New Zealand have dropped winger Mark Telea for their upcoming Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash with Ireland on Saturday after breaching team protocol. Telea, who has impressed in France during the tournament, was not considered for selection despite scoring three tries in his two matches.
Leicester Fainga’anuku will take the 26-year-old’s place on the wing, who will be rueing his actions in what could be the biggest week of his career. Reports out of New Zealand claimed that he broke curfew, but All Blacks boss Ian Foster refused to go into the details when pressed on why Telea will not be involved.
“He breached the protocol, nothing major, but enough to keep him out of selection for this week,” said Foster. “I still love him, he trained well, it happens. Look, it is what it is. For us it’s pretty clean-cut, I don’t really want to talk about it any more. We’ve dealt with it as a team and moved on. We believe in what we stand for and that speaks volumes for the team that we make that sort of decision in this sort of week.”
New Zealand outlet Stuff claimed that Telea failed to meet a team-set curfew, as he was out long past the agreed-upon time and left Foster and his coaching staff with little choice but to omit him from the selection process in what could be their final World Cup match.
All Blacks No 8 Ardie Savea explained the squad’s reaction to the decision: “We feel for him, we love him but we’re looking forward to a game this Saturday, so that’s all I can say about it.”
New Zealand supporters could be forgiven for having a sense of Deja vu as it is just over 12 years to the day when Israel Dagg and Cory Jane were disciplined by the New Zealand board for going out and drinking ahead of their 2011 World Cup quarter-final.
However, although Telea’s misdemeanours do not appear to be comparable to the All Blacks pair that had a boozy night out, the standards have clearly been set by the national team that no matter how influential a player is – if they break the rules then they will be punished.
Foster has recalled several of his stars from the final pool stage match against Uruguay. Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett and Scott Barrett have all been recalled after missing the previous 73-0 win, as Sam Cane captains the side from openside flanker.
Ethan de Groot makes a return from his suspension at loosehead prop alongside hooker Codie Taylor and tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax, with Brodie Retallick in the second row and Sam Whitelock on the bench – though Telea missed out altogether despite being one of the most in-form New Zealand players.
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