,” Mauger said when asked if New Zealand Rugby [NZR] has enabled Kiwi teams to pick non-contracted players, like Pole, despite them having already played for other teams this season.
“I think the old rule, as soon as you played, you were unavailable, but I think with the current conditions that we’re in, we want the best players playing around the country.
“I think common sense has prevailed from an [NZR] perspective, just a bit more lenient on those rules.”
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After having trained with the Crusaders as an injury replacement player over the course of pre-season, Pole went on to play twice for the Christchurch-based franchise, coming off the bench in his former side’s loss to the Chiefs little more than a fortnight ago.
During his time at the Crusaders, Pole earned high praise from assistant coach Jason Ryan, who labelled the Otago front rower as a “phenomenal” pick-up by the franchise.
“He’s been outstanding. His growth has been quite phenomenal. We hooked him out of Otago, did a little bit of homework on him. He’s gone from strength to strength,” Ryan said of Pole last month.
“I’ve got no doubt he’ll play Super Rugby this year. If it’s not for us, it might be for someone else. Obviously he’s in for us as injury cover and that sort of thing with a bit of depth but he’s unreal, going well.”
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Playing Super Rugby Pacific both for the Crusaders and someone else is exactly what Pole will do in the first-ever instalment of Auckland’s cross-town derby match in a rare mid-week fixture.
His selection for that match comes after Mauger called him into his squad after hearing of Pole’s rave reviews from the Crusaders.
An overhaul of personnel from the team that registered Moana Pasifika’s first-ever win against the Hurricanes on Friday has since paved the way for Pole to earn a starting debut for his new side.
“Abraham came in last week. Been really impressed with him,” Mauger said of his new recruit.
“Good reports from the Crusaders, who I think would have been keen to hold onto him if they could have found a way, so that’s how highly they thought of him, but he was on our radar early on in a replacement pool.
“It just so happened that he was available, and we had a need with Isi Tu’ungafasi being ruled out for the season requiring neck surgery.
“Been really impressed with Abraham. He’s quite a quiet young man, but extremely diligent around learning his roles and connecting with our team and connecting with the players and he’s prepared well, so he’s ready to go tomorrow.”
Pole’s first port of call as a Moana Pasifika player will be to negate the threat of All Blacks prop Nepo Laulala, who he will pack down against when he faces the Blues.
The Blues have the luxury of having three of their four All Blacks props available for the match, with Alex Hodgman starting at loosehead prop, while Karl Tu’inukuafe has been named on the bench and is in line for his first match of the year.
Tu’inukuafe missed the opening rounds of Super Rugby Pacific after recovering from back surgery over the off-season, and Blues head coach Leon MacDonald is pleased to have the 25-test international back on deck.
“He’s coming back from relatively major back surgery. We’ve been working away with him in the background, so it’ll be his first run coming back,” MacDonald said on Monday.
“I know he’s pretty excited and feeling really good after what was a pretty successful operation. He was pretty sore there, so being able to run freely again has been positive.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Shame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
2 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
2 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
2 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
2 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to comments