Ardie Savea has become one of the most exciting players on the planet and yet he still feels vulnerable and uncertain about his ability to play test football.
ARDIE SAVEA IS A TALENT LIKE NO OTHER. THIS YEAR HE’S HOPING TO ADD YET MORE QUALITIES TO HIS GAME.
It’s not often that a player comes along who doesn’t have any fixed point of reference. Usually, almost always, a player will conform to some kind of expectation.
They might push the boundaries, take certain skills to new levels, but essentially they are an improvement or an adaptation of an existing template.
Not Ardie Savea. He’s different. A lot different and it would be fascinating to show clips of him to someone who didn’t know him but did know the game, and get them to guess what position he plays.
Savea wears No 7 but he could just as easily wear No 12. He could just as easily be a fullback because what makes him work is his athleticism, instincts, speed, skills and awareness.
He isn’t confined by any sense of convention. He really does just play what he sees and the results are at times astonishing. In his career to date he has pulled off some of the most unbelievable turnovers at crucial times.
He has scored tries that only wings could. He has kicked and chased. He has driven over the top of defenders as if he was a 135kg prop.
There’s no way to define Savea, or at least no way to pigeonhole him. He’s not like Richie McCaw. He’s not like Sam Cane or Matt Todd. He’s not like any other No 7 that has been playing anywhere in the world these past two decades.
Some may say he’s closest in style to Michael Jones, but other than both being supremely athletic, there’s not much else to tie them together. Savea himself isn’t even sure nor does he particularly like the idea that he has to be neatly labelled.
“People see some players as fetchers or as ball carriers,” he says. “You have just got to find your strengths. I don’t know what I see myself as and I don’t know what people see me as. I just go out there and be me and work on the little things that I don’t think I am good at.”
That’s typical Savea. He’s not sure because it’s not important in his quest to become better. And he is on a quest – which may surprise a few people who saw him through 2016 and were simply blown away by how good he was.
It felt like Savea could do about anything. He was a miracle rugby player – a sort of forwards version of Beauden Barrett who the Hurricanes would let loose and say nothing more to than go out and play.
It wasn’t so different with the All Blacks. They used him off the bench in the early part of the season and Savea was deadly. It was like having another Barrett on the field – a ball-playing athlete who would pop up anywhere and contribute with a deft pass, a brilliant run or deadly tackle.
There was the almost surreal moment against Wales in Wellington when the crowd, after 55 minutes, chanted for Savea to be brought on.
They went nuts when he did and were out of control when Savea latched onto an offload to make a 40 metre sprint for a try.
It was a moment that said a few things. The first was that Wellington had a new cult hero. The second was confirmation of Savea’s bench value and the third was that he had been right to pull out of chasing his Olympic dream.
Up until April, Savea had been part of New Zealand’s Sevens squad, hoping to go to Rio in August.
“At the start of the year I had my head on to go to the Olympics and I was desperate to be part of that team to go for a gold medal,” he says. “When I was told the Sevens were going to be in the Olympics, I wanted that.
“I guess for me going back to the Hurricanes and experiencing the team environment...it was a gut feeling that I said to myself that I needed to focus on just one thing and that was going to be fifteens. I was enjoying that so much and having fun. That decision panned out well. Winning Super Rugby and making the All Blacks.”
It was in Christchurch where things changed a little for Savea. He was picked to make his first start against the Springboks after Sam Cane had injured his hamstring the week before.
There had been, up until then, an increasingly vocal lobby of fans who had wanted Savea to start ahead of Cane anyway. Injury brought them their wish.
The reason All Blacks coach Steve Hansen had been reluctant to give Savea a start before then was that he had concerns about Savea’s size and physicality. Savea had every box ticked. Hansen loved the package but wise old head that he is, he could also see that Savea wasn’t going to fulfil his test match potential, become a regular starter, until he was able to cope with the impact of the international game.
Test match football is ridiculous these days – there are locks at 125kg and props at 130kg. For loose forwards to hold their own, to be able to stay strong in the contact zones, they have to have a fair bit on them themselves otherwise it is irresistible force hitting immovable object.
“The size of the blokes for a start,” said Hansen on why playing the Boks would be considerably harder than anything Savea had yet faced. “While Super Rugby has got a lot of the similar people, a national team has got a collective group, so the best of the best and South Africa are a team, while they may not be getting the results they would like, when you look at them on paper, they are a good side.
“Backs against the wall, they will be hungry so it will be two or three steps up from where he’s been but we are confident he will manage it.”
It would become a theme for the next few months – Savea’s size, or lack thereof. He’d gone on tour with the All Blacks as an apprentice in 2013 when he was about 95kg.
It wasn’t enough for him to make the impact he wanted when he returned to Super Rugby the following year. So he was
put on a programme to build himself up, and by 2016 he managed to get himself to 102kg and start to really shine.
