{"id":554981,"date":"2026-08-01T17:27:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/554981\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:27:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:27:29","slug":"all-blacks-noah-hotham-opens-up-on-disappointment-of-missing-out-on-greatest-rivalry-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/554981\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks: Noah Hotham opens up on disappointment of missing out on Greatest Rivalry tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noah Hotham has opened up on his disappointment after missing out on selection for New Zealand<\/a>\u2019s squad for their upcoming tour of South Africa.<\/p>\n

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie named a squad of 44 players for the men in black\u2019s eagerly anticipated Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry tour and Hotham\u2019s exclusion is widely considered as one of the biggest surprises.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders scrum-half was expected to be one of four number nines included in the All Blacks squad alongside Cam Roigard, Cortez Ratima and Kyle Preston, who were all in Rennie\u2019s 34-man squad during their Nations Championship Tests against France, Italy and Ireland earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Unlucky to miss out<\/p>\n

However, Rennie<\/a> opted not to include an extra scrum-half when he added the 10 extra players for the South African tour and revealed that he has pencilled in winger Leroy Carter as the fourth-choice number nine in the group.<\/p>\n

Hotham<\/a> admitted that he was shocked to be omitted from the All Blacks<\/a> squad after impressing during the Crusaders\u2019 recent Super Rugby Pacific campaign where he was the Christchurch-based outfit\u2019s first choice scrum-half ahead of Preston.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been frustrating, but I could only control what I did at Super Rugby and I put my best foot forward, I thought, and did everything I could,\u201d he told Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed with the selection of ABs, but that\u2019s footy.<\/p>\n

Springboks v All Blacks: Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry is a \u2018throwback\u2019 but also a modern piece of scheduling art<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s just part of the journey and every good sailor has to go through some rough seas before they get to the smooth ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old, who has made three Test appearances for New Zealand, is now fully focused on doing well for Tasman in New Zealand\u2019s National Provincial Championship (NPC) and he started in their 19-15 victory over North Harbour in Nelson on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Hotham is hoping his form with Tasman will earn him an All Blacks call-up, if his services are needed, as an injury replacement.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a case of staying ready\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably wasn\u2019t clear at the start [what I needed to do], but [I\u2019ve] had a few convos that I think I needed and I guess it\u2019s a case of staying ready and if I do get an opportunity or when I get an opportunity to really nail it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to put that jersey back on and go out there and play in front of our fans on our 20th anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks will take on all four of South Africa\u2019s United Rugby Championship teams ahead of three clashes with the Springboks in Johannesburg (twice) and Cape Town, before Baltimore hosts the fourth and final Test on September 12.<\/p>\n

They kick off their six-week tour against the Stormers in Cape Town on August 7.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All Blacks: Recalled flyer ready to make up for lost time on Greatest Rivalry tour<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noah Hotham has opened up on his disappointment after missing out on selection for New Zealand\u2019s squad for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1463,1464,111,43,6327,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-554981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}