All Blacks

Elliot spent two years at Nevers before signing for the Haut-Garonnais club last year. The forward very quickly adapted to the environment at his new club, scoring six tries to date, including a hat-trick against Soyaux-Angoulême.

The club wrote on their website: “Currently the best scorer of the professional team, our hooker is therefore carrying his contract until 2023!”

A former Waikato Chiefs, Elliot won 7 caps for the All Blacks, but left New Zealand in 2017 to join Oyonnax, after facing the British and Irish Lions during their tour of New Zealand.

The Blues will kickstart their Super Rugby Trans-Tasman campaign against the Rebels in Melbourne next Saturday, but whether Clarke partakes in that fixture, or in the competition as a whole, remains to be seen.

Speaking to Stuff last week, the 22-year-old wing said he will spend the coming days deciding whether it’s in his best interests to play the Australian franchises over the next month-and-a-bit, or push for a place in the All Blacks Sevens squad to chase an Olympic gold medal in Japan.

Beauden Barrett, the two-time World Rugby player of the year who has been the All Blacks No 15 for the past two years, told Stuff he wants to be seen as a “specialist No 10” and is driven by the thought of returning to New Zealand and improving in his preferred jersey.

“Absolutely,” Barrett said from Japan, where he is relishing time in the Suntory No 10 jersey in the fast-improving Top League competition.

“I've always wanted to be team first [but] I guess this 10-15 thing has been a system selection.

The Welsh Rugby Union has confirmed its Autumn series with games against New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji and Australia.

The All Blacks fixture on October 30th is outside World Rugby's official international window, so Wales could be without players who play their domestic rugby in another country unless an agreement can be reached.

It is the All Blacks first trip to Cardiff since 2017 with the hosts looking to end a 68-year winless run against New Zealand.

Next week's New Zealand Rugby AGM will vote on whether to proceed with the proposed $460 million deal which would give Silver Lake a 15 percent stake in the game.

But David Moffett, who was chief executive of New Zealand Rugby between 1996 and 2000, struggles to see where the value for Silver Lake is.

The incident, described as savage and appalling, happened in 2019, in a car, when Guildford was extremely intoxicated.

“The brutality and considerable force behind the blow is illustrated by the nature of the injuries caused to the victim,” Justice Paul Davison QC wrote in a decision released after an appeal in the High Court at Hamilton.

“It was clearly serious offending, and the fact that it took place in the context of the appellant being severely intoxicated by alcohol is no excuse whatsoever.”

Speaking on Sky’s The Breakdown show on Monday evening, Moana Pasifika general manager Kevin Senio said that 80 per cent of the Moana Pasifika squad would either be already playing for a Pacific Islands nations such as Samoa or Tonga, or on that pathway.

That would invariably strengthen the test squad of the Pacific Island nations, but it also means that eight players out of their squad of 38 will be available for the All Blacks, Australia, or any other test nation.

“What we've done is use the New Zealand model and flicked it on its head,” Senio said.

The 34-year-old has played 74 Tests since his debut in 2012 and more than 120 games for the Hurricanes.

He said he was never going to play for another Super Rugby team and is looking forward to trying to trying to extend his All Blacks career.

"I'm so grateful to be playing the game I love, and grateful for the opportunity to continue with the Hurricanes and New Zealand Rugby. The Hurricanes have been loyal to me, I'm a 'one club' man, so to continue my career with them will be awesome.

He can’t say he doesn’t know what’s coming. It’s inevitable that fit young players who march to work each weekend will return with cracked bones, torn tendons and concussions.

From there it’s a matter of determining how long it will take to patch them up. Crusaders centre Jack Goodhue, whose demeanour and defence have been an asset to the All Blacks midfield since 2018, won’t play again this year.

Neither will talented Highlanders halfback Folau Fakatava. He, like Goodhue, has a serious knee injury and his hopes of making his All Blacks debut in 2021 have evaporated.

Cane is also expected to miss most of the All Blacks’ fixtures in 2021 after tearing the tendon in his right pectoral.

The 29-year-old loose forward could be sidelined for four to six months after suffering the injury in the Chiefs’ win over the Blues on March 27, but he has overcome the first hurdle in his recovery.

From his hospital bed, Cane said he would be “coming back stronger” after also having some shoulder issues fixed.