The main challenge for Blues and All Blacks lock Patrick Tuipulotu, who has so much metal in his body from patched-up injuries that it sets off airport X-Ray alarms, is clear.
“To try to stay on the field,” he told 1News at the Super Rugby Pacific season launch in Auckland yesterday.
The 33-year-old’s list of injuries is as extensive as it is gruesome.
The latest is a shoulder problem – he has a donor's hamstring tendon holding together his AC joint following surgery late last year which will keep him out of the game until about round nine of Super Rugby (April 11).
He also has a metal plate in his forehead after an horrific-looking injury in Cordoba last year; plates in his jaw (following surgery in 2013); and a steel rod in an arm. He also broke the other side of his jaw in 2024, an injury which did not require surgery. "This one isn't too bad," he said back then.
It should be noted too that the extent of Tuipulotu's shoulder problem was only revealed after he was announced as a member of the All Blacks' squad on their November tour.
It would be enough to deter many, but not Tuipulotu, who is contracted until the end of the 2028 Super Rugby season and has a sense of humour as pragmatic as it is slightly dark.
“I can’t have sabbaticals – I just get injured so that’s my time off,” he said with a trademark smile.
This is the point where it was discovered that Tuipulotu's body can occasionally show him down at the airport. "The steel rod in my arm sets it off," he said of the X-ray alarm.
When he does return this year from his latest rehabilitation – “I’m on track, it’s a slow grind at the moment” – he will be welcomed back with open arms by Blues head coach Vern Cotter, in his final season at the franchise, and whoever takes over as the head coach of the All Blacks.
Held together in part by metal – his mettle has never been in question. Tuipulotu’s experience, size and power will be valued attributes for the All Blacks’ tough tour of South Africa in August and September, not to mention at next year’s World Cup in Australia.
Scott Barrett’s looming non-playing sabbatical will rule him out of most of the Crusaders’ season but will presumably freshen him up considerably after two difficult years as All Blacks captain. Fabian Holland (World Rugby’s breakout player of the year), the impressive Tupou Vaa’i, plus Tuipulotu, gives the New Zealand’s incoming head coach an extremely solid second-row nucleus around which he can add Sam Darry and Josh Lord.
The Blues’ captain’s leadership should also not be underestimated and will likely be important in the All Black’s rebuilding job – without the benefit of a significant lead-in period to the World Cup.
In the meantime, there is a Super Rugby season to prepare for and Tuipulotu, along with the rest of his Blues teammates, are well aware that a good start is imperative.
Last year, the then reigning champions lost five of their first six games before rallying to qualify for the playoffs where they lost to the Crusaders in a semifinal.
“We had a few All Blacks, myself included, who came back last year a bit underdone and it didn’t pay off very well for us in those earlier rounds,” Tuipulotu said.
“We’re aware of that now and have made it clear we need to start well. Team chemistry is important. When you start winning you get on a roll and it highlights how positive the season can be.
“We didn’t adapt or change enough. A lot of the other teams took stuff from when we played them the year earlier and brought it into their game. You saw it with the Chiefs – they played with a style that we probably wanted to play.
"Every team got better last year and it will be the same this year as well. We need to find different ways but still be that physical team in the tight.”
The Blues, who play a pre-season game against the Crusaders at Onewa Domain tomorrow afternoon, kick off their season on Saturday, February 14 against the Chiefs at Eden Park.
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