Kaino leaves huge boots to fill
Two Highlanders want the No 6 jersey but Liam Squire may have the edge, reports Liam Napier.
Jerome Kaino missing a test is almost as rare as an Owen Franks try.
The bruising Blues blindside has started 15 of the past 16 tests for the All Blacks, including all seven at last year’s World Cup, and certainly showed no signs of slowing down despite turning 33 this season.
Kaino will join the All Blacks for their final Rugby Championship match in Durban – a clear indication they expect the tussle with the Springboks to be their toughest of the tournament.
But his absence from this week’s assignment in Buenos Aires with a shoulder complaint opens the door for Liam Squire or Elliot Dixon.
Of the two, Squire probably has the inside running for the six jersey in what would be his first test start.
Since returning from Japan 2013, Kaino once again made the blindside role his own.
Liam Messam and Victor Vito mounted challenges at various times but neither usurped the incumbent for prolonged periods.
That’s because Kaino sets the bar so high in the physicality stakes.
He’s a rare beast; one of those players you genuinely never want to collide with, and would much rather have in your team.
Kaino is the type of player who doesn’t just stop players but hurts them. With the right amount of line speed and connection he can knock anyone into next week. There are times when crowds shudder almost in sympathy after a typically crunching Kaino tackle.
His strength will always be encapsulated in the act of manhandling former Wallabies wing Digby Ioane, who will join the Crusaders next season, in the 2011 World Cup semifinal at Eden Park.
In the All Blacks Kaino, along with the likes of Franks, carry the enforcer mantle.
Kaino has come to define the blindside brief. He carries hard, generally over the advantage line, defends with purpose, wins lineout ball when required, and often features in the close channels to allow Kieran Read to roam.
Consider all that and then think about Squire and Dixon’s attributes.
The All Blacks don’t tend to compensate for players. They’re not about to pick Quade Cooper at No 10 and then figure out how to protect him in the front line defence.
When it comes to replacing Kaino against the Pumas this week, the All Blacks won’t expect Squire and Dixon to be a mirror image of the incumbent per se. They’ll be allowed to bring their own strengths and be given the confidence to be themselves but must also fit within the existing, successful structures.
Squire appeals on this front. He possesses similar raw-boned power and loves the contact, both with ball in hand and on defence. Dixon, who played 80 minutes for Southland last Wednesday, is a better lineout option and offloads well but in his one test start against Wales in Dunedin didn’t show the same ability to physically dominate, though that is a small sample.
There’s a bit of mongrel about Squire. While he’s played most of his Super Rugby career both for the Chiefs and Highlanders at No 8, his three tests off the bench and 57 minutes in total this year have come at blindside.
Clearly, behind the scenes, the All Blacks are grooming him to cover both positions. And at 25 he is well worth the investment.
A maiden test start at No 6 would usher in the next phase in that development.
With two relatively new loose forwards – Ardie Savea the other – it would surprise to see the All Blacks make mass changes elsewhere, even with the Rugby Championship already locked up.
Fitness permitting, it might be a good chance to ease back midfielder George Moala and Waisake Naholo from the bench after injury layoffs.