Retallick, Meads are best AB locks of past 50 years
The Chiefs enforcer has overtaken Andy Haden due to his mix of skill and physical edge.
THREE years ago, for a book I was writing, I chose my All Blacks 15 of the last 50 years.
One of the locks was, of course, the great Colin Meads, who people in the media world, like myself, have poorly served by concentrating on his hardman persona rather than the brilliant set of skills he brought to the game.
The other was Andy Haden. ‘‘He had the prefect physique for a lock, but more importantly there’s never been a more quickthinking, crafty forward in the game.’’
If I was writing the book today I’d pick Brodie Retallick ahead of Haden.
There are many good reasons why the Chiefs have made such a terrific start to the 2017 season.
Aaron Cruden is playing with razor sharpness at first-five, Damien MacKenzie shows every week that while defences may be more familiar with him, that doesn’t mean they’ve worked out how to stop him, and there’s a unity of aggression in the forwards that, as it was for the Highlanders and the Blues, was too much for the Hurricanes to deal with.
But if there’s one man who gives the Chiefs an edge, it’s Retallick.
It certainly helps that he’s a giant of a man, at 2.04m (nearly 6ft 9in) and 120kg. Off the field, in his rimless glasses, Retallick, who when he was first at the Chiefs amused everyone by riding to training on a tiny 50cc scooter, doesn’t present as ruthless, more like a genial high school chemistry teacher who accidently drank the growth serum.
However, what makes him so special on the rugby field is how he uses that size and strength with devastating effect when cleaning out a breakdown, or making a tackle.
You could say the toughness runs in the family. His maternal uncle is former All Black prop John Ashworth, a man who would joke that to protect his macho image as a player he had to quit a job as a commercial artist at The Press newspaper, and ‘‘harden up my hands’’ working as a truck driver and stacking carcasses at the Kaiapoi freezing works.
In the lineout Retallick’s already reached a point in his career, given that he doesn’t turn 26 until the end of May, where his presence alone makes opposing jumpers uneasy. As Brian Lochore once said, ‘‘There are some players you look across at in the first lineout, and think, ‘I’m in for a hell of a tough time today.’’’
The huge tweak in Retallick’s game is the amazing range of skills he brings to the party. As the hugely gifted Springbok lock Victor Matfield said before he played against Retallick in a 2014 super game, ‘‘He’s all over the park and he makes a lot of passes, he doesn’t just always take the contact. He’s a very talented player.’’
At the end of that year Retallick was voted world player of the year, and since then he’s become, if anything, more street smart.
For the Chiefs and the All Blacks he’s not so much a first choice selection, as a man to build a pack, if not a whole team, around. ● ‘‘All we want,’’ said Steven Luatua, still clearly embarrassed by his brain fade red card, to Andrew Saville on ONE news on Friday night, ‘‘is consistency.’’ Just a couple of hours later the Chiefs’ Michael Leitch made a late, high shoulder charge in Hamilton and was only given a yellow card.
So consistency by referees is clearly an issue.
There’s an even bigger one that rarely gets addressed. I applaud entirely any moves to reduce the risk of brain injury, a less politically correct, but entirely accurate, way to describe concussion.
Using red cards for high shots to encourage legal tackling embarrasses a player, and penalises his team, but in the process the innocent victims are the fans who have paid good money for their ticket, or their Sky subscription.
The Highlanders-Blues game turned when Luatua was sent off. If Leitch had been red-carded (as he well might have) with 20 GETTY IMAGES minutes, not two minutes, to go in Hamilton, as the Canes looked to be staging a comeback, that match might have turned on a red card too.
In 2017 professional rugby is show business. Check out #superboomboom if you don’t believe me.
So it should be. There’s so much competition for the sporting dollar that not providing the best show is a path to disaster.
So why don’t we consider the fact that turning a contest, changing the spectacle, on the whim of a referee (as in Luatua, red, and Leitch, yellow) just doesn’t make sense?
If Mick Jagger red carded Keith Richards for hitting a bum note halfway through a Rolling Stones concert, do we think the fans would be happy? Rugby spectators pay to see a real contest, not a battle made uneven by 15 playing 14, or even 13.
So how do you penalise reckless or foul play?
I believe that a red-carded player should be replaced on the field and then, if the judiciary finds him guilty, hit with a draconian fine.
In a professional world, letting down your team-mates by being ordered off may be embarrassing, even humiliating, but how much would losing several weeks’ wages sting?