Sorting Crotty combo
Crusaders back will start against France with his midfield partner likely to be Laumape or Lienert-Brown
Having been passed fit, Ryan Crotty will now almost certainly start in the All Blacks midfield on Saturday against France.
But which position he’ll be in and who will be alongside him still remains educated guesswork.
If Sonny Bill Williams hadn’t suffered a knee injury last week, there would have been no mystery. Williams at second-five and Crotty at centre — that would have been the All Blacks’ midfield selection and it wouldn’t have taken them overly long to make it either.
But no Williams means a host of permutations are now possible because Crotty can play in either midfield berth.
Since making his debut in 2013, Crotty has split his test career between second-five and centre. When he’s been partnered with Williams, as happened in nine tests last year, he’s played exclusively at centre.
But in 2016, Crotty formed a brief but encouraging combination with Anton Lienert-Brown, with the latter at centre.
Given those two have test history playing with one another and are the two most experienced midfielders in the squad, there is a solid argument to be made they should be the starting combination to play France at Eden Park.
There is, however, an equally good argument that says if Crotty is almost certain to return to centre once Williams recovers — at the end of the month — then the better longterm option is to keep him at No 13 in June and promote the hardrunning, specialist No 12 Ngani Laumape.
The Hurricanes second-five has been in bruising form in Super Rugby and in one aspect — he takes on the line with a direct running game and looks to offload out of contact — is a similar player to Williams.
A Laumape-Crotty combination seems to make as much sense as a Crotty-Lienert-Brown combination but assistant coach Ian Foster wasn’t providing any clues as to which way the selectors are thinking.
“Not really,” Foster said when asked if there was a view about which of the two roles Crotty was better suited.
“I think we probably play a game where they can interchange. If you ask him, he is probably erring towards No 12, I think, because he gets in pretty well in the first receiver role and our 12 does that a little bit more for us. Whenever he is 13, it is just a matter of rearranging a couple of things, so it is not too hard.
“We have got a whole lot of different types of midfielders and I like that because I think you need that.
“But the things that are nonnegotiable about the midfield regardless of your skillset, you have got to be a great communicator, you have to run good lines, you have to be able to throw short passes and wide passes under pressure and I guess add to that, some of the kicking options.
“If you look at Ryan, he ticks most of those boxes and his ability to run nice lines is one of his biggest strengths, so if you get those things right and make good decisions at the end of it, then you don’t always have to be the fastest or strongest. He is calm but he works his butt off to get into the right position to be able to see what he needs to see.”
Whichever combination is selected, the key challenge will be to deliver an attacking game that breaks one of the best defensive sides in the world game.
The French conceded the least tries in the Six Nations and had the highest successful tackle rate and it is apparent that new coach Jacques Brunel made focusing on defence his first priority when installed earlier this year.
Foster, though, suggested that the French focus may change slightly in New Zealand.
“Under a new coaching regime in the Six Nations, they started with one part of their game, which was the defensive side,” said Foster.
“They got a lot right and so with their selections, I’m guessing the next part of their plan is the other part of their game, which is the attack side, and we are going to have to go in with our eyes open.”
It’s not a source of comfort that concussion has become the most prevalent injury in elite rugby but it is a welcome sign of the changing times that senior All Blacks are able to be so refreshingly honest about it and the challenges head knocks pose them.
Ryan Crotty and Ben Smith, two players who have suffered repeat bouts of concussion, were happy to field questions about their respective personal battles, and in the former’s case, the journey he has endured to be passed fit and available for the first test on Saturday.
Crotty hasn’t played since he was forced off in the first half of the Crusaders clash with the Blues on May 19 following a head knock. Symptoms persisted for almost two weeks, forcing him to miss the games against the Hurricanes and Chiefs and leave him in doubt for the first test at Eden Park.
But by the time he reported for All Blacks duty on Sunday, he had done enough to prove he was all clear and is now expected to take his place in the All Blacks midfield.
“I’m good,” he said. “Refreshed and excited is how I would say I’m feeling. I had the last couple of weeks off but I did what needed to be done to get right and I am fit and available this week.
“That’s the process. Rest until you have no symptoms and once you have no symptoms, you can start to train again and gradually increase the intensity, whether that is lifting weights, running or contact.
“That’s kind of how the doctors set it out but it is a little bit different to your hamstring because it’s your brain but you’re just as diligent and make sure it’s right before you come back and play again.”
Smith is set to play his first test since he took a four-month sabbatical following last year’s second Bledisloe Cup test.
Before taking that break, he was badly affected by a major head knock he suffered in the first test against the Lions — an injury that came only a
couple of weeks after he’d returned from another concussion. He was eventually diagnosed with vertigo but the anxiety he suffered when he was hit by prolonged periods of dizziness was intense.
Having been through that, he says that it is critical for his peers to not suffer in silence or try to hide how they are feeling.
“I think it’s always important to be honest with the doctors so they
know how you’re feeling,” he says.
“If you’re not the best person out there to be doing that role, the good thing is that within the team there will be someone who can slot straight in there and do that role.”
Smith revealed that having suffered repeat knocks in quick succession last year, he had to contemplate the potential longterm consequences to his health.
Crotty, who has suffered two concussions this year and two last year, says he monitors his recovery from concussion carefully and also tracks his brain function every year to be sure there is no long-term deterioration of his mental capabilities.
“If I wasn’t to bounce back from one [ concussion] as quickly as I tend to, then maybe you would think like that [giving up rugby],” he says.
“Potentially if they start to get worse. They are really diligent with it in the environment, so you meet with some experienced doctors and I do a lot of diligence around it myself.
“At the start of each season, I get tested to make sure that I’m round the same point each season. If that was starting to trend badly, then that would be something I would look at a little more deeply, but until then, I’m happy to keep going out there and keep putting my body on the line.”