Unlucky Quinn Tupaea resets sights on Under 20 glory
The Chiefs could do with Quinn Tupaea to give some cutting edge to their spluttering midfield.
Instead the Waikato man will be strutting his stuff for the New Zealand Under 20s as they pursue a fourth consecutive Oceania championship over the next 12 days and then, in June, a seventh Junior World Championship crown.
Tupaea, who turns 20 next month, was the form centre of the 2018 Mitre 10 Cup, starting in the No 13 jersey in 10 of his 12 games, crossing for seven tries and cracking the respected Rugby Almanack’s Mitre 10 Cup Form XV. He was most unlucky to miss out on a full Super Rugby contract, especially given the departure of Charlie Ngatai from the Chiefs. He and Anton Lienert-Brown could, in time, have made a fluent combination, but instead the Chiefs opted for the physical Aucklander Tumua Manu.
Whilst disappointed, Tupaea was still ensconced in the Chiefs training environment on an ITC (interim training contract), but his 2019 match-play has been limited to one outing for his Hamilton Old Boys club, and a handful for the Chiefs Under 20s and Development teams.
“There was some stuff going on behind the scenes. I couldn’t get a dispensation for a contract because of my age, but we came to a deal with the Chiefs and I had an ITC,” says Tupaea, the 2017 NZ Schools captain, whose First XV rugby was for Hamilton BHS.
Now Tupaea is one of no less than seven in this squad for Oceania who can suit up in the midfield, a situation which will surely give coaches Craig Philpott and David Hill some headaches.
“This was really the team I wanted to make this season and was striving for,” says Tupaea. He was whistled up late as injury cover at last year’s World Rugby Under 20 Championship in France, but never took the field.
“There’s some good backs in there. We’re stacked in the midfield department and with a couple of the Super Rugby boys to come back,” says Tupaea.
How’s this for the New Zealand Under 20s midfield options: Tupaea, former All Blacks Sevens rep Scott Gregory, just back from injury, 2018 NZ Schools skipper Isaiah Punivai, vice-captain Dallas McLeod, Chay Fihaki, Lalomilo Lalomilo and Danny Toala, the latter whom has already sat on the Hurricanes bench. Not all will feature in the Nos 12 or 13 jerseys in the Oceania tournament.
Then, to possibly return are four Super Rugby men in Caleb Clarke, Billy Proctor, Etene Nanai-Seturo and Leicester Faingaanuku. The latter hurt his ankle recently and so is rehabbing with the Crusaders, but Nanai-Seturo and Proctor are strong chances to join the squad before they head to Argentina in a few weeks.
Philpott is open-minded about which jersey Tupaea might fill in Australia for the Oceania event.
‘He’s probably been a 12 through school and then played 13 for Waikato in Mitre 10 Cup and was very impressive. He’ll get game time in both positions in Australia. Proctor and Gregory give us good depth in the midfield, while Dallas McLeod is our vice-captain. There’s some interesting competition there,” says Philpott.
Nanai-Seturo scored four tries in his first four starts for the Chiefs, but we are yet to see the best of him at that level, as the Chiefs were 0-4 and far from clinical early in their season. He was on the wing and that is likely where the New Zealand Under 20s will use him, when, and if, he returns to the fold. Gregory can do a job at wing and fullback. Punivai will play on the wing in Australia. Fihaki, a 2018 NZ Schools rep, is a goalkicking No 12 but Philpott indicated he could be used on the wing. With no Faingaanuku at this stage, there is no specialist wing in the squad.
Tupaea will seek to press his case, make the plane to Argentina and then launch into what he hopes will be another fruitful Mitre 10 Cup campaign with the Mooloos.
Do all that, and surely this time his reward will be a full Super Rugby contract.
2019 Rugby World Cup stadium guide – Fukuoka Stadium:
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?
11 Go to comments