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Chiefs passing on the multi-dimensional Sevu Reece a big mistake

Waikato winger Sevu Reece has been a dynamic addition for the back-to-back Super Rugby champions. (Photos/Gettys Images)

With each passing week, Sevu Reece’s blinding form is making a mockery of the Chiefs decision to overlook him purely on rugby-related grounds.

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Against the Lions on Friday night, Reece dispatched Lions number 8 Kwagga Smith with superhero-like force, propelling him through the air before scrambling through five more defenders to score a mesmerizing try in close quarters. Later in the second half, a grubber down a tight corridor finished up in Reece’s hands for his second of the night.

The Chiefs will be well aware of the finishing prowess of Reece as the Waikato-wing notched 14-tries in last year’s Mitre 10 Cup, and was arguably the form player of the competition.

Ex-Chiefs wing and Waikato assistant coach Roger Randle knew exactly what was waiting in the wings, having directly coached him all year as part of the Championship-winning Waikato backline.

“Guys like Sevu Reece have been outstanding and I think everybody should be looking at him in Super [Rugby],” Roger Randle told RugbyPass during last season’s Mitre 10 campaign.

“I don’t care what excuse people have got at Super-land.”

He has certainly been proven right. Had Randle been in the Chiefs setup earlier, perhaps his word would hold more weight. Right now, the spiraling Chiefs can only watch their local product help the Crusaders rack-up 40 on every team in the competition on their quest for three straight titles.

The puzzling aspect to the omission of Reece was that it had nothing to do with off-field troubles, with Colin Cooper insisting the early signing of Japanese wing Ataata Moeakiola blocked the way for Reece to join the squad.

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“We committed to him [Moeakiola] early and obviously with Sevu Reece’s contract not coming through with Connacht, it was unlucky for Sevu,” said Cooper.

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Even with Manasa Mataele, Will Jordan, Ngane Punivai, Leicester Faingaanuku, Braydon Ennor and Israel Dagg on the books, the Crusaders were prepared to take a punt on Reece and offer him a trialing opportunity and then a train-on contract.

With an injury to Mataele and the retirement of Dagg, he has asserted himself as a number one wing option for the Crusaders and dazzled since ripping the Chiefs for 153-metres on five line breaks on his Super Rugby debut in round four.

Reece has offered the Crusaders energy in all facets of the game, whether it be a gunner on restarts, pressure in kick-chase or carrying down the 10-channel off set-piece, cleaning at the breakdown, he has brought a lot to the table outside of scoring highlight-reel tries, even showing his playmaking ability.

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Early against the Lions, on a ‘skinny’ play using 9, 12, and 14, Reece took a short pass out the back from Drummond playing at 10 and opened up the Lions midfield with a deft basketball pass over the top to centre Braydon Ennor. The pump fake before drawing the contact was ball-playing out of the top draw.

The scoot down the blind side against the Highlanders last week from a backpedaling ruck turned a pressure situation into a line break, before freeing up Drummond with an anticipatory no-look offload in a two-man tackle to find the supporting halfback and finish with seven points.

Reece as a playmaker is almost as dangerous as Reece the ball carrier, and this edge brings a multi-dimensional asset to the Crusaders.

Compared to the Chiefs’ wingers, he is a more balanced player yet more productive than all of them this season.

Although Reece has a higher usage rate (17.86 possessions per 80 minutes) than Etene Nanai-Seturo (12.26), Sean Wainui (11.87) and Ataata Moeakiola (12.58), he is a far more balanced player, with the highest pass rate, 40.26%, of all of them.

The man who seemingly took Reece’s squad position, Moeakiola, passes the ball just 13.11% of the time, while Nanai-Seturo is better at 23.73% and Wainui, who has spent some time at centre, has the highest at 34.57%.

Although Reece gets more touches, he is moving the ball far more frequently than the others. When you add in his impact as a runner, it’s no contest.

His 12 line breaks are double that of the next best Chiefs wing Nanai-Seturo, while his line break rate of 26.7%, every 1 in 4 runs, dwarfs that of Ataata Moeakiola (10.64%) and Sean Wainui (9.62%). He has the most tries, try assists as well as the most broken tackles.

Maybe the most telling stat is his tackle success at 80%, is a cut above Nanai-Seturo (72%), Wainui (71%) and Moeakiola (69%).

There is no doubt that Reece’s production is also a product of the system he is in, with an All Black-laden pack laying the platform as well as being on the end of classy backline. While it is true that the Chiefs aren’t creating much space for their wingers, Reece is often creating his own space.

Coaching and scheme is also a major factor, Reece has a license to roam in parts of the field to get involved and the more skills he shows the more likely he is to be used as the coaching staff dream up ways to get him the ball.

While Reece might not have the same impact if he was in fact on the end of the Chiefs backline, his ability at Super Rugby level is now undisputable and even talk of an All Black call up is now brewing.

Passing on Reece for moral-related reasons is understandable, passing on Reece from purely a rugby-standpoint could be one of the worst decisions in Super Rugby this decade. While Nanai-Seturo is a blue-chip prospect and still developing at 19-years-old, it is hard to see how Reece couldn’t be seen as a player who could compete and surpass Wainui and Moeakiola in the pecking order, especially after his dominant Mitre 10 Cup form.

If the Crusaders could open their doors with an already-stacked roster, surely the Chiefs could have too.

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J
JW 3 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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