{"id":640198,"date":"2025-12-18T12:26:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/640198\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T12:26:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:26:20","slug":"rieko-ioane-leinster-switch-sparks-new-all-blacks-sabbatical-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/640198\/","title":{"rendered":"Rieko Ioane Leinster switch sparks new All Blacks sabbatical idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blues boss Vern Cotter would be \u201copen\u201d to bringing in a player from Europe when they lose their stars to a six-month sabbatical.<\/b><\/p>\n

Everything in New Zealand is geared towards the All Blacks, which means their franchises sometimes have to make compromises in order to keep their prized assets.<\/p>\n

This time it is the Blues<\/a> who have been hit with Rieko Ioane<\/a> missing the 2026 Super Rugby season after signing a financially lucrative short-term deal with Leinster.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ioane has followed the Hurricanes\u2019 Jordie Barrett, who made a big impression during the 2024\/25 northern hemisphere season, in joining the Irish province for six months.<\/p>\n

These sabbaticals are written into the All Blacks<\/a> players\u2019 contracts and are a way of preventing their top talents from agreeing long-term deals abroad.<\/p>\n

The Blues\u2019 Ioane replacement<\/p>\n

Despite the blow of losing the 28-year-old for this season, that is somewhat offset by the signing of Pita Ahki.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old has returned to New Zealand after spending the past eight years in Europe, firstly with Connacht and then with Toulouse.<\/p>\n

It duly sparked up a conversation as to whether there could be a trade when an All Blacks star heads offshore.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there\u2019s contracts, there\u2019s World Cups. Everyone\u2019s got their own interests, but the cross-pollination of ideas and experience can help,\u201d Cotter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a long season, you get stuck into that Top 14 for 11 months of the year, it might be quite good for them to have a sabbatical of six months in New Zealand or Australia or elsewhere where they can learn something different, experience different rugby, different people, different culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pat Lam: Why New Zealand Rugby should let other countries \u2018pay for\u2019 Ardie Savea and Beauden Barrett to help All Blacks out of their slumber<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Ahki may be the wrong side of 30, but he was a key player in a star-studded Toulouse side that has dominated the Top 14 over the past few seasons.<\/p>\n

The centre was a New Zealand U20 star and was part of the Blues squad for two seasons over a decade ago, but he never truly made it in his homeland.<\/p>\n

It was in Europe where he fulfilled his potential, and particularly at Toulouse, where he had a huge impact at Les Rouge et Noir.<\/p>\n

Ahki\u2019s huge impact at Toulouse<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was coaching Montpellier in 2017, he got brought in by Toulouse from Connacht. He had a dodgy knee, and I remember talking to the Toulouse boys, and they weren\u2019t sure what they were getting. It turns out he\u2019s won four Top 14 titles and three European titles. I don\u2019t think many players have that experience and success,\u201d Cotter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a local boy, and bringing him back here with that knowledge and skill set is awesome for the team. It\u2019s nice to have people coming back in, but also people who have won and know what it takes to win. That transmission to our players will be really important.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd missing Rieko, it\u2019s nice to have someone who takes Rieko\u2019s place, because he was emblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blues boss added: \u201cHe may surprise us and play every game. I think he\u2019s come here with that intention: to play every game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [still has that in him]. He doesn\u2019t have to prove anything, does he? He just has to turn up, be himself. He\u2019s got a great skill set, and he\u2019s already sharing it with players. A quiet guy, I like the quiet guys who have been successful; they\u2019re always nice to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Scott Robertson palming off selection concerns as All Blacks players \u2018told\u2019 to speak to assistants in surprise revelation<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blues boss Vern Cotter would be \u201copen\u201d to bringing in a player from Europe when they lose their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[13877,225,4306,704,12,4151,79,10264,5707,2385,16,15,4510],"class_list":{"0":"post-640198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-blues","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-leinster","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-super-rugby","16":"tag-top-14","17":"tag-toulouse","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115740566663541603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640198","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=640198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}