Karl Budge told The Post the Blues would love to see Ardie Savea in their colours. The same report says the All Blacks No 8 who took Savea’s jersey at Moana Pasifika could start 2027 without a full-time contract. Super Rugby has ten teams next year, and every one of them is nearly full.
“So, are we interested? Of course we are. Are we there yet? No, we’re not.”
Karl Budge, the Blues chief executive, said that about Ardie Savea to The Post on Monday. He also said the All Blacks captain, whose tour ended with a dislocated shoulder in Soweto, would look pretty good in blue.
The same report has a line about the man who took Savea’s No 8 jersey after one game at Moana Pasifika. Semisi Ta’eiloa, 22, an All Black since the tour and contracted to New Zealand Rugby until 2028, may not get a full-time Super Rugby contract anywhere.
Savea in blue, or Ta’eiloa without a club: which is the story? Say which in the comments before the argument below tries to change your mind.
“Pretty good in blue.” What Karl Budge actually said
Paul Cully had the talks in The Post on Monday 14 September. Budge did not hide behind a no-comment.
“Like everyone we would love to see Ardie Savea run out in our colours,” Budge said. “Who wouldn’t want that as a club? I don’t think there’s any of our fans that wouldn’t want to see that.”
“We don’t have a contract in place with us. We want to be pretty respectful.”
The respect was for the tour. Savea captained New Zealand through Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry until the shoulder went. Budge said he did not want anything distracting him from the task at hand.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one having those conversations … I think he’d look pretty good in blue.”
That is a chief executive talking about a 32-year-old with one year left on his New Zealand Rugby deal and no club to go back to. The Post’s reading is that it is a matter of when, not if. Nothing Budge said argues with it.
Why Auckland was always the answer for Ardie Savea
Savea spent 2026 on sabbatical at Kobe Steelers in Japan with a clause to return to Moana Pasifika for 2027. Then the club went.
The Pasifika Medical Association said in April it could not fund another season. New Zealand Rugby heard several bids and on 24 June refused to transfer the licence to any of them. Ten teams in 2027.
The week the owners walked, the NZ Herald reported Savea’s preference was Auckland, where his clothing label is based. Patrick Tuipulotu, the Blues lock, said what every senior player says: “Ardie Savea is a great player. Any club would jump at it to have him.”
Then the Blues lost two All Blacks loose forwards in one off-season. Dalton Papali’i is going to Castres. Hoskins Sotutu, 14 Tests, signed three years at Newcastle Red Bulls.
The new coach is Jason Holland, who left the All Blacks staff and went back to the Hurricanes. He takes over from Vern Cotter on a three-year deal from 2027. He inherits a back row with a hole in it and a chief executive who has already said the name.
Savea to the Blues is the easy half of the report. The other half is the one worth reading twice.
The 22-year-old the Blues can afford to pass on
Ta’eiloa’s first Super Rugby season reads like a made-up one. Thirteen games, seven tries, 943 minutes, the most in the Moana squad. The 205 carries led the competition, and Savea moved to the openside after one game to keep him at No 8. He was Moana’s rookie of the year and its best defensive player in the same season.
In 2026 he beat 45 defenders, sixth in the competition and the only forward in the top ten who was not Leicester Fainga’anuku. James Parsons, twice capped as an All Blacks hooker and a Blues centurion, put it in three words on RugbyPass: “His numbers are ridiculous.”
Dave Rennie named him among three new caps in the 44-man tour squad on Monday 27 July and called him a point of difference. He came off the bench in the 54-0 win over the Sharks in Durban.
He started at No 8 against the Lions at Ellis Park, where the site’s ratings gave him a 5 and said he barely registered. He did not play a Test.
He is All Black number 1241. He has a New Zealand Rugby contract to 2028. And, according to The Post, he is not a priority for the club that wants his old captain.
“I think we’ve only got three or four spots left [in the 2027 squad],” Budge said. “We’re pretty close now. I’m obviously in tune with some of the rumours floating around. Some of them there’s not much truth to, others there’s a whole lot of truth to.”
