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All Blacks call Crusaders utility into squad before Bledisloe II
By Finn Morton
Crusaders outside back Chay Fihaki has been called into All Blacks camp for the first time ahead of this weekend’s Bledisloe Cup Test in Wellington. Cam Roigard is also back with the squad as the halfback continues to chip away on his injury rehab.
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On Monday, the All Blacks announced on social media that the pair had both entered the All Blacks’ inner sanctum. Roigard is not in the mix to play on Saturday evening at Sky Stadium, with the 23-year-old instead aiming for a return with Counties Manukau early next month.
Fihaki, 23, joins the squad as injury cover following a knee injury to midfielder Jordie Barrett. Barrett was replaced at half-time during last weekend’s 31-28 at Accor Stadium and the utility was later seen in a knee brace at Sydney’s International Airport on Sunday.
Crusaders flyer Fihaki debuted for the Christchurch-based Super Rugby outfit four years ago but really came of age during this year’s campaign. With the then defending champions ushering in a new era under coach Rob Penney, Fihaki started 12 of 14 appearances.
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Fihaki was primary used as a fullback by coach Penney but he did make four consecutive starting appearances on the right wing to round out the season. The Crusader was rewarded for a breakout campaign after being included in the Barbarian’s squad to play Fiji.
With the Barbarians, Fihaki started at fullback and played for the entire 80 minutes. Fihaki kicked four conversions in the 45-32 win at London’s Twickenham Stadium – which has since been renamed to Allianz Stadium.
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More recently, Fihaki has started all eight matches for Canterbury this season, which included a two-try performance in last weekend’s win over Counties Manukau. Fihaki has played the entire 80 in all but two of those matches for the Cantabrians this season.
In the All Blacks, Anton Lienert-Brown and David Havili would likely be considered the leading candidates to replace Barrett in the No. 12 jumper. Harry Plummer, who debuted in the Sydney Test, is another option for coach Scott Robertson.
The All Blacks have already wrapped up the Bledisloe Cup for another year with the three-point win over the Wallabies. But, fans will want to see another strong performance from the men in black in their final home Test of the year – heading off on their end-of-year tour shortly.
AJ Lam or Bryce Heem for Jordie? Razor mentioned outside backs who can handle the bombs early on in his tenure and he picks Seevu Reece, when he has Shaun Stevenson available. George Bell at hooker when Riccitelli was running riot. Blackadder who hardly played Super Rugby and not exactly an All Black staple was picked instead of Brayden Iose or Lakai. Common theme is you need to be a Crusader to be an All Black. Bring back Foxy to be a selector.
Ethan Blackadder was outstanding at the end of the Crusaders campaign and was huge in beating the champion Blues team here. He has justified his selection since with the AB's. Sevu Reece played well on Saturday and George Bell with limited opportunities has played well for Canterbury and AB's. You would no doubt love John Hart back as coach when barely club players like Mark Carter were picked ahead of great players like Todd Blackadder, Angus Gardiner,Paul Henderson and others. During 2 stints that happened in '91 , then in '97 and '98. Those were the days ahhhhhhh.
Riccitelli is TINY.
Hard to disagree. Must have been
tempting to bring in McLeod or Ennor. Still we have Havili who will start on Saturday. Phew!
Didn't Riccitelli just get outshone against his clubmate playing for the Bay?
You could be right that he's a straight replacement for Reece for those reasons.
Razor seems totally lost on 15. Started with perofeta, then BB. Called up Love who hasn't been used. Then put in Jordan for 1 week only (until BB illness). Now with Jordie injured calls up another 15.
Perofeta and Love are both injured.
Do you mean totally lost on the number 15 or the team 15 :)?
Holland was talking about pero having a few problems still I think. Rumour was Love was 23 for Sydney if the midweek injury he picked up in NPC came right.
Plummer is in for Pero which would mean Havili likely picked up fullback duties and Plummer backup 10/12. Now with Jordie down they're 4 full backs down (if Beauden still isn't right for training) with only a distant fullback in the past and your main playmaker, whos as likely to be fullback as Rieko is a starting winger these days, as backup.
Someone like Chay makes perfect sense. I wonder if it could have been Moorby.
I can understand a bit of Canterbury bias but christ make an effort to hide it.
This guy is nowhere near good enough to even make a New Zealand A side.
I'd rather he just picked the whole Crusaders team and got it out of his system, rather than this death by a thousand Crusaders routine he is operating at the moment.
But couldn't he learn to get better in the ABs? Think about it - it could have been McLeod?
Emoni Narawa and Shaun Stevenson are better and more experienced than this guy. Narawa is showing even more versatility by playing at outside-centre in the NPC, to add to his skillset at wing and fullback. Stevenson has been the standout fullback in the NPC.
Maybe the Crusaders fan club in the coaching group is the reason Chay got selected?
Foster and Schmidt did not have a high opinion of Stevenson either. They capped him only once and left him off the RWC team.
You clearly don't know Crusader people - a modest, even handed, excessively fair bunch who would never favour their own coaches or players in any context!