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Watch: All Blacks star Caleb Clarke leaves destruction in his wake against Wallabies in Bledisloe Cup II

Caleb Clarke of the All Blacks makes a break during the Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies at Eden Park on October 18, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

In only his second test match, Caleb Clarke has well and truly announced himself to the world.

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The 21-year-old has been phenomenal all afternoon, and has had social media buzzing about his ability which is proving tough for the Wallabies to control.

Clarke has continued to create headaches with plenty of tough and effective runs. With under 20-mintues to play, the winger has run the most metres of any player on the field by 50-metres, having run 138 metres from eight carries.

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Equally as impressive, he’s also beaten 10 defenders.

Just a couple of minutes into the second half, a couple of strong runs from the winger contributed to the 10 phases of play which saw Jordie Barrett cross for his second try in two weeks.

But then, four minutes later, it was the All Blacks number 11 who once again stood out, with a moment of individual brilliance. It appeared to be just an ordinary clearance from Wallabies flyhalf James O’Connor, but Clarke made something special out of nothing.

In this particular play, he returned the ball with intent, bumping off five defenders on a 40-metre run. After running through the defence of James Slipper and Nic White, most impressively, Clarke managed to somehow stay on his feet near the 22-metre line when five gold jerseys attempted to stop him.

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He was eventually pulled down by White, but the damage was well and truly done. The All Blacks had numbers out left, and a nicely weighted pass from Richie Mo’unga to Ardie Savea, saw the hosts attack with a six on one.

Still, Savea had no need to pass and ran in for the All Blacks second try in just under seven minutes.

Running off, Clarke received a standing ovation from the Eden Park crowd, his home venue. It seems that Clarke has a promising future in the All Blacks.

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fl 8 hours ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Smith generally isn't well connected to his forward pods; doesn't do a great job of distributing to those around him; and has inferior positional and contestable kicking games than Ford and Fin.


When England have had success over the past few years, its been either through (i) defensive rugby backed up with smart tactical kicking or (ii) high possession attacking phase play based on quick ruck ball. George Ford was key to the implementation of (i) in the RWC, and in the 6N win over Wales, and to the implementation of (ii) in the 6N games against Ireland and France. Smith did great at (ii) when running at tired defenders at the end of the Ireland match, but has never successfully implemented that gameplan from the start of a test because he doesn't distribute or support his forwards enough to create consistent fast ball and build attacks over multiple phases. Instead, his introduction to the starting side has resulted in much more playmaking responsibilities being forced onto whoever plays 9. Alex Mitchell copes ok with that, but I think he looks better with a more involved playmaking 10 outside him, and it really isn't a gameplan that works for JVP or Spencer. As a result of that the outside backs and centres have barely touched the ball when Smith has been at 10.


This might not have been too much of a disaster, as England have seemed to be moving slightly towards the sort of attacking gameplan that France played under Labit and Quins play (I think this was especially their approach when they won the league a few years ago - but its still a part of their play now), which is based on kicking to create broken field rugby. This is (i) a sharp departure from the gameplans that have worked for England in the past few seasons; (ii) bears very little relation to the tactical approaches of the non-Quins players in the England team; and (iii) is an absolute disaster for the blitz defence, which is weak in transition. Unsurprisingly, it has coincided with a sharp decline in England's results.

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