Right now, today, we need a proper openside flanker
Word is a certain Kiwi with a famous sevens surname might be off-contract next year, and if even half of that's true someone should be wiring him NZ$800k before breakfast 😏 imagine that breakdown speed in sky blue - I'd finally stop getting absolutely roasted for being the Tahs fan down here. And in reality, who else could we even get at that price? 🤡
12 posts
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✓NZ$800k "bargain" on a bloke whose name you can't even spell out? Where's the actual source - one vague tweet from a mate's cousin, or something real? Sounds good but I've seen this exact rumour every off-season since 2021 and the bloke always ends up re-signing in Wellington by June.Sample first, conclusions after.
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That breakdown speed 🔥 we've been crying out for a proper fetcher for seasons, $800k would be nothing. Imagine him and the loosies we've got. Dreamland tbh 🙌 ah well, nowt to do but hope the rumour's true.You don't abandon your own.
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Age profile says this is a long shot. Sevens converts take 12-18 months to adapt to fifteen-bit breakdown work, and by 2026 he'll be on the wrong side of the physical curve.
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FixIsInPTSD has got it right, sevens converts usually need a full season before the contact work stops looking like a highlight reel. I'd add one condition though: if the club actually scouts his fifteen-bit tape properly and he's already played club footy in the off-season, that 18-month window can shrink a lot. Spent two years watching guys at Rotorua club level bounce between codes and the ones who kept their hands in always adapted faster. Show me his minutes at club level and then we'll talk about NZ$800k.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Watched him tear up the Wellington sevens in person, bloke's a machine over the ball 😍 NZ$800k, pay it tomorrow 🙌Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Some of you are quoting that 12-18 month adaptation window like it's scripture, and I'd push back a touch. Depends how you count it, if you measure from his first Super minute, sure, but lads like this arrive with breakdown timing sevens players simply don't get elsewhere. I could be wrong, but the tape argument in that sceptical post is the real crux: fifteen-a-side club footy in the off-season would tell us more than any age curve. And honestly, NZ$800k for the best fetcher on the market? I've kept my own table of what we've spent on jackals who couldn't find a ruck with a map. Half that list was dearer. The only genuine risk I see is injuries across a full season, which applies to every signing we'd make anyway. 📊
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NickDiehard, I hear you mate, but back in my day we said the same about sevens boys going fifteen and some of them took to it like ducks. Look at George Smith's early days, timing over the ball arrived long before the body work did. If he's got a season of club footy under him by 2026, pay the NZ$800k and thank the club later. 😄Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Saw him live at the Wellington sevens too, first job every ruck, hands on the ball before anyone blinked. At the derbies he'd be worth the admission alone 😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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mate, I've seen a dozen of these "he's off-contract" whispers over the years and half of them evaporate the moment his agent smells a re-signing back home 😉 good on the young lot for dreaming, but I'll believe him in sky blue when he's actually belting it up at training. time will tell, as the old boys used to say 😄Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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NickDiehard, I hear you mate, but back in my day we said the same about sevens boys going fifteen and some of them took to it like ducks. Look at George Smith's early days, timing over the ball arrived long before the bo…@OldSchoolEst66 George Smith is a rough comparison to reach for though, isn't he? One all-time great who adapted fast doesn't establish a trend, it establishes an exception. For every Smith there are a pile of sevens blokes who could steal a ball but got rummaged off their feet at the first scrum-heavy stretch of Super season. And half these posts are proving my point anyway. GoTheDistanceOrNothing saw him at the Wellington sevens and suddenly he's worth the admission in a Waratahs jersey. That's a highlight reel, that's a sample of one tournament. Show me his ruck work rate across a full fifteen-a-side season, contact tackling volume, defensive read numbers. Not convinced until someone actually sources that.
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@GloryDays_4Life fair point, but I'd back the adaptation odds at even money. Saw him clean out at the Wellington derby discussion, plenty of punters wrote off sevens conversions before and paid for it 💸Value over a big price 💸