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A halfback who can play wing is a rare commodity that could be a valued World Cup addition for the All Blacks

Brad Weber is his All Blacks debut versus Samoa. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

My Kingdom for a hybrid back! Mike Rehu asks where have the scrum-halves who can play wing gone?

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With the Rugby World Cup looming large the selectors are ruminating over how many specialist hookers and halfbacks they need to take. With a limit of only 31 players allowed in the official camps taking 3 of each means they’re generally stretched in the loose forwards and outside backs.

It’s a difficult balancing act and it ultimately means you’re praying for an injury free tournament. It also can transpire that sometimes you have to make cold, hard decisions at the end of pool play on players that are carrying injuries in stretched positions who might be one or two weeks away from getting on the paddock.

Last weekend when we were treated to seeing the Chiefs’ Brad Weber score two tries against the Sharks, it crossed my mind that if you were vying for the third halfback spot it would be a valuable commodity to have the skills and flexibility to play on the wing.

Weber certainly has the pace for the outsides, the way he swooped on to Solomon Alaimalo’s shoulder like a jet fighter to take the last pass of an 80-metre move illustrated that. He also has stunning velocity off the mark; at least once a game he’ll choose to probe around the fringes with stunning results. Stats reveal that in this year’s Super Rugby he’s carried 44 times for 250 metres, an average over 6 metres, that’s impressive for a halfback. He’s gutsy, has good ball skills and is a leader.

The hybrid 9-wing has become less-fashionable in the international game but there have been some outstanding examples this century.

AUSTIN HEALEY 178cm 87kg

The World Cup-winning motor mouth was an extremely skillful player who slotted into 9, wing and also fly-half for England during his storied career.

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FRANCOIS HOUGAARD 181cm 94kg

The strong Springbok played 18 tests on the wing and 26 at scrumhalf. He missed out on selection at the 2015 World Cup but was just named the English Premiership Player of the Month for April. Would Rassie Erasmus consider his attributes alongside Faf de Klerk and Embrose Papier for this year’s edition?

With these two examples, you can see a palpable difference in size with Weber (he is listed as 172cm and 75kg) and that could be a major issue, but then you look at players like Rosco Speckman and Damian McKenzie. Height doesn’t have to be a negative especially if combined with taller athletes like Jordie Barrett and Ben Smith in the backfield.

One of the All Blacks‘ most legendary smaller sized players was a rooster called Grant Batty. At 165cm and 65kg you’d be fooled into thinking Batty was too small to play rugby, let alone test matches. The flame-haired spark started as a club halfback but fabled coach Bill Freeman pushed him to the wing and he quickly became an All Black regular. He was packed with power and would smash through players much bigger and less willing.

He would back down to nobody, I once saw him sprint 40-metres from his wing to sort out hard man Frank Oliver at a line out that disintegrated into a swingfest. He was smart enough to run as fast back to his wing after poking Oliver a couple of times but when you see Weber run you know is 100% committed, just like Batty.

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A halfback who can play wing would be such an asset for teams in our World Cup and Brad Weber would be a brilliant swingman for the Men in Black.

Rugby Australia on high alert:

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Flankly 0 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 9 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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