Du'Plessis Kirifi

Ethan Blackadder injured his calf, uh, during the match warm-up last week and is replaced by Jamie Hanna and Asafo Aumua and Anton Segner both failed head injury assessments after clashes and have a mandatory twelve-day minimum stand-down period.

George Bell and Du'Plessis Kirifi take their place.

Meanwhile, Wallabies superstar Joseph Akuzo Sualili wants, uh, Mark Nawaqanituwase [chuckles] on the spring tour.

I'm sorry about that pronunciation.

Both the Wallabies and the All Blacks starting fifteens will look quite different in Sydney this weekend.

The All Blacks have added Du'Plessis Kirifi, George Bell, Jamie Hanna, and Anton Lienert-Brown to their squad to cover the absences of Mo'unga, Seeto, Carter, and Blackadder.

Uh, Les Kiss is looking for a new midfield as well.

Petai's done an ankle.

What an intro.

Um, and hey, guess what? Du'Plessis Kirifi has been called up, so all is good in-

[laughs] I know

...

the hurricane stands as well.

Yeah, exactly.

Isn't that ironic? It was a, it was a week ago Dave Rennie was here in studio, and he, he outlined why, uh, Du'Plessis Kirifi had, had been omitted and, and, and here we are.

He's on the plane today, so it's funny how rugby works, isn't it?

Or they're of, all from all over the place

... there's James O'Reilly, there was Duplessis Kirifi-

Mm

...

What on earth has happened to Wellington? Because you look at the affiliations of the Hurricanes, and yes, I know not everyone was playing, but there were still some big name players in there.

Obviously their skipper the biggest of them all in Du'Plessis Kirifi.

For them to fall away from, as you say, where they were two years ago, where they were with the Hurricanes, to now be where they are now, is it concerning or is that just a reflection of where this NPC season was at?

Yeah.

Like, I think, I still think the All Blacks, I saw their team that they announced today.

I still think they're sleeping on someone like, uh, Duplessis Kirifi, faster out of the ruck.

Mate, 100.

Yeah, I know they've got, um, uh, Segna there, but he's still not, like, you know, as mobile as one of the, as, as a Fraser McReight.

I think they've really fucked up with Nel and Malherw.

Yeah.

I reckon they've fucked up with no Duplessis Kirifi.

Yeah.

Um, what are you expecting? Any, any surprises?

Well, I know I keep on harping on about Du'Plessis Kirifi, but I think I'm gonna keep this one short and say they are missing leadership, so why not get the guy who captained them to a 55-point win in the Super Rugby final?

[laughs]

However, however, what about, uh, Billy Proctor's coming back from injury.

We were talking about the wish list, the Christmas wish list for... for the Warriors and maybe an early Christmas wish list for rugby fans who they might like to see on the end of year tour.

Here's one from Kenny T. Warriors should sign Kirifi as a middle forward and Dallas McLeod as a centre.

I think Dallas McLeod's off the market.

He's heading off overseas.