Letters: NZ’s future rugby test first-five hidden in plain sight
Is Ruben Love the future No 10 for the All Blacks? Photo / Photosport
All Blacks first five
Hidden in plain sight in the Hurricanes-Blues rugby game in Wellington on Saturday night was the trial for the No 10 All Blacks jersey this year: Ruben Love versus Beauden Barrett.
Both had sound games with a couple of mistakes, but it was the Hurricanes backline that came out on top.
Love’s passing is better than Barrett’s and so is his goalkicking, with 100% success on the night.
Barrett has been a marvellous player for many years, twice World Rugby Player of the Year, but it is clearly time to move on to Love at 10 for the All Blacks this year.
Gary Carter, Gulf Harbour.
Depth of talent
The top-of-the-table Super Rugby clash in Wellington at the weekend between the Blues and the Hurricanes was a showcase of the best of New Zealand’s running and passing game.
In addition, it was an impressive rehearsal for an All Blacks trial as the game demonstrated the current depth of talent with just 18 months until the Rugby World Cup commences.
On the evidence of this game, we can be certain of fielding a top 15 contender for the World Cup.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Government debt
It is shocking to read that our government debt is growing by $60 million per day! Bruce Cotterill offers several practical solutions to reducing this heavy legacy from the last Government’s profligate spending spree.
The first is to take a knife to our bloated bureaucracy which increased by 16,000 under Labour. This alone will have a huge trickle-down effect.
Second, in my lifetime, life expectancy has risen by 12 years so it’s a no-brainer to push up the retirement age. Ensuring immigrants are not a burden to the taxpayer will also increase the number of skilled contributors to our faltering economy.
Cotterill’s call for “all hands on deck” should encourage private enterprise at every level resulting in excellence and resilience as a nation, an ability to weather any storms by resorting to native ingenuity.
Mary Tallon, Hauraki.
Children paying the price
In the midst of war and crisis, children are paying the price.
Today, more than 120 million people are displaced by conflict. Around 40% are children. That alone should stop us.
Children in war-torn regions are exposed to violence, hunger, fear, and loss while basic services and safety nets collapse around them. These are not abstract numbers. They are real lives, growing up in conditions most of us would struggle to imagine.
We may not end wars or displacement alone, but we still decide how we respond to their consequences.
Public conversation centres on politics, blame, and strategy, while children fade into the background.
The proportion of children living in conflict zones has nearly doubled since the 1990s. That is not just a statistic — it is a warning about what we are becoming used to ignoring.
If we accept human dignity as a shared value, then we cannot allow this suffering to remain invisible.
Even small contributions can mean food, medicine, and shelter for children who have none of them. Supporting organisations delivering frontline aid is one way of turning concern into action.
In a world this aware, silence is a choice.
Alan T. Kelly, Ireland.
Wasting taxpayers’ money
The event at the Wiri youth correction facility was ended with takeaways offered to the criminals to come down from the roof. Why?
Surely, wasting taxpayers’ money on these miscreants at a time when law-abiding citizens are doing it tough is misguided.
I’m sure they would have retreated from the roof during the cyclone with nature’s help and at no cost to the taxpayer.
Keith Moran, Stonefields.