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Weber's successor: Cortez Ratima 'ready to take over the team'
Brad Weber’s Chiefs legacy extends beyond the field, the co-captain has represented the best of Chiefs mana in the sheds and community. However, France is calling for the 32-year-old, and Weber has answered. His departure leaves the No 9 jersey in the hands of the most accurate halfback in the competition, Cortez Ratima.
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The young apprentice has spent two seasons learning the tricks of the trade from one of New Zealand’s finest, an All Blacks XV call-up in his debut Super Rugby season evidence of his raw talent.
Weber is not done yet though, despite a close call in the quarter-final against the Reds. Now in the knockout stages, any game could be the veteran’s last. The Reds did their best to put a premature end to the top seed’s campaign, but unlike the sides’ regular season match, the Chiefs managed to deliver the final blow.
“When I come off the field on the weekend and we’re down by a point I was thinking geez, surely not, surely I don’t go out like this,” Weber told SENZ’s The Run Home with Kirst & Beav.
“We were in a similar situation in New Plymouth where guys started going themselves trying to win it individually rather than sticking to the game plan which we know has been working for us all season.
“So that was the main message, to just keep trusting that we’ve got the ability and the shape to eventually break them and score.”
Leaving the park at the 61-minute mark, it was Ratima’s time to bring the win home. Weber was unsure if the substitution would be his last in Hamilton, or the final time Ratima would have to play second fiddle.
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The game hung in the balance and while reduced to cheering from the sideline, Weber couldn’t help but reflect on his journey and the young bucks snapping at his ankles.
“I start thinking about how good my life has been these last 10 years here with all these guys and it’s sad it all has to end.
“But I think it’s the right time to move on. Cortez (Ratima) and Xavier (Roe) are ready to take over the team full-time so it’s time for those boys to take over and talk about moving on.”
A shoulder injury ruled Ratima out of Super Rugby Aotearoa Under 20s in 2021, but the Waikato local seamlessly slotted into the premier squad when an injury sidelined Xaver Roe.
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Prior to that, a call from the Crusaders gave Ratima a choice to make. The youngster opted to represent his people and take up an opportunity with the Chiefs.
That decision has been rewarded and 2024 will likely bring with it a promotion to the starting XV. In the meantime, a Super Rugby Pacific title beckons and another All Blacks XV selection could well be confirmed on Sunday when the team is announced.
Comments on RugbyPass
Kok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
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