All Time Blues 1st XV Team

So every year we have new players come through High School Top 200 and we have some real stand out players some real once in a life time kind of players. So what I do is I update every year “My All Time Region Team”. These are players that I personally think they have been the best in the Region over the past 5 years of High School players. I select what I think the best were and make a All Time team and combining them all together. Now I have chosen players that I think had great 1st XV careers and whatever they did after doesn’t have any kind of effect on these teams. I am selecting from the years that High School Top 200 has been running from 2013-2017 so dont ask me about Jonah Lomu or Ben Atiga or Jeff Wilson because they were not High School Top 200 Ranked players.

As you can imagine choosing an All time Blues Team would be really hard and trying to include all the best is hard to do and its not about having a player from every Province represented it’s about how well they did in their career as 1st XV players. There are a lot of school’s that I missed out and even some big time schools as well like Kelston BHS players and De La Salle College players along with Westlake BHS players too, but that’s just how I saw it when picking this team. Just to speak on a couple of players like Michael Tamoaieta, one of the best running Props in 1st XV and he was so mobile as well and had the ball skills to carry on play. AJ Mua is a player that I thought would make a great Hooker and I think he should have played that position. His power and speed and drive around the field was at 100 every single game. Takaji Young-Yen was kid I saw get scrummed into the locker room as a Year 11 Prop in a St Kentigern College game and then as a Year 12 crush the same Prop that did him dirty just one year after. His growth over just one season made him a top NZSS Prop and to add his running game fitness and speed to it I thought was huge for Kings College.

I dont think you could go wrong with the Locks from MAGS because Sam Slade, Waimana and Josh all got it done on the field. They were all 6’5 and up and they all played like loose forwards and added some real different dynamics to the team and not to mention their dominance in the line outs. Dalton Papalii I always knew was going to make something of himself in 1st XV because as a Year 11 players he played for the team and did his role and his humility was his strongest point for me. It looked like he just took everything he was taught and in Year 13 just took over the game week after week. Now this other Papalii is one of the biggest regrets I had because I should have had him on the Rankings but because he was already a signed Warrior player and I wasn’t so sure it would be fair but that was my mistake. Isaiah Papalii should have been my No.1 player in the country when he was at school because he was the best we had hands down and without him MAGS would have not won that National Title. Akira Ioane to me was better then Reiko at school if you were to put their 1st XV careers up against each other. To me Akira made a bigger impact on the team with his breaks and huge runs that really did just open it up for everyone else to play their game. It was like Grammar would get stuck and the call for Akira to do something he would get the ball fend someone in the face, bump off the next guy, step off his right foot and with a tackler being dragged, he would off load the ball on the way down that would lead to a try. Sam Nock was one of my No.1 players on the Rankings and I dont think I saw him have a bad game as a Year 13 and he was just above everyone on an IQ level when controlling a game. Carlos came after Sam but put his spin on the position and played it at speed and threatened a run every time he touched the ball.

I dont think the 1st 5/8’s were that hard to choose I was always a fan of Ciarahn and how he worked a game plan and he just did everything right. He was the definition of a “Game Manager” and he got everyone involved to show what they could offer the team. Harry on the other hand took longer to get to the 1st 5/8 position because of other players that were older but I thought he should have been there as a Year 12 and Year 13 player. Harry’s aggressiveness is what I liked when he got the ball cause he could break tackles as a 1st 5/8 cause he was so big. Harry tackled as well which was great to see all the time from a 1st 5/8 because a lot of them either dont like that sort of contact or they just find it hard to tackle. TJ and Bailyn are two of the best defenders I have seen in 1st Xv Rugby in any position. They just held there own every game no matter who it was on the other side. Both players defended like they could cover 3 players on their own and sometime they did they were so good. Their offencive games were kind of different because even though both were good runners and crash kind of guys sometimes, TJ had this awesome short kicking game that he would use and get set up so many tries for his wingers. I dont think you could go past the Back 3 I have selected with Caleb, Reiko and Etene all Super Stars while at school and they all just gave us something new every time we watched them play. I put in Shaun Stevenson who I thought was also one of those guys that just opened up games whenever touched the ball and with him he would make a 40m,50m,60m break and then run back like nothing happened even when it ended in a try.

My bench was also a hard one to lock down because I left off so many good players, Romero was a player that the NZSS missed out on big time I think because he led a team to the semi’s and in some way should have won it but that team he had so talented and he shined the whole year. Ezekiel one of those Props that was so fit and fast and he just Mongrel-ed his way around to every ruck just cleaning dudes out. Damon was also on that list of Sacred Heart Props that could just run like anything. Mitchell Karpic was just a shut down Open Side and I thought he was one of the best in his year at Kings College.

1. Michael Tamoaieta (Sacred Heart College)
2. AJ Mua (Kings College)
3. Takaji Young-Yen (King’s College)
4. Josh Goodhue (MAGS)
5. Waimana Reidlinger-Kapa (MAGS)
6. Dalton Papalii (St Kentigerns College)
7. Isaiah Papalii (MAGS)
8. Akira Ioane (Auckland GS)
9. Sam Nock (St. Kentigern College) (C)
10. Harry Plummer (St Peters College)
11. Caleb Clarke (MAGS)
12. TJ Faiane (St. Kentigern College) (VC)
13. Bailyn Sullivan (King College)
14. Reiko Ioane (Auckland GS)
15. Etene Nanai (St Kentigern College)
16. Romero Tagi (St Peters College)
17. Ezekiel Lindenmuth (MAGS)
18. Damon Abraham (Sacred Heart College)
19. Samuel Slade (MAGS)
20. Mitchell Karpic (Kings College)
21. Carlos Price (St Kentigern College)
22. Ciarahn Matoe (Kings College)
23. Shaun Stevenson (Auckland GS)