Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Clamour for new unproven players as All Blacks is misguided thinking

(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

I get that new players are exciting.

And I get that the All Blacks aren’t exactly bulletproof right now.

ADVERTISEMENT

But what I don’t get is our collective urge to anoint the next big thing.

One day it’s Bailyn Sullivan. Then it’s his brother Zarn. Taine Plumtree, Tom Robinson and Stephen Perofeta are among the other talented, but wholly unproven, players being talked about as potential All Blacks.

We all appreciate that there has to be a place for the bolter. That person who emerges late and suddenly in the Rugby World Cup cycle and becomes an integral part of the All Blacks’ plans.

Video Spacer

All Access with Malcolm O’Kelly

Video Spacer

All Access with Malcolm O’Kelly

Think Jonah Lomu, for instance, who began uncertainly in 1994 but nearly proved a world-beater come 1995.

But among the reasons I don’t understand the clamour for new blood in this instance, is I don’t believe All Blacks coach Ian Foster is a man for the bold move.

If you haven’t appeared in the squad already, then I don’t think you’ve got much chance of being there come 2023.

And, frankly, I don’t think it matters right now anyway because it’s arguable whether enough expertise exists within the All Blacks’ coaching group to get many – or any – players to perform to their potential.

ADVERTISEMENT

That’s a problem and perhaps partly why we prematurely push the claims of players not presently in the side.

Do you think the selectors have the stomach to dispense with the likes of Sam Whitelock, Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Richie Mo’unga or even Sam Cane? Or do you feel we’ll cross our fingers and hope the senior pros will perform when it counts?

I’m not saying those guys are spent forces, by the way. Cane’s actually going all right for the Chiefs.

In ideal circumstances I’d like all those guys in my squad. Same with others who are getting on in age or are potentially under pressure to hold their spots, such as Dane Coles, George Bridge and David Havili.

ADVERTISEMENT

There’s a regard, too, in which Foster is unfortunate here.

I’d wager there’s a potential limit to how long guys can be coached by Scott Robertson. The man’s record with Canterbury and the Crusaders is exceptional, but he’s been in that system a long time.

It was in the late 2000s that he joined Rob Penney’s Canterbury staff, before Tabai Matson took over and finally Robertson himself.

I think only Whitelock is of an age to have known red-and-black rugby before Razor.

For whatever reason, it feels as if it is a few Crusaders who’ve found it harder to fire under Foster.

By rights, Robertson shouldn’t still be with the Crusaders. He should be at a big European club or coaching test footy for someone.

Either way, you feel as if the continued presence of Robertson hampers Foster in some way.

It may be that the Crusaders’ players have Robertson-fatigue and are finding it increasingly hard to play their best rugby. Equally, those players might go into the All Blacks’ environment and wonder why it’s not Robertson who’s coaching them.

The bottom line is that the All Blacks have appeared devoid of energy and ideas in recent seasons and something has to change.

You can go the youth route. You can bin the big boys and plump for all the Plumtrees and Sullivans out there. That’ll certainly change things.

But whether that would be for the better is highly debatable.

The more likely scenario is that our 2023 Rugby World Cup is largely set in stone. That what we’ve already got is what we’re going to get come next year.

In that case, can we can the clamour for new blood and concentrate on trying to get the most out of what’s there already? I mean it’s not as if these blokes aren’t elite rugby players.

Far from encouraging the national selectorial and coaching staff to unearth new talent, we should be demanding that they get performances out of players who’ve previously proved that they’re up to it.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

4 Comments
M
Miha 980 days ago

Look why is everyone continuing to dis Fossie and Co....you guys do this every world cup cycle. There's no reinventing the wheel at this stage - the Bolter will have to have an exceptional season in every game not the first couple of games, you ningnongs. But more importantly, we can't change the coaching staff, as much as you all want them changed a year out from the RWC, Eggs. The NZR review Panel have reappointed the Coaching team and thats it. So lets place our faith in the people appointed to do the job ....stop smoking crack on the sidelines

S
Skinny Pins 980 days ago

Robertson looks at what a player's strengths are, and gets them to optimise those strengths. Foster and Plumtree get guys in, and immediately focus on their weaknesses in an attempt to make them better all round players. What happens though, is they get filled with self doubt and end up a shadow of themselves. How many times have we seen it? The props who could be world leading scrummagers, are trying to catch and pass like midfield backs and now can't scrum either. Stotutu was bought in and told to harden up and do more work on D, and now can't attack like he used to. Meanwhile Grace was bought in and told to become an attacker and ball player, and now has lost his hardness and defence abilities. Laumape was a ball carrier who got told to be a playmaker, Havili was a playmaker who got told to be a ball carrier. Blackadders was NZ's best blindside in 2021 and immediately got told to be an openside. Papalii was NZ's best openside, and now we're told he might be played at blindside. On and on it goes. It is coaching of the lowest standard, and Joe Schmidt is just more of the same. Foster is like Jacinda... everyone knows by now how bad it is but we're stuck with it for another couple of years.

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 43 minutes 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.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold Key Wallabies trio running hot a year after being left in cold
Search