{"id":563392,"date":"2026-08-09T03:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T03:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563392\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T03:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T03:10:10","slug":"maa-nonus-sharks-selection-raises-questions-over-all-blacks-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563392\/","title":{"rendered":"Ma\u2019a Nonu\u2019s Sharks selection raises questions over All Blacks clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nonu will become the oldest man to play against the All Blacks<\/a> and join a select crew who have both played for and against the national team<\/a>. His presence will add drama \u2013 a frisson of tension and intrigue that will be undeniable.<\/p>\n

But there is also a sense that this is a manufactured sideshow \u2013 a gimmick to create a diversion.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t evidence that RGR is the game\u2019s hottest ticket<\/a>, but in fact confirmation that it is four likely-to-be epic tests and four other games packaged around them to give the whole thing the veneer of nostalgic legitimacy.<\/p>\n

\"Ma'aMa’a Nonu, pictured in Toulon colours last year, made his All Blacks debut in 2002. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The club games have been problematic as they have fallen in the players\u2019 off-season, and between that, the non-availability of Springboks and inflated pricing, sales have been challenged.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s irrefutable high-performance legitimacy underpinning RGR, but so too has it been conjured with an eye to making a buck and becoming an established part of the calendar \u2013 which may be hard to achieve if the \u201cold-fashioned\u201d element of brutal and compelling midweek games is shown to have been a victim of professionalism and beyond resuscitation.<\/p>\n

It is believed that a late drop in ticket prices enabled the crowd at DHL Stadium to get up to 47,000, while a combination of an heroic performance from the Stormers<\/a> and an off-key night by the All Blacks<\/a> gave the game a competitive edge that it probably should never have had.<\/p>\n

The prospect of a competitive repeat at King\u2019s Park in Durban<\/a> is considerably less, as there is an unfortunate divergence of this being the game in which the All Blacks are likely to play their strongest team ahead of the first test, and the Sharks being the weakest of the four South African clubs.<\/p>\n

The Sharks had a poor URC campaign in which they finished 10th after shifting head coach John Plumtree (the former All Blacks assistant who was let go in 2022) to a mentoring role in December, only to cut him entirely in March this year.<\/p>\n

He carried the can, but the club had a flawed recruitment strategy and by all accounts the owners are more focused on the off-field brand and the commercial opportunities that come with it, than they are the high-performance operation.<\/p>\n

\"Ma'aMa’a Nonu scores during the 2015 Rugby World Cup final against Australia. Photo \/ Brett Phibbs<\/p>\n

And here lies the scepticism about the real reasons why Nonu has been named on the bench. When Nonu was signed last month, Sharks coach JP Pietersen said it was to offer high-performance mentorship. The great man was coming to guide the next generation of Sharks players.<\/p>\n

But now he\u2019s taking a bench spot in a game that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that doesn\u2019t feel like mentorship. The training ground is the place for Nonu to espouse his wisdom and shape the Sharks youth of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

He, not by his volition, is taking a spot from a younger player with a longer future at the Sharks. The high-performance rationale for playing a 44-year-old former All Black is a fig leaf trying to cover the naked truth that it is really a selection with a crass, commercial intention.<\/p>\n

Nonu\u2019s selection has made headlines, heightened anticipation and created the invaluable prospect that he might, as the three New Zealanders playing for Munster against the All Blacks in 2008<\/a> did \u2013 respond to the haka with a haka.<\/p>\n

\"Ma'aMa’a Nonu (right) with young All Blacks teammate Beauden Barrett signing autographs in 2013. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

And if he does, it will be social media gold: a clip shown around the world and potentially a \u201cpiece of content\u201d that may sell the game as a huge success rather than the one-sided bloodbath it is likely to be.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s needlessly sceptical to fear opportunistic marketing could hijack the event, and best to just sit back and enjoy the theatre and revel in the warm glow of a feel-good story.<\/p>\n

But the scepticism feels necessary as the career of one of the game\u2019s absolute legends is being played with by forces beyond his control and all to drive a few extra bodies through the turnstiles.<\/p>\n

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand\u2019s most respected rugby writers and columnists.<\/a> He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nonu will become the oldest man to play against the All Blacks and join a select crew who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5263,8136,3019,25272,23469,46597,111,139,239340,69,1523,17357,17146,11596,17879,14861,213],"class_list":["post-563392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all","tag-blacks","tag-clash","tag-durban","tag-gregor","tag-maa","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nonus","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-paul","tag-questions","tag-raises","tag-selection","tag-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563392","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=563392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}