Nehe pushes for ABS jersey
Nehe Milner-skudder is the player you watch if you want to feel like a kid again. He’s a magician in a game that can feel it has been overtaken by scientists.
That magic has been harder to find this year as Milner-skudder makes his way back from two years blighted by injury.
Yet against the Blues last Saturday night there were some good signs: the Milner-skudder step was back and the All Blacks’ No 14 jersey looks like a possibility again.
His timing is perfect. The Hurricanes have a minimum of two games left in the Super Rugby season and it is the time of year the All Blacks selectors really start to take notice.
What they won’t have missed against the Blues in Wellington was the Milner-skudder double step that turned two Blues into statues in the first half. That’s the sort of signal that says confidence is coming back.
The other part of Milner-skudder’s game, which no other right wing option can match, is his ability as a ball player.
He is remarkably comfortable with popping up at first receiver to use his strong distribution skills, off either hand.
And his role is setting up the Hurricanes’ second try, to Ngani Laumape, showed how confident the Hurricanes are in using him as the player who puts other people into gaps.
From quality lineout ball – the Hurricanes are a different side when the set-piece works – Milner-skudder took the ball to the line and, with an almost imperceptible shuffle of the feet, fixed his defender and put Laumape into the gap.
Granted, the inexperienced Blues midfield had been identified as a weakness by the Hurricanes, but you still have to have the players who can execute a planned move, at high speed, in game conditions.
Of course, Milner-skudder’s audition for an All Blacks starting place might already be too late.
There is clearly a lot of faith in Jordie Barrett at fullback, pushing Ben Smith to the right wing. This makes particular sense against the Wallabies, with Barrett’s size and aerial prowess an obvious attraction against Israel Folau.
However, there are a few factors in Milner-skudder’s favour.
The pointy end of test rugby might not seem like the place for magic any more, but the All Blacks selectors have have shown themselves to be something of old rugby romantics.
They backed Milner-skudder at the 2015 World Cup, even after a tricky semifinal in which he was targeted by the Fourie du Preez-bryan Habana double act, and backed him again last year when his came back from the first of his serious shoulder injuries.
They will naturally be looking for more evidence that Milner-skudder’s body can withstand the rigours of topend rugby but his wizardry has always appealed to them.
It’s a philosophy that we have seen embraced again with the selection of Damian Mckenzie. The brilliant Chief is becoming an intercept magnet for the opposition – the Brumbies’ Christian Lealiifano was the latest to pick him off in Hamilton last Saturday – but it won’t dissuade the All Blacks from sticking to their plan with him.
At the least, Milner-skudder may usurp Waisake Naholo in the All Blacks pecking order.
For all of the Highlanders wing’s attributes, the All Blacks have looked at their best in recent years when have power on one wing and guile on the other.
The All Blacks often talk about having a variety of threats, and Milnerskudder’s brilliant footwork still sets him apart from anyone in New Zealand.