Blues to Apia, Tuipulotu absent

Blues to host Super Rugby match in Samoa, Patrick Tuipulotu absent


Phil Walter

Patrick Tuipulotu returned home from the All Blacks' northern hemisphere tour a week early.

All Blacks lock Patrick Tuipulotu will reportedly not attend training with the Blues, because of an 'ongoing personal matter'.

Tuipulotu was expected to report for duty with the Blues as All Blacks return to their respective Super Rugby franchises, but NZME said that he would not be present.

The 24-year-old was part of the All Blacks' northern hemisphere touring squad last November and started the first game of the tour, the 40-29 defeat against Ireland in Chicago.

Tuipulotu has been serving the 12-week stand-down period All Blacks must adhere to following the conclusion of the tour, despite returning to New Zealand a week early with the injured Ben Smith and Sam Cane.

The Blues lock also started in the 68-10 win over Italy in Rome, but he left the squad before the last tour game against France.

Steve Hansen said at the time that Tuipulotu had gone home early for 'personal reasons' and New Zealand's Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol told NZME that he wouldn't be present when the Blues begin pre-season training next week.

Super Rugby in Samoa

Meanwhile, the Blues are set to host a Super Rugby match in Samoa.

Apia is expected to be the venue for their game with Reds on June 2.

The proposed fixture is a collaboration with the Samoan government, who backed Joseph Parker in his successful WBO world title fight victory over Andy Ruiz last December.

The Blues confirmed a joint announcement with Samoan Prime Minister and chairman of the Samoan Rugby Union, Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, would be held in Mangere on Monday.

 hope he can solve that "personal matter" (if it can be solved),... but seems that Tuipulotu is going to miss the start of the season,.... this would be a huge blow for the Blues,... their lock stock is limited and inexperinced, apart from Tu’ipulotu they have:

Gerard Cowley-Tuioti , Josh Goodhue , Brandon Nansen , Scott Scrafton, Jimmy Tupou

the only one with SR experience is Tupou with 37 caps but only 6 starting
Any of the loose trio of A. Ioane, J.Kaino and S. Luatua can play in the second row, which means that one of them will very probably have to play there,... the most logical would be to play with Luatua (the biggest of the loose trio) alongside Tupou (the most experienced lock),.... but Luatua is 1.96m.-115kg. while Tupou is 1.96m.-109kg. (according to the Blues site),... which is a little bit small for a SR second row,... and an inexperience palyer has to be the back up from the bench

If finally Tuipulotu cannot play the second row seems weak,... which adds to the absence of SBW still recovering from his achiles injury (he says that he's going to return by early April but other reports delay it to May),... SBW's absence leaves a feeble 10-12 pair with West and Francis (as last year),... so what IMO was the strongest NZ team on paper could be struggling again

very bad news for the Blues fans,...

I had the Blues down as one of the big improvers this season but the loss of Patrick T uipolotu in the pack and Sonny Bill in the backline makes me think they'll be their disappointing selves this season.
Sorry Cloudy.
I think the Ioane brothers will be two of the shining lights but not even their power and skill can make up for the loss of Tuipolotu and SBW.

 Looks like Tuipolotu's early return from the tour wasn't so much because of "personal reasons" and more because of a failed drug test.

 Sounds like the worst case scenario is a two year ban - really bad for his career & the Blues and to some extent the ABs. However, this is far from over & as the article says he may have been naive. 
The "personal" issue has some credibility in my eyes as we sometimes forget that most of these players are still kids & they h ave lifes normal problems just like the rest of us.