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'He reminds me a bit of myself': Ardie Savea on Wallace Sititi

Wallace Sititi of the All Blacks. Photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images

When the reigning World Rugby Player of the Year says you remind him of himself, that’s a good sign you’re doing something right. That being said, it doesn’t take Ardie Savea to figure out Wallace Sititi is one hell of a rugby player.

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The Test rookie celebrated his 22nd birthday with his first-ever start for the All Blacks against the world champions in Cape Town in September, a match where he made a name for himself on one of the biggest of stages outside of a World Cup.

Three Tests later – two more starting at blindside against Australia and one at No. 8 vs Japan – the budding star is yet to let his foot off the gas, proving to be not just one of New Zealand’s premier talents, but one of their most consistent performers.

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All Blacks skills coach Tamati Ellison speaks ahead of England Test

Interview with New Zealand contact skills coach Tamati Ellison ahead of their match against England at Twickenham on November 2. [via New Zealand Rugby]

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All Blacks skills coach Tamati Ellison speaks ahead of England Test

Interview with New Zealand contact skills coach Tamati Ellison ahead of their match against England at Twickenham on November 2. [via New Zealand Rugby]

Sititi played at No. 8 all season for the Chiefs in Super Rugby Pacific, and his little experience playing on the blindside flank in the professional game makes his emergence at the international level all the more impressive.

While it’s expected his best position is still at No. 8, a man by the name of Ardie Savea currently occupies that jersey.

Savea, perhaps the world’s best No. 8, says he and the rookie have become close throughout the course of this international season.

“He’s been amazing coming into this environment, he’s found what works for him and he’s playing great footy and that’s a testament to himself and his preparation and the levelheadedness, the calmness he has,” Savea told media in London.

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“Mate, he’s inspiring his teammates around him and that’s special.”

Sititi’s form has sparked debate over whether Savea shifting to the openside flank to accommodate the rookie at No. 8 would be worthwhile for the All Blacks, something Savea was asked to weigh in on.

“I’m not too sure. Mate, with the way he’s playing, he reminds me a bit of myself. He can play eight, seven or six, and be great at it – not saying I’m great,” Savea laughed.

“He’s quality. I think Wally and myself, we’ve got the same mindset. We’re pretty grateful, wherever we are. If we’re starting then we’re just grateful to be starting, that’s been my career and Wally’s the same.

“Mate, he can play eight and awesome, he can play six and be awesome, even at seven. Wherever he ends up I know that he’ll be quality.”

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Despite his impressive Super Rugby Pacific campaign, it was still a shock to many when Sititi was named in the opening All Blacks squad of the year, especially given the omission of Super Rugby MVP Hoskins Sotutu.

Reflecting on the initial selection call, forwards coach Jason Ryan said selectors’ eyes had been on the young talent for some time, before highlighting Savea’s influence on Sititi since he joined the environment.

“He caught our (the All Blacks coaches’) eye in Super Rugby, sort of midway through. He’d also been pretty well known through an NZ under 20s campaign around his ball carry and his real point of difference, his defence,” Ryan said.

“What we have been impressed by in the Test arena is just how natural he seems to be in the way he carries himself. He’s got a lot of leadership qualities about him, to be fair, in his own little way. He works really hard with Ardie and the other loose forwards wanting to grow his game.

“Then there’s the other side of it around his body and getting his conditioning right to Test level so that we can take him further. The sky’s the limit really around Wally.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins
1
Draws
1
Wins
3
Average Points scored
20
19
First try wins
60%
Home team wins
60%

While fans will have to wait and see what selectors have in store for the All Blacks’ clash with England this weekend, Ryan says the team benefit from the versatile skill sets of both Sititi and Savea.

“I think they really complement each other. Wallace is a No.8 for his franchise (the Chiefs) and he played No.8 for us in the weekend and we see him genuinely as a No.8 who can cover six (blindside). But he’s played six and taken his opportunity there and I think the two of them add a massive amount of ball-carry power to our pack, which is good.

“He’s (Sititi) really is such an explosive line out jumper and he can get off the ground so fast. So, I think that’s probably helped out a little bit of variation where you’ve got Ardie jumping at the front of the line out and Wallace is jumping at the back.

“I think that complements both of them and they work pretty hard together and they compete very hard at training. It’s a good combo that’s keeping everyone else honest.”

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

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1 Comment
W
Willie 51 days ago

It's awhile since you played as well as Wallace is now, Ardie.

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JW 2 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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