Decision to blood up-and-comers against Lions difficult call
Knowing what to do with those rugby players who are leaving soon is going to be one of the tougher selection issues for the All Blacks as they plan for 2017.
There are going to be a couple of 50:50 calls on the periphery of the squad that aren’t going to be simple. What to do with Aaron Cruden, Charlie Faumuina and Tawera KerrBarlow, who leave for France once Super Rugby finishes?
The latter two have been All Blacks squad regulars for the past five years and in the case of Cruden, seven. Cruden and Faumuina have been hugely important members of the match day 23 for most of that period.
They are both experienced, gifted and for most of their time in the test arena made strong cases to be regular starters.
There’s no reason to imagine Cruden and Faumuina, and also Kerr-Barlow who has been in strong early form for the Chiefs, will do anything to demerit their case for inclusion in the squad to play the Lions. Every reasonable assessment says the Lions have to be taken seriously; that they will have the potential to win the series. The All Blacks also want to play well and win every test. And to achieve that goal, coach Steve Hansen will be driven by doing what he considers to be best for the team. The question, though, is whether he and the other coaches deem it best for the team to pick players who won’t be available beyond the Lions series. Would the All Blacks be better off blooding the next contenders who sit behind or level with the likes of Cruden, Faumuina and Kerr-Barlow?
In the case of Cruden for instance, given the importance of having an experienced, capable and confident first-five to work alongside Beauden Barrett, should Lima Sopoaga and/or Damian McKenzie be given that back-up seat against the Lions?
What better way to get Sopoaga ready for the season ahead than to give him game time against the
Lions? He’s going to be heavily involved once Cruden goes, so why not make that transition sooner rather than later? Against that, though, the case has to be made that Cruden is the better test player right now. As great for Hansen as it would be to broaden Sopoaga’s experience, the goal is to win and to that end, Cruden is surely the right selection.
The situation is much the same with Faumuina, who has job-shared the tighthead prop role with Owen Franks for five years. These two are a proven combination — Franks softens up opponents for the first 50 minutes and Faumuina comes on to finish them off in the last half hour.
Again, it seems Faumuina is the right choice to play the Lions, but once he goes, the All Blacks are going to be short on experienced options to work with Franks.
They are going to miss Faumuina. His loss will hurt them in the short term as the next cab off the rank is Nepo Laulala — a good player with some international experience but a long way off being as composed and capable in the test arena as Faumuina.
But the Blues man is taking nothing for granted. “I have to be selected — and I know that is going to be harder now that I am going,” he says.
“There are also a few props playing good rugby. It would be great to get the opportunity but it was all part of the decision to go overseas.
“I understand if they don’t pick me,” says Faumuina. “That will be cool, but I’ll be happy to play against the Lions.”
If the case to include Cruden and Faumuina is strong, it’s perhaps a different story at halfback. Given the quality of Aaron Smith and TJ Perenara, the All Blacks might pick just those two to play the Lions.
If they need a third due to injury, it will be easy enough to call one up and it might be that Augustine Pulu, who is in supreme form, is the man chosen, not Kerr-Barlow.