But, still, Hansen didn’t think it was enough. Savea could play test football at that weight. But Hansen was sure he could play test football a whole lot more effectively if there were another few kilos on Savea’s frame.
After that game against the Boks, Hansen had confirmation that Savea wasn’t ready to start another test.
He’d been knocked off the ball a few times by the Boks and thrown about a bit. He was in the right place, but he just didn’t have the presence to be as effective as he usually was in Super Rugby.
Hansen’s goal is to get more weight on Savea without losing the essence of what he brings to the game. “With Sam playing the way he was, it was probably the best form of his career,” Hansen said after the match against the Boks.
“But he’s gone from being about 102kg when he first came in to about 108kg-109kg and that extra weight gives him a lot more strength and power and he’s able to do things that others can’t.
“Defensively he’s been fantastic. I don’t know if Ardie will get to that weight but he’s certainly come a long way. When he started Super Rugby he was only 95kg. He’s up to about 102kg now so if we can get him up to about 105kg-106kg, which is where I think he will end up, that will be a good weight for him.”
It was a coded warning to those getting too far ahead of themselves in regards to Savea’s progress. What the All Blacks had was a brilliant rugby player. Not quite yet a brilliant openside.
The core skills of a No 7 in test football were not necessarily the ones where Savea excelled. Staying strong over the ball, making dominant tackles, knocking men over when ball carrying – these are the skills that matter and Savea didn’t match up to Cane in those areas.
By the time he came off against the Boks, Savea knew Hansen was right. He knew he had to find that extra bulk and the rest of the season was effectively a long reminder of that each time he played.
“When you are comfortable at what you weigh and you are performing well, you get that scared feeling of changing,” says Savea. “But there is a lot of trust in Steve. He is a bloody awesome coach. There are a lot of stories. Like Reado came in at 105kg and was told that he needed to get up to 112kg. And he told me he thought he would never be able to do that and look at him now.
“I have total trust in them and if they think that will make me a more dominant player then I will go for it. I’m really excited to see where that goes.
“I was loving that physical side of it and I know that in the past that has been the talk about me – that physical battle. I have come to love it and I think that if I was to have an extra few kilos and still be really fit and dynamic then I think would be able to do more.”
BUT THERE IS A LOT OF TRUST IN STEVE. HE IS A BLOODY AWESOME COACH. THERE ARE A LOT OF STORIES. LIKE READO CAME IN AT 105KG AND WAS TOLD THAT HE NEEDED TO GET UP TO 112KG. AND HE TOLD ME HE THOUGHT HE WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO DO THAT AND LOOK AT HIM NOW.’ ARDIE SAVEA
YOU THINK BACK TO THE DAYS WHEN YOU WERE PLAYING AS KIDS IN THE BACKYARD, STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER. I HAVE GOT A GOOD SUPPORT CREW. BUT JULES IS ALWAYS THERE FOR ME AND I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR HIM.’ ARDIE SAVEA
If there was a light-hearted moment of the season in 2016 it came when the Savea boys both started against the Boks in Christchurch. For Ardie, there was the thrill of his first start. For Julian, it was another step in his recovery from a collapse of form, fitness and confidence.
As the two spoke to the media who quizzed Ardie about his lack of size, Julian offered some of his own up, suggesting he had plenty to go around.
It was a moment that illustrated the massive differences between the brothers and yet the closeness of their bond.
They are vastly different characters. They are almost impossible to pick as brothers in regard to their lifestyles, personalities and approaches to life. They don’t strike as being particularly close but they are. They have their own friends and networks within the All Blacks, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t turn to each other in a real time of need.
“Growing up with Julian, he was the guy I wanted to be,” says Ardie. “He was the guy I looked up to. Having a family member in the team and especially in the All Blacks it is almost indescribable. Especially for Mum and Dad.
“You think back to the days when you were playing as kids in the backyard, standing next to each other. I have got a good support crew. But Jules is always there for me and I have always been there for him. He would be the first one I would talk to if I felt I needed to. He understands. He has been here for a long time and seen a lot.”
As for Julian, he’s equally proud of his little brother. “There wasn’t a particular game but just the fact he kept playing on my team, which was about three years older than what his age was,” says Julian of when he first realised the talent his younger sibling possessed.
“That said it all itself really. We were under 10s and he was probably about five and he always got on alongside me for maybe 30 minutes and was tackling some big boys. I knew he was going to be something special – he did tackle harder than a five-year-old would, if you know what I mean.”
There’s a feeling now that with a year of test football under his belt and maybe a couple more kilos safely on the system, that this is going to be the year Savea junior takes his game to the next level.
This is potentially going to be the year when he starts to deliver the doublewhammy package of high-impact, open-play rugby combined with the graft and grind that is the component part of his job.
Imagine Savea doing everything he currently does but with that little bit more edge and impact. It’s a frightening thought because if he can do that, there really won’t be a point of reference. He really will be rewriting what is possible in a No 7.