{"id":18223,"date":"2026-08-13T05:07:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18223"},"modified":"2026-08-13T05:07:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:07:38","slug":"one-club-man-de-groot-not-going-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18223","title":{"rendered":"‘One club man’ – De Groot not going anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ethan de Groot has no intention of giving up his All Blacks jersey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The prop said it was a no brainer recommitting to NZ Rugby through until 2029.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I just signed it straight away. It was a pretty easy decision. I just don’t have any interest on going overseas or leaving All Blacks. I want to be here for a long time. I’m not going anywhere.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 43-Test loose head prop’s new deal runs through to the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 2029.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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De Groot said he wanted to remain loyal to both the Highlanders and Stags.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“To be honest, I actually wasn’t even looking (at overseas offers). I’d never say never.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Maybe do a sabbatical if I do another World cup, But, to be honest, I’ve got no interest going overseas and I’m really enjoying myself in the All Blacks environment at the moment. Enjoying Rens (All Blacks coach Dave Rennie) and obviously the Highlanders. I love the Stags, so, bit of a one club man.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Preparing for the first test in South Africa, De Groot said while the result was pleasing, there were plenty of frustrations to take out of the All Blacks 54-0 win over the Sharks in Durban.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In particular, the opposition’s tactic to slow the game down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s a lot slower game to Super Rugby, you just can’t let the let that sort of stuff get frustrate you too much but it is a little bit frustrating. We do want to play fast and there’s a few slow boys into the line out of faking injuries.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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De Groot admitted there was no easy solution to the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We can just be try be first to set and the ref can see that we’re set and ready to go and they’re not. Just trying to apply pressure that way going, come on, we’re ready to go without trying to piss the ref off too much.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A daunting physical battle awaits new Zealand in the opening test on 22 August in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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De Groot is under no illusions that the All Blacks chances of a series win begins up front.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Just the sheer size of some of these blokes, they’re a scrumming nation, they hang their head on that.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The two sides share one of the greatest – if not the greatest – rivalry in rugby, with the ledger squarely falling in South Africa’s favour in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“There’s obviously a lot of history between the two of us, the hiding we got in Wellington, the World Cup. It’s probably just trying to park some of those emotions aside and just worrying about task in front, not getting towed. Put some fire in the belly, ice in the ice in the mind.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Regarding the 43-10 humiliation in the capital, De Groot said it is not used as a motivator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Not at all. Different team, different coaches. It’s a thing of the past. We’re looking ahead.”<\/p>\n

RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethan de Groot has no intention of giving up his All Blacks jersey. The prop said it was a no brainer recommitting to NZ Rugby through until 2029. “I just signed it straight away. It was a pretty easy decision. I just don’t have any interest on going overseas or leaving All Blacks. I want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18225,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18223\/revisions\/18225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}