European trip a massive wake-up call for Southern Hemisphere sides

I would be surprised if he doesn’t have a buyout clause in his last year so that NZR can resign him if needed. 2023 he came into the Blues? That would put him at a similar playing condition to a mid 20’s prime winger age for the 2027 WC. Hard to see him holding his standards in Japan though.

Tele’a has only been exerted to that environment for half that amount of time. He’s had half the amount of time to pick up serious injuries or have his body wear due to constant conditioning stress. It’s a long the same lines of AB’s taking sabbaticals to extend their career (amount of WC’s theyre able to contribute towards).

It’s obviously not as clear cut as that, which is why I’m extra dissapointed we don’t get to see how long Tele’a could have performed at the highest level for. He could have been a good example for NZ changing tactics and how players are brought into the system. Of course if it’s your career, you want to raise your earning potential as fast as possible just like anyone else, so it might be hard to convince players, even fans like yourself, that their is more potential in have a longer career down the line, as we’ve seen players well managed now lasting into their 40s.

Officiating has changed a lot over the last few weeks though.

Nobody would suggest that. Maori are the indigenous people of NZ. To play for that team you must have Maori ancestry.

Why put Big Jim on the wing and the young fella at 12? Jake could have played wing but far more sensible would have been for Gilbert to. Why breed the new guys in in a game like this? It was bad enough having no Robinson for this game.

Also across the park play looked so confused yet still one dimensional. Fakatava even threw a lame pass to the weakest player on the tam 3 meters out from the goal line, because his instincts (and peripheral vision) were all crying out ”run through the hole”. He could have done a number of things to get an easy score but he ended up doing the only thing that gave the Crusaders a chance of defending. There was a period their this season he said they didn’t try to overawe, over coach them, and just wanted to let them play. I suggest the players on the field have better instincts/tactical knowledge about what’s best to do than their coaching staff can impart differently.

That was of course when their number one halves pair starting, Hastie and Robinson, with Jim and Tele’a outside them. Lasaqa inside. This was a completely different team but still exhibiting some of the same fundamental problems (other than the scrum). I mean either team were far from the seasoned outfit of a Crusaders side but I at least saw potential against quality opposition in their earlier games.