The major challenge ahead for New Zealand's once premier wing

Sevu Reece no doubt had to think long and hard about signing a new contract with New Zealand Rugby.

With the World Cup on the horizon, that may come as a bit of a surprise. After all, what All Black would give up the chance of playing at the showpiece tournament?

But Reece’s place in the side has come under pressure in recent times and there are no guarantees that the 25-year-old will be needed by Ian Foster when the New Zealand national side travels to France next September.

After just one season of Super Rugby, Reece was whistled into the All Blacks at the beginning of 2019 and by the time that year’s World Cup rolled around, the Crusaders winger had entrenched himself as the side’s first-choice No 14.

That was really on the back of one particularly strong game in black when NZ smashed Australia in their Bledisloe Cup rematch at Eden Park after the Wallabies had come out trumps in Perth a few weeks earlier.

In that initial loss, the experienced pairing of Ben Smith and Rieko Ioane struggled to set the world alight whereas Reece and George Bridge did enough to convince Steve Hansen that their youthful exuberance was the way forward.

The combo’s stranglehold on the winger’s berths lasted just a few months, however. After starting in NZ’s three biggest games of the World Cup, against South Africa in the pool stages, Ireland in the quarter-finals and England in their fateful semi-final showdown, Hansen reverted to Smith and Ioane for the bronze play-off – in part to farewell Smith and the other men who were set to play their final games in black.

In 2020, however, Bridge and Reece didn’t reclaim their jerseys.

The former was on hand in the opening match of the season but a training-ground injury prematurely ended his season, and debutant Caleb Clarke took the opportunity to establish himself on the left wing.

Reece, however, saw utility back Jordie Barrett installed on the right for all but one of the campaign’s six fixtures, and was given just 80 minutes of action to satisfy his hunger.

While Foster moved away from experimenting with Barrett on the wing last year, Reece instead found himself competing with Crusaders teammate Will Jordan for minutes. With Rieko Ioane focusing primarily on the midfield, Clarke away with the national sevens side and Bridge struggling to find form, Reece pivoted and spent almost as much time on the left wing throughout 2021 as he did on the right.

Now, in 2022, Clarke is back in action in the No 11 jersey, Jordan is a permanent selection at No 14 and Reece has once again found himself sitting on the outside looking in. After starting in the All Blacks’ opening three Tests of the season – when Jordan and Clarke struggled with injury and illness – Reece was entirely absent for the next six games in a row before getting 12 minutes of action off the bench against the Wallabies in NZ’s most recent fixture.

All things considered, it’s been a tough couple of years for a winger who’s barely put a foot wrong in the black jersey.

Now, Reece is competing with Jordan, Clarke and new man Leicester Fainga’anuku for opportunities on the park – and there doesn’t seem to be an obvious way forward for the 25-year-old unless injuries strike.

Despite playing in the centres during his younger years and boasting a strong long-distance kicking game, Reece is very much considered a winger through-and-through by the national selectors and isn’t seen to boast enough utility value to regularly feature off the bench.

He’s quick, but not quite as quick or versatile as Jordan. He’s strong but doesn’t offer the same power game that Clarke or Fainga’anuku brings to the fold. He’s also still young, at just 25 years of age, but still older than any of his immediate rivals for the All Blacks’ wing berths.

All of which is to say that there are no guarantees that Reece will get any meaningful game time for NZ in the months to come and there’s still a very distinct chance that he could miss out on the World Cup squad altogether. For a man who made the most of every opportunity he was given in 2019, those opportunities are going to be more and more difficult to come by as France 2023 looms.

He could have taken a big-money contract offshore – there’d be a number of clubs around the world circling for the danger wing’s signature – but instead Reece has extended his time in New Zealand until beyond next year’s flagship event and will naturally do everything within his power to upset the apple cart and remind Ian Foster and the All Blacks selectors that he can be equally as formidable on the wing as his competitors for the role.

If he can’t shake up the status quo, then don’t be surprised when Sevu Reece eventually does put pen to paper for a foreign club and calls time on his career in New Zealand, just as former teammate George Bridge has now done.