The Post’s list of what the Blues already have is the reason: Anton Segner, Malachi Wrampling, Torian Barnes, Che Clark, and Cam Christie, 196cm, who missed all of 2026 with a knee. Jed Melvin, the North Harbour captain, has been one of the players of the NPC.
Read also: John Kirwan says the All Blacks do not have a specialist seven, which is the other end of the same back-row problem.
Ten teams, one date, and somebody else’s knee
The mechanism first, because the Blues did not build it.
Eleven Super Rugby Pacific squads became ten. The ten clubs left in Super Rugby Pacific had mostly filled their rosters before Moana’s players came on the market. The Post says the Hurricanes, Chiefs and Crusaders each already have an All Blacks No 8, and the Highlanders had locked in their loose forwards before Ta’eiloa was available.
Squads of 38 have to be confirmed by Wednesday 28 October. The Post’s line is blunt: a full-time contract might only open up for Ta’eiloa if a club loses a loose forward to a serious injury before then.
If nobody does, he signs a wider training squad contract at the Highlanders. They get first call because Southland sits in their region, and they want him beyond 2027.
A wider training squad contract means training with the squad and playing when someone else cannot. No guaranteed minutes. For a player whose whole case was built on 943 of them, that is the thing being taken away.
So the All Blacks’ newest No 8 needs a stranger’s knee to go in the next six weeks, or he spends a World Cup year waiting for the phone.
New Zealand Rugby signed him to 2028 in the same year it closed the club he played for and cut the competition by a team. Finding him 80 minutes a week in 2027 is its problem. It has handed the problem to the injury list.
The honest case for the Blues
The Blues are not wrong on rugby grounds.
Segner, Wrampling, Barnes, Clark and Christie are Blues-developed. Christie is coming back from a season out. A club protects that player with a spot rather than signing over him. Holland arrives with three or four places to fill.
And the tour did not make the case. Rennie picked Wallace Sititi, Peter Lakai, Ethan Blackadder and Tupou Vaa’i ahead of Ta’eiloa for four Tests. His one start was anonymous. A chief executive looking at that and saying not now is doing his job.
But a club’s job and a union’s job are different things. The Blues are buying 2027: a 32-year-old captain with one year on his deal. It will sell tickets and probably win games.
Ta’eiloa is a 2028 asset New Zealand Rugby is already paying for. Whether he plays in 2027 should not be Karl Budge’s question. It belongs to the union that contracted him, and the union’s answer so far is 28 October and a hope.
Read next: The Crusaders coach who works with Scott Barrett says Savea should keep the captaincy anyway, which matters more if the captain is a Blue.
Your turn: is Ta’eiloa the Blues’ problem or New Zealand Rugby’s?
Two ways to see it. Either the Blues are right, the back row they have covers it, and Ardie Savea is the only signing that matters. Or an All Black with 205 carries in his first season should not be waiting on somebody else’s injury for a contract. Pick one below.
Frequently asked
Is Ardie Savea joining the Blues? Not yet. Blues chief executive Karl Budge told The Post on 14 September 2026 that the club is interested but has no contract in place. Savea is contracted to New Zealand Rugby through 2027 and was due back at Moana Pasifika, which will not play in 2027.
Where will Semisi Ta’eiloa play in 2027? Unclear. The Post reports the Blues are unlikely to sign him and the other New Zealand clubs are full at No 8. If no full-time contract appears before squads are confirmed on 28 October, he joins the Highlanders’ wider training squad. His New Zealand Rugby deal runs to 2028.
Why is Moana Pasifika not in Super Rugby Pacific in 2027? Its owner, the Pasifika Medical Association, said in April 2026 it could not fund the team beyond 2026. New Zealand Rugby heard several bids and on 24 June 2026 declined to transfer the licence, saying none met both the capital and business plan requirements. The competition drops to ten teams.
