'We've got to be careful': Former All Black's warning for Quinn Tupaea
All Blacks midfielder Quinn Tupaea was a shock selection on the left wing for the Chiefs in last Friday’s victory over the Waratahs. With so many injured outside backs in the squad, however, it was a case of ‘needs must’ according to the head coach.
“He’s a midfielder; he’s an All Blacks 12,” Clayton McMillan said after the match. “So we want to get him back in there, we just didn’t have the cattle this week.
“We’ve got four, five of our outside backs either invalided or just couldn’t make the trip. We’ll just check out the bodies tonight and tomorrow and we’ll see where we land. We’ve only got a squad of 27 here so it doesn’t leave us much breathing space.”
Outside backs Shaun Stevenson, Emoni Narawa, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Kaleb Trask and Josh Ioane were all on the injury list heading into the game. While Alex Nankivell had featured on both wings earlier in the season, McMillan opted to use Nankivell at outside centre with Rameka Poihipi given the No 12 jersey for the match, forcing Tupaea onto the left wing.
With Poihipi and Tupaea both specialist second five-eighths, shifting Tupaea to the wing likely generated the least disruption for the side and meant only one player had to feature out of position.
Out of position or not, however, Tupaea had a storming match in the No 11 jersey, racking up two tries and 94 metres with the ball in hand. Come the end of the game, Tupaea was named player of the match.
Despite his impressive performance on the left wing, however, former All Black James Parsons has quelled any suggestions that the 22-year-old should be looking to clock up minutes in that role in order to increase his value to national selectors.
While the All Blacks selected a number of squad members last year who were capable of playing in more than one position, that rarely eventuated, with players instead generally spending the entirety of the campaign specialising in one role. In fact, Luke Jacobson, Ardie Savea, Rieko Ioane and Damian McKenzie were the only players to feature across multiple positions (excluding locks, flankers and wingers who were used in both jerseys within their positions).
“I think we’ve got to be careful,” Parsons said on the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod. “We’ve seen it over the last sort of end-of-year tour. [The All Blacks selected] specialist guys [to] focus on that one position.
“They have the ability [to cover multiple positions] – like we’ve seen with Nankivell and now Quinn Tupaea – but I think he just needs to knuckle down early in his international career, just focus on that 12, potentially 13 role, do that really well.”
“Look, if there’s a drastic number of injuries and he has to slip in there then yes, but I don’t think it’ll be coming into the selectors’ minds to put him on the wing. As we’ve seen, it’s pretty hard to pick the squad based on the back three at the moment so I don’t know if he’s quite made the grade for that combo just yet.”
Tupaea is still only in his third season with the Chiefs (somewhat ironically, he was named as an outside back in 2020 despite not playing any matches on the wing) and despite taking the step up to test rugby last season, he very much remains a work in development.
Over on the Chiefs’ other wing on Friday night, Jonah Lowe was also in scintillating form, touching down for four tries. Parsons’ co-panellist on the show, Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall, said that while that kind of impact is always going to attract some attention from the national selectors, Lowe will need to string together some consistent performances before he can upset the apple cart.
“There’s just so much competition in the winger ranks at the moment,” he said. “Jonah Lowe’s been in and around that New Zealand Maori environment as well. He’s played well there and he’s played for Hawke’s Bay in their resurgence, being able to win championships and win games in that competition. But I think it’s just being able to play more consistently and being able to get more games under his belt.
“You look at the likes of Leicester Fainga’anuku … This is is his second year where he’s been playing those kinds of performances like [Lowe] has had in the weekend. But he’s still young. I can imagine there’s still things that he wants to work on in his game but any time you can score four tries, it gets the selectors looking.”
“I think Jonah has actually been playing really well in terms of attack and D,” added Parsons, “but I suppose the one area we know [you are tested] at international level would be that aerial game and being able to win those aerial battles, whether it be from a contestable from the opposition or you chasing a contestable. If we can see more of that in his game then I think he will become a real option.”
Lowe, despite being arguably the Chiefs’ top winger over the past two seasons, has struggled with injuries, limiting him to eight appearances in 2021 and just five to date this season. While he’ll likely be retained on the wing in the Chiefs’ upcoming match with the Reds, Tupaea will likely find himself back in the midfield unless the team’s other outside backs remain crook.
Comments on RugbyPass
An 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!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 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 commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments