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Maori All Blacks MVP's roadblock to earning higher honours
While one Chiefs midfielder was making his debut for the All Blacks on Saturday, it was another’s performance in the curtain-raiser match between the Maori All Blacks and Manu Samoa that perhaps best advanced his case on the night.
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Quinn Tupaea was remarkably solid in New Zealand’s 102-0 win over Tonga, eagerly taking on the defensive line and making plenty of good decisions with the ball in hand.
Hours earlier, however, it was 24-year-old Alex Nankivell that was attracting all the attention for his devastating running in the Maori All Blacks’ 38-21 victory.
While Nankivell didn’t finish the game with any points to his name, he was a constant threat to the Samoan defence, seemingly breaking through the line at will and feeding his outside backs.
By the end of the match, he’d managed four clean breaks and nine defenders beaten, clocking up over 100 run metres in the process. His night came to a premature end, however, when he took a shoulder to the head after slipping into a Samoan tackle.
RugbyPass understands that Nankivell was suffering from concussion symptoms after the game and failed an HIA, however the midfielder is expected to be fit to feature for Tasman in the upcoming NPC.
Nankivell largely played second-fiddle to All Blacks Tupaea and Anton Lienert-Brown at the Chiefs this year but still managed seven starts for the Super Rugby Aotearoa finalists throughout the season.
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Speaking after the match, Maori All Blacks coach Clayton McMillan – who was head coach of the Chiefs this year but will step into an assistant role in 2022 – issued a challenge to the young midfielder for the seasons ahead.
“He’s Mr Consistent. He had some good moments out there tonight, probably one that he’d probably care not to remember but look, he’s a consistent player, got plenty of opportunity, front-foot ball today to showcase his ability,” McMillan said.
“His challenge, if he wants to get to higher honours, I reckon, is to push his head above the other two blokes at the Chiefs who are going to be featuring in the game after this. There are some challenges there but he’s making improvements.”
Could the All Blacks' dual-playmaker system be improved by this man's inclusion in the starting XV? #AllBlacks #NZLvFIJ https://t.co/ACDDgLaL5L
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 6, 2021
Nankivell’s Maori All Blacks teammate Bryn Hall commended the 24-year-old’s performance on the park was also full of praise for his off-field leadership over the past three weeks.
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“He was outstanding on the weekend, I thought his attacking ability, breaking the line, was outstanding,” Hall said on the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod. “He showed glimpses of that in the first match – the weather probably dictated that a little bit, not being able to play a running brand of footy. But it was great conditions at Mount Smart and he was in full-swing and breaking lines and putting people away.
“I think off the field as well, his leadership was massive for us. We had a couple of debutants come into the fold and he took a real leadership role within the week and it was a great two weeks for Nank – hopefully he’s not injured.
“Obviously it’s a great honour to be able to play for the Maori All Blacks,” Hall said earlier in the episode, “but the higher level, playing for the All Blacks, is probably a lot of guys’ ambitions in our team. If there’s injuries, I think Alex has been probably the most valuable player in our team for the last two weeks.”
Former All Blacks hooker James Parsons was also full of praise for the Tasman Mako midfielder.
“I don’t know him too much as an individual but the way he plays for the Chiefs when he comes in there, the same with Tasman and with the Maori All Blacks, he just comes across as such a selfless player,” he said. “He’s the sort of guy that’s team-first 24/7 and it’s all about setting up others. Everything he does, he never pushes the boundary to take himself into the spotlight of going for the glory. He’s always looking for a support player.”
While the All Blacks suffered a hit to their midfield stocks before the first match of their July schedule had even kicked off, with Braydon Ennor requiring an appendectomy, no replacement was named – but Nankivell is likely competing with Leicester Fainga’anuku and Peter Umaga-Jensen to be the next cab off the ranks, should the All Blacks decide they need an extra body in camp.
The Maori All Blacks have finished their campaign for the year after recording back-to-back wins over Samoa while the All Blacks have two games remaining in July, both against Fiji, with 11 more tests scheduled for the remainder of the year.
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 …
27 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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?
11 Go to comments