Playmaker factories coach with ‘freedom’
Tasesa Lavea knows plenty about being a Super Rugby first-five.
After all, he was one for a few years in the mid-to-late 2000s, with the Blues and the Chiefs, before heading to France.
Now he’s back in Auckland coaching the King’s College first XV, and what he finds most notable about the 1A competition is how brutal it is.
‘‘The physicality of the 1A is pretty intense, and it’s pretty brutal,’’ he said.
That physicality does play a part, he said, in why the region seems to struggle to produce not only firstfives, but halfbacks as well, with those less physical roles somewhat marginalised as a result.
Another first XV coach who knows plenty about first-fives is Rhys Archibald, who is currently at Christchurch Boys’ High School, the closest thing the country has to a firstfive factory, and was previously at Palmerston North Boys’ High School, at the same time Aaron Cruden was coming through.
In teams Archibald has been involved with, first-fives are given plenty of freedom, he said.
‘‘We believe that we’ve got to teach the kids to play what’s in front of them, we haven’t got set structures and patterns like that, and the boys have to make a huge amount of decisions while they’re out there. We put a whole heap of responsibility on their shoulders.’’
The list of first-fives to come out of Christchurch Boys’ is quite something, with seven featuring in Super Rugby at some point since 2010 alone – Andrew Horrell, Colin Slade, Dan Carter, Fletcher Smith, Marty Banks, Stephen Brett and Tim Bateman, who There is a huge correlation between these guys playing cricket and being first five-eighths. Colin Slade, Dan Carter, they were good cricket players as well. is with the Crusaders this season, but more as general backline cover than as a first-five.
Most of those were before Archibald’s time, and when it comes to explaining how and why it has happened, all he can point to is something that could be true at any school.
‘‘There is a huge correlation between these guys playing cricket and being first five-eighths,’’ he said.
‘‘Colin Slade, Dan Carter, they were good cricket players as well, or they were all good at some other sport. They were all what we call ‘double A sportsmen’ at school, so they represented two first teams. Josh McKay [a recent graduate, who is in the New Zealand under-20s mix] was a very good runner and a Canterbury rep touch rugby player; Fletcher Smith was also an awesome touch rugby player.’’
It’s a theory Lavea thinks has some merit.
‘‘Good 10s are good sportsmen who should be good at sports other than just rugby,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m just a big fan of young men, 17 and 18-year-olds, not specialising in just one code.
‘‘Obviously some kids are different in that they’re not good at other sports, but if you’re a good athlete at school, you should be playing more than one code.’’