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Stat Attack: Frizell and Jacobson make their cases for World Cup selection

Blindside-Battle

ANALYSIS: There are just four more rounds left in the regular season of Super Rugby. For some players, that means only four more rounds to stake their claim for a spot in the All Blacks.

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The selectors will now have a reasonable idea as to their loose forward composition for the upcoming year. Kieran Read, Ardie Savea and Sam Cane will all be in the squad. All three players can cover at least two different positions in the loose forwards. That leaves room for maybe two more bona fide loosies – probably in the form of two blindside flankers.

Liam Squire is yet to make an appearance in 2019. He will likely be favoured for the squad as the incumbent no. 6 but will be in desperate need of game time before the All Blacks’ big matches. In all likelihood, he will be left out of the squad that travels to Argentina and may instead be tested in the Maori All Blacks’ two matches against Fiji. A call up to the main All Blacks squad for their remaining Rugby Championship tests against South Africa and Australia would cap off his return to top level rugby.

Vaea Fifita and Shannon Frizell, with nine and four caps respectively, are the senior All Blacks blindside options operating in Super Rugby this year. Fifita made his debut for New Zealand in 2017 – one year before Frizell – but lost ground to the Highlanders loosie in 2018.

Luke Jacobson and Tom Robinson have been touted as players for the future but have been turning enough heads in Super Rugby to suggest that they could be close to a call up too. Jacobson has certainly made a big difference for the Chiefs since his return from injury and it’s simply a case of when not if for the big Waikato flanker.

Statistically speaking, Frizell and Jacobson have stood out above their competition.

On attack, Frizell has been the most industrious in the tournament to date. With 59 metres gained for every full match played, Frizell is chewing through more ground than any of the other options. That’s courtesy of making more runs and linebreaks per game.

Frizell is also well ahead of the chasing pack in tackle busts, averaging almost four every game. Jacobson, who’s next closest, is breaking half as many tackles.

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In recent years the All Blacks selectors have preferred players who aren’t afraid to do some of the less glorious work on attack. Jerome Kaino was a good link-man when necessary, but with a number 8 like Read on the field, it was more important for Kaino to hit the ball up in close contact to make space for his teammates.

Perhaps where Frizell stands out the most on attack, then, is in the grunt work. With over three pick and drives to his name per game, Frizell is again ahead of the other three contenders. None of the other options are even averaging one per match.

Jacobson is the other player to put his hand up for creating havoc for opposition teams – best seen in his superlative performance against the Highlanders. Jacobson is making more offloads and creating more linebreaks per game than the other blindside flankers. Jacobson’s ambitious offence, however, has led to him conceding the most turnovers and making the most handling errors per game.

The All Blacks have never been afraid to select players who are willing to chance their arm – there’s such a thing as a positive mistake. They’ll certainly have high hopes for how a player like Jacobson could potentially add to their attack, but maybe as a backup to Read who has a greater license to roam than the blindside flanker of the day.

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Defensively, Jacobson is also performing to a high standard. Robinson has made the most tackles (111) of the contenders, but he’s also played 200 minutes more than Jacobson, who’s made only 9 fewer tackles. At over 14 tackles a game, Jacobson is comfortably the busiest on defence. Jacobson’s tackles are also more dominant than the other players’ and he’s been very successful at cutting down opposing runners’ momentum.

The biggest downside to selecting a player like Jacobson is his size. Jacobson is both shorter and lighter than all three other options, with Robinson at 110kg and 198cm and Fifita at 111kg and 196cm topping the log. This is no better illustrated than in the setpiece, where Fifita, Frizell and Robinson have all been used as genuine lineout options for their Super teams.

Having a blindside flanker on the field who can also be used in the lineouts is a huge boon for any international team and something the All Blacks selectors have always strived for. This factor certainly pushes Jacobson down the queue – the other players can, to some extent, up-skill in the areas that Jacobson excels, but Jacobson will never be the best physical fit for a world class blindsider.

There is one other area, however, where Jacobson has shown himself to be handier than the other candidates, and that’s in winning possession for his team during general play. Jacobson is forcing more penalties than the other three players combined – courtesy of his dominant tackles. Perhaps Jacobson’s size and prowess means openside is his more natural position.

There’s still time for players to make a statement in Super Rugby – especially with the finals series only a month away. Steve Hansen and his fellow All Blacks selectors will be particularly interested in how the possible blindside options perform in knockout matches, which will be more similar environments to test matches. At present, you’d have to expect to see Frizell and Squire selected in the All Blacks squad – but perhaps there’s still some wiggle room that the other candidates will be hoping to exploit.

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F
Flankly 0 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 9 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 38 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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