‘The Bus’ seems to be stuck in neutral
LET’S be honest: All Blacks left wing Julian Savea isn’t having his most memorable of seasons.
Unwanted for the second test against Wales in Wellington, Savea, we were told, needed to get his head straight.
When given permission to return for the dead rubber in Dunedin last night, the information supplied from the All Blacks coaches was that Savea was in a much happier place. Coach Steve Hansen even went as far to say his place wouldn’t be in jeopardy if he didn’t unleash hell at the enclosed stadium.
How did Savea go? Well, a mark of four out of 10 seems fair. It is simply telling it like it is.
His first touch was a shocker: when Welsh playmaker Dan Biggar sent a long kick towards Savea in the 26th second there was no pressure from any chasers, no breeze or rain to complicate the task.
Savea shelled the ball forward. He would have been entitled to give Israel Dagg an elbow in the ribs for adding to the confusion, but the fullback may have felt Savea hadn’t communicated he was going to take the ball. What a shambles.
When another kick was sent his way a few minutes later, Savea again fumbled the pill, this time losing it backwards before regathering it to run up field – and then turn it over in a ruck.
Savea couldn’t be accused of sitting on his left wing picking daisies. He roamed into the backline on several occasions, entering the line in the first half and when Biggar went high he pinged off like so many other defenders have done in the past.
Early in the second half Savea took a high ball to spark a counter-attack, and also ran off halfback Aaron Smith’s shoulder when trying to make metres up the middle.
When play doesn’t go your way – and that is the way rugby is at times – it can be difficult to make an impact.
Given Savea is likely to be retained for the Rugby Championship – before the game Hansen indicated that would be the case – he will have to be in contention to start the opening match against the Wallabies in Sydney on August 20.
But on his performances this season, the selectors would still have to consider returning Waisake Naholo to the left wing and retain Ben Smith – who had a blast in front of his home town crowd and did extremely well to score his try in the corner despite the tackle by Hallam Amos – on the right wing.
Regardless, Hansen will probably feel vindicated in starting Savea, believing he needed to get back on the track to regain some confidence.
There were no such issues with confidence with centre George Moala, who until he was subbed midway through the second half, reinforced the belief that he has the ability to cope in the test arena.
Moala isn’t a test wing, but still possesses top-end gas. He proved that will a couple of scintillating line breaks. He blew one try when he elected to go on his own instead of shifting the ball to a two-man overlap, but redeemed himself when he wriggled over soon after.
When Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith left, the All Blacks midfield was supposed to be a weakness in the shortterm. No chance. Sonny Bill Williams, Ryan Crotty, Malakai Fekitoa, Charlie Ngatai, Seta Tamanivalu and Moala are all options.