{"id":228695,"date":"2025-07-01T07:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T07:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228695\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T07:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T07:23:10","slug":"fifth-all-black-confirmed-to-face-bi-lions-along-with-scott-robertson-snub-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228695\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth All Black confirmed to face B&I Lions along with Scott Robertson snub : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les Kiss\u2019 AUNZ Invitational XV squad to take on the British and Irish Lions has been further boosted by another All Blacks star.<\/b><\/p>\n

Shannon Frizell, Shaun Stevenson, David Havili and Folau Fakatava were all confirmed as the first four additions to the squad, but two further inclusions have been announced for the clash at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday, July 12.<\/p>\n

Two more New Zealanders added<\/p>\n

Former All Blacks<\/a> centre Ngani Laumape<\/a> and rising star prop Joshua Fusitu\u2019a have taken the confirmed members of Kiss\u2019 team to six.<\/p>\n

It is the first time that a combined Australia-New Zealand team will face off against the B&I Lions<\/a> since 1989 in what will be the famous touring team\u2019s final match before the Test series against the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

32-year-old Laumape has performed at the elite level in two codes, having made the switch to rugby union after starting his career in league. He went on to score eight tries in 15 Tests for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

The experienced centre has scored 59 tries in 134 games for the Hurricanes, Stade Francais and Kobelco Steelers, and has signed with Moana Pasifika for the next two years.<\/p>\n

All Blacks great: The Jordie Barrett flaw that means Rieko Ioane has to be dropped<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eddie Jones: \u2018Stark reality\u2019 of Perth victory laid bare as ex-Wallabies boss \u2018astounded\u2019 by criticism of player who \u2018epitomised the Lions spirit\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It will be the second time that Laumape gets the opportunity to take on the tourists, having played against the Lions after making his debut for the All Blacks against the side in 2017 playing Test one and two.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 24-year-old Blues prop Fusitu\u2019a enjoyed a standout season for the Aucklanders but it wasn\u2019t enough to earn a call-up to Scott Robertson\u2019s All Blacks squad for the Test series against France.<\/p>\n

To date, he has played 37 games for the Blues and was a member of the squad that lifted the Super Rugby Pacific trophy in 2024. A 118-kilogram prop, Fusitu\u2019a is regarded as an All Black of the future and was recently named the Blues\u2019 2025 Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

The remainder of the AUNZ Invitational XV squad will be announced in due course with Joe Schmidt expected to release several Wallabies to Kiss\u2019 team for the fixture<\/p>\n

Kiss leads a staff that includes former All Blacks mentor Ian Foster as well as Simon Cron and Zane Hilton from the Western Force and Queensland Reds respectively.<\/p>\n

The AUNZ squad will assemble in Adelaide this weekend to begin preparations for the highly-anticipated fixture.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>British and Irish Lions team: Winners and losers as \u2018combinations emerge\u2019 but Marcus Smith already one of two players \u2018under pressure\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Les Kiss\u2019 AUNZ Invitational XV squad to take on the British and Irish Lions has been further boosted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[186,5313,225,522,12,71637,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-ngani-laumape","14":"tag-rugby","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114776781847337164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}