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‘Can rely on him’: Why the All Blacks have to select Shaun Stevenson

(Photo By David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Legendary halfback Justin Marshall believes All Blacks selectors would be “very brave” to “leave” the high-flying Shaun Stevenson out of their squad for The Rugby Championship.

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Stevenson has taken his game to an all-new level in Super Rugby Pacific this season, and has been one of the standout players for the Chiefs throughout their unbeaten run.

Led by the likes of Stevenson and playmaker Damian McKenzie, the Chiefs have overcome every test that has come their way this season – having won all 10 of their matches so far.

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Stevenson has played a key role in their success, having scored the most tries out of any player in the competition.

The 26-year-old has been nothing short of sensational for the Chiefs.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster has recently highlighted Stevenson and Chiefs teammate Emoni Narawa as potential bolters, saying “it’s a good time to be playing well as an outside back.”

But, going off his form this season, Stevenson would have to be the front-runner for an All Blacks callup.

Former New Zealand international Justin Marshall has called on the All Blacks to “have the courage” to select Stevenson, who he believes should line-up on the wing for the national team.

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“It’s not about going to the World Cup with an unknown player, we’ve always had it in our mantra that form players with potential who are playing well… have the courage to pick them,” Marshall told SENZ’s The Rugby Run.

“At the moment, you would have to have a really strong argument to say that he didn’t deserve a jersey.

“The one area that I thought okay, I can see all the razzle-dazzle but I want to have a really good look at you and I did at the weekend, was defensively.

“I tell you what, he makes his tackles and he read the game really well defensively and that’s equally important to as what you do on offence.

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“You’d be a very brave person at this stage of the season to leave him out, but they, there’s finals footy to come and a lot of high-pressure games.

“Can he maintain (his form) because now he’s going to be massively, heavily marked and under a lot more pressure than what he’s used to because he’s playing so well.

“Every time he’s running out at the moment, he’s just creating havoc.

“If it’s not for himself, scoring tries, he’s creating for others and at the moment, you can rely on him doing something pretty spectacular in a game.”

If it was up to Marshall, Stevenson would play on the wing for the All Blacks alongside fullback Will Jordan.

Following a lengthy stint on the sidelines, Jordan made his return to Super Rugby Pacific with the Crusaders last weekend – and the 21 Test All Black didn’t skip a beat.

In fact, Jordan was one of the Crusaders’ best against the Western Force in Christchurch.

Without a doubt, the pair could help form a formidable back-three trio alongside the likes of Caleb Clarke, Leicester Fainga’anuku, or another contender.

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1 Comment
G
G 593 days ago

"Very stupid" might be better wording if Foster excludes Stevenson

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G
GrahamVF 27 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

"has SA actually EVER helped to develop another union to maturity like NZ has with Japan," yes - Argentina. You obviously don't know the history of Argentinian rugby. SA were touring there on long development tours in the 1950's

We continued the Junior Bok tours to the Argentine through to the early 70's

My coach at Grey High was Giepie Wentzel who toured Argentine as a fly half. He told me about how every Argentinian rugby club has pictures of Van Heerden and Danie Craven on prominent display. Yes we have developed a nation far more than NZ has done for Japan. And BTW Sa players were playing and coaching in Japan long before the Kiwis arrived. Fourie du Preez and many others were playing there 15 years ago.


"Isaac Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.[1][2] Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour,[2] it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas. Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.[1][2] Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style. The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.[1]"


After the promise made by Junior Springbok manager JF Louw at the end of a 12-game tour to Argentina in 1959 – ‘I will do everything to ensure we invite you to tour our country’ – there were concerns about the strength of Argentinian rugby. South African Rugby Board president Danie Craven sent coach Izak van Heerden to help the Pumas prepare and they repaid the favour by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park.

149 Go to comments
J
JW 6 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

149 Go to comments
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