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Former Blues star links up with Hurricanes as great redemption arc continues
While the Hurricanes had already revealed many of their key signings for next year ahead of the official squad release, they’ve still managed to slip in a few surprises announcements today.
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27-year-old Lolagi Visinia was, as far as anyone could tell, destined to play for the All Blacks from a young age. That never quite eventuated, with the rangey outside back heading offshore at the end of 2016. Visinia returned to New Zealand earlier this year, however, and instantly made an impact for Mitre 10 Cup Championship winners Hawke’s Bay.
Now, Visinia’s professional career is officially back on track, with the former Auckland earning a call-up to the Hurricanes for 2020.
Visinia will join fellow pace-setters Julian Savea, Wes Goosen and Salesi Rayasi in a stacked outside backs contingent that also includes Jordie Barrett and Super Rugby debutant Pepesana Patafilo.
Rayasi was arguably the most dangerous player throughout the Mitre 10 Cup in 2020, and completed the season with 14 tries to his name. To put that in context, the competition’s next top try-scorer, hooker Ash Dixon, nabbed just nine. Rayasi will take the field for Moana Pasifika on Saturday when they take on the Maori All Blacks.
All Blacks half-centurion Savea, meanwhile, also returned to NZ earlier this year. Despite indicating that his preference was to play in the midfield, the 2015 World Cup title winner spent much of the provincial season on the wing and will likely be employed in a similar fashion by the Hurricanes.
Wellington’s Patafilo and Ruben Love, Manawatu’s Brayden Iose, and Bay of Plenty’s Luke Campbell are the only players in the squad who have yet to play Super Rugby.
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Campbell has been brought in to compensate for TJ Perenara’s sabbatical in Japan, which will see the All Black miss the entire Super Rugby season. Jonathan Taumateine and Jamie Booth are the team’s other two halfbacks, though Booth will be sidelined for at least the first half of the season after being stretchered off the field during Manawatu’s provincial campaign.
Taumateine will likely have first shot at the No. 9 jersey and will almost certainly combine with Wellington’s Jackson Garden-Bachop in the halves.
Simon Hickey is the other experienced playmaking option in the squad while Love is a prospect for the future. Waikato’s Fletcher Smith has surprisingly missed out altogether despite receiving nominations for NZ provincial player of the year for 2018 and 2019 after spending the past two seasons with the Hurricanes but failing to nail down a starting role.
The Hurricanes have bolstered their playing stocks leading into the 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa and Super Rugby Trans-Tasman campaign. #SuperRugbyAotearoa #SuperRugbyTransTasman #SuperRugby #Hurricanes https://t.co/fX8GSYXOcC
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 20, 2020
The loose forwards will again be an area of strength for the 2016 Super Rugby champions, with Ardie Savea, Du’Plessis Kirifi and Devan Flanders likely to form a blockbusting combination.
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The Hurricanes kick off their campaign against the Blues in late February.
Hurricanes squad for 2021:
Forwards
Tevita Mafileo
Xavier Numia
Tyrel Lomax
Pouri Rakete-Stones
Alex Fidow
Fraser Armstrong
Dane Coles
Ricky Riccitelli
Asafo Aumua
Isaia Walker-Leawere
Scott Scrafton
Kane Leaupepe
James Blackwell
Liam Mitchell
Ardie Savea
Brayden Iose
Devan Flanders
Du’Plessis Kirifi
Vaea Fifita
Reed Prinsep
Gareth Evans
Backs
Luke Campbell
Jamie Booth
Jonathan Taumateine
Simon Hickey
Jackson Garden-Bachop
Ruben Love
Peter Umaga-Jensen
Ngani Laumape
Vince Aso
Billy Proctor
Danny Toala
Wes Goosen
Jordie Barrett
Salesi Rayasi
Julian Savea
Lolagi Visinia
Pepesana Patafilo
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
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