'It’s funny people say New Zealand rugby isn’t physical: Ex-England international Shields on being back home
Brad Shields is back home in Wellington and flourishing for the Lions in the NPC. On Saturday he played the entire 80 minutes in the sixth successful defence of the Ranfurly Sheild – a 56-25 thrashing of Counties Manukau.
Shields was even more influential the previous week. On August 27 he helped Wellington defeat Canterbury, featuring six current or former internationals, 36-31 in Christchurch. Four days earlier he made a colossal 24 tackles in the grim 7-0 blunting of Tasman.
Wellington resides at the top of the NPC table with an unblemished 6-0 record. They have won 18 consecutive matches stretching back to August 2022.
“The average age of the game has got younger from when I started playing. That’s a big change,” Shields told RugbyPass.
“The younger guys are confident, keen to learn, and good to be around but you’ve got to drive good standards all the time and help pave the way.”
Shields left New Zealand in 2018 after a storied career with the Hurricanes. He played 103 matches and helped the franchise win their only Super Rugby title in 2016. Between 2015 and 2017 the Hurricanes won more games (42) than any other club.
Overlooked by the All Blacks he went to England qualifying to play internationally through his Essex-born mum and Yorkshireman dad. He was capped eight times but missed selection for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
He played against the All Blacks a year earlier in a Test at Twickenham. England blew a 15-0 lead to lose by one. Sam Underhill was controversially denied a late try. His coach was the polarising Eddie Jones.
“I liked him and Steve Borthwick. Eddie got the best out of me mentally which drove my game to the highest levels it had been,” Shields said.
“He’s a bit obsessive as some people are at the elite level but he was very detailed and straight up. Often, he’d made headlines on purpose to take the spotlight off the boys. I didn’t mind that and besides he’s an entertainer and I think we get a bit stale in rugby sometimes.”
England’s World Cup build-up has been stale. They’ve only won four of their last 12 Tests suffering embarrassing defeats at Twickenham to Argentina (29-30), Fiji (22-30), and France (10-53). Shields believes; however, it would be unwise to write off the English.
“England can be a major threat if they click. If guys like Jack Willis and Ben Earl string games together in the back row they’ll be dangerous. They’ve got experience in the pack with the likes of Dan Cole, Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes. Manu Tuilagi can be a beast in midfield and Freddie Stewart is class under the high ball,” Shields said.
“At the moment, it’s just more competitive across the board. Look at the way Samoa took it Ireland. There are properly half a dozen teams that can realistically win the World Cup.”
Wasps won’t be winning anything anytime soon. On 17 October 2022, the club entered administration, resulting in relegation from the English Premiership and all staff being made redundant.
Between 2018 and 2021, Shields started 48 out of 50 Premiership games alone for Wasps. He departed owed a significant sum from unpaid image rights.
“It was a stressful time, and it was sudden how it all finished. We had some clues in the media that things were bad but the lack of respect from some people at the top was disappointing, and there’s still guys without contracts struggling to get on their feet,” Shields said.
“The rugby side of it was an awesome experience. I made lifelong friends but the way it ended leaves a sour taste.”
A brief spell at Perpignan rejuvenated Shields. He played solidly and enjoyed the large crowds and buzz for the sport in France.
From the humble suburb of Taita, home eventually beckoned. Shields. has brought some Northern Hemisphere grit to the Wellington Lions.
“It’s funny people say New Zealand rugby isn’t physical but in the Tasman game, we attempted 250 tackles.
“The Canterbury game was more your classic Wellington Lions. We put an emphasis on starting strong because we knew Canterbury goes the whole 80.
“Our set piece was under pressure we’ve got some work to do on that, but we scored a couple of ripper tries from nowhere and that is a real Wellington thing.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Who listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
40 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
40 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
39 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
40 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to comments