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'Pretty juicy' - Dombrandt vs Tuisue in battle of the Test hopefuls

By Chris Jones
Getty Images

Harlequins No8 Alex Dombrandt and London Irish opposite number Albert Tuisue know all about international rejection and will use their head-to-head clash tomorrow to continue battling for test rugby recognition.

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Dombrandt has just been crowned Premiership Player of the Month and despite a series of storming performances in club colours he has failed to convince Eddie Jones that he is ready to fill the England Six Nations squad void created by Billy Vunipola’s fourth broken arm.

Uncapped Dombrandt is yet to experience test rugby while Tuisue has played seven times for Fiji having given up a career in the Island’s police force to follow his dream. Despite breaking into the Fiji team under coach John McKee, Tuisue had to deal with the bitter disappointment of failing to make the final 2019 Rugby World Cup squad in Japan. With McKee now having been replaced by former Scotland coach and current Montpellier director of rugby Vern Cotter, the door could now be open for the hard-running ball carrier to earn a recall.

Like Dombrandt, Tuisue knows that impressing in the Premiership is the only way he can move up the rankings and Less Kiss, the London Irish head coach, believes his No8 has all the attributes to impress Cotter when he takes over as Fiji coach in the summer.

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Kiss has seen Tuisue carry the ball 117 times, including 15 during the morale boosting away win at Northampton for an Irish side that is still evolving following the arrival of high profile players including Wallaby test stars Adam Coleman and Sekope Kepu. Irish have just returned from a warm weather training camp near Alicante and now they must try to build on that win over Northampton by subduing Dombrandt and his fellow Quins at the Twickenham Stoop.

Kiss is relishing the clash of the 18stones No8’s and told RugbyPass: “It is going to be a really good battle and Albert floats under the radar for us because he does a lot of the dirty work and carrying. He takes a lot of pressure off the other backrow guys and when we first got Albert over here we thought he had done enough to make the World Cup but he wasn’t selected. That hurt him a bit and he came back to us as a man on a mission and playing in the Premiership has to be good for him going forward.

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Dombrandt Tuisue
O’Brien leaves the field in 2016 (Getty Images)

“Vern (Cotter)is going to see a lot of Albert playing at this level and the great thing about him is he is robust and keeps trucking along. Dombrandt is another beast and he is a good footballer and the battle between them off the base of the scrum is going to be massive. The battle of the back rows will be pretty juicy.

“We are exploring who we are at the moment and Sekope has only been with us for five weeks and that win at Northampton had an impact. You need to go through tough situations and forge something worthy from it an the most pleasing thing was the players fought so hard and to get the victory has to do something for confidence. However, this game can give you a kick in the butt. We trained near Alicante because we didn’t have a getaway pre-season and felt that the most important time to go away was when everyone is here.

“Because we have had to drip-feed new players in has given the season its own character and we had a wobble over the Christmas period but we now have everyone involved.”

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That “everyone” includes Ireland international Sean O’Brien, one of the club’s major summer signings who is still battling to overcome injury. The good news for tenth-placed Irish is that the flanker could be in the mix in a month which makes the second half of the season really significant even if the threat of relegation has been removed due to Saracens’ fall from grace. A fit-again O’Brien allied to the summer move to their new home at the Brentford stadium makes this an exciting time for the club.

Kiss added: “Sean is coming along and has done some full-on contact work and hopefully over the next month we should get some clarity about the timeline. He is getting closer.

“When I heard that Saracens were going to be relegated the alarms bells rang because this game doesn’t give you anything and you wondered if people would take their foot off the accelerator. Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case. I think there is still pressure because you don’t want to come second last in the league.“

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J
Jon 5 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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j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 12 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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