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LISTEN: Matt Todd, the All Blacks' booty call

Admit it, you’d have him on speed dial

Sometimes you just need someone who you can rely on to hit the spot. A person who can just easily roll into your life and get the job done, and don’t mind if you’ve been committed to someone else since the last time you’ve seen them.

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That’s pretty much the way the All Black coaching staff have treated Matt Todd for his entire career, and it wasn’t lost on The Short Ball podcast hosts Scotty Stevenson and Mils Muliaina. In this week’s episode they’ve labelled the Crusaders flanker with the tag of ‘the All Blacks’ booty call’, after his omission from the Rugby Championship squad.

LISTEN HERE:

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the Urban Dictionary describes a booty call as ‘a late night summons, often made via telephone, to arrange clandestine relationships on an ad hoc basis’.

It’s obvious that if any of the loose forwards so much as stub their toe, Todd will be the first guy that Steve Hansen calls – although it may not be in the middle of the night.

So far in his Super Rugby career, Todd had to put up with the figure of Richie McCaw looming large over the number seven jersey for the Crusaders. However, the All Black captain was frequently put on ice to conserve him for the test season – then latterly used either a number eight or blindside, giving Todd a start on the openside.

His form has landed him eight test caps, mostly off the bench. However his most notable start came in last year’s third Bledisloe Cup test, in which he won Man Of The Match:

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So how should Matt Todd feel about being a booty call? Given that most New Zealanders would give a piece of their anatomy to pull on an All Black jersey, probably not that bad.

But until his phone starts vibrating, you can catch him shaking his booty in the Mitre 10 Cup.

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Tom 8 hours ago
Will Bristol's daredevil 'Bears-ball' deliver the trophy they crave?

Also a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.


I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.


I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.


Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.


“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”

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