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Big Man Syndrome

New Zealand’s Damian McKenzie

Once again New Zealand rugby finds itself grappling with the always confronting and sobering question: does size matter?

All Blacks rugby coaches clearly think it does. They have so much talent from which to choose that they’re often blind to the smaller men who are doing great things under a Cloak of Invisibility. Or if you’re not a Harry Potter fan, they’re like Frodo wearing the ring.

But we get it – rugby is a contact sport and a big-bopper has a better chance of dropping the shoulder 5-metres out, scoring that crucial try (or stopping that try down the other end). And yet the game is so much more than that.

Like roller coasters, some women have a minimum height restriction for dating. And most All Blacks coaches, when they’re selecting teams, are exactly like that too, especially with loose forwards.

Crusaders blindside flanker Jordan Taufua (26) is rumoured to be leaving NZ. Now he might not be a first-string test player but I bet if Taufua wasn’t only 1.87m (6-foot-1) he’d have played for the All Blacks by now. Growing up in South Auckland, if he’d known his dream of playing for the All Blacks was do dependant on height, he’d have made sure his parents bought a rack.

Yes, there were short and slim All Blacks back in the days before gyms and supplements and tall people breeding but there is damning evidence of great players missed the cut.

Outstanding Waikato flanker Duane Monkley (who’s had a medal named after him!) was denied an All Blacks jersey in 1993 when the taller Liam Barry was preferred at flanker. Height, apparently, was the issue.

Sometimes the problem is bulk. Otago midfielder John Leslie was slim and brilliant but couldn’t break into the All Blacks. So he went and played 23 tests for Scotland. And if you look at today’s Six Nations teams, there are plenty of Kiwis who’ve taken that path. And while lack of size hasn’t necessarily caused that exodus, you could say Ireland midfielder Bundee Aki fell into that category. Stuck behind big ol’ SBW at the Chiefs, he made the call to go north.

At loose forward, the issue is amplified. Blues flanker Luke Braid (1.87m and barely 100kg) played the house down a few years ago – he didn’t get a look in. Yes, Richie McCaw is listed as only 1.87m but I’m certain that’s wrong. He’s taller than – I’m still waiting to hear back from his wife Gemma on this stat – and he’s also the GOAT.

So name the best loose forwards the All Blacks have encountered in the past decade? French captain Thierry Dusautoir, you say? A mere 1.88m. Wallaby Swiss army knife David Pocock perhaps? A paltry 1.84m.

In the backs, if you rule out halfbacks and first-fives, it’s tough for smaller men to make the ABs. Damian McKenzie (1.75m and 81kg) had topped every attacking statistic in Super Rugby before the Lions tour last year… but was overlooked for the test series. Imagine what he might have done with that space on the outside of that rush defence? Well, he was selected a few weeks later and saved the All Blacks in Cape Town with a match-winning try against the Springboks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Fu1W24Ryc

Would a little legend like Welsh wing Shane Williams (all 5-foot-7 and 80kg of him) have ever played test rugby if he was born in New Zealand? He played 87 tests for Wales and 4 tests for the Lions.

Admittedly in 2015, the All Blacks selectors did see the light with Nehe Milner-Skudder (1.80m and 90kg), who is no giant. And their on-again off-again relationship with Crusaders flanker Matt Todd (1.85m) seems more stable and loving now. It does help though that he’s a beast in the gym so he can play “bigger”.

There’s still that feeling, however, that All Blacks like them big. So to all you shorter, lightweight rugby players out there – you can go overseas and play 50-plus tests and make dem pounds and euros. Or you can stay in New Zealand, battle it out and defy the odds to wear the black jersey. But just know that your chances, perhaps like yourself, are slim.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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