Blues do themselves no favours
All Blacks captain Kieran Read will return to top level rugby this weekend after more than seven months battling a serious back injury. The 32-year-old test veteran was yesterday included in the Crusaders’ starting lineup for the southern Super Rugby derby tomorrow night against the Highlanders in Christchurch, after undergoing spinal surgery late last year.
Read had an impressive 40 minutes for Counties Manukau last week, after last featuring in the All Blacks’ 22-17 defeat of Scotland in Edinburgh on November 19.
He had surgery on a prolapsed lumbar disc in his back in December, after also going under the knife for a fractured thumb in April last year.
The Crusaders cemented their place at the top of the Super
Rugby table last week without having to play a match, and they’re bound to be stronger with the return of Read — even if he admits to not being fully match fit.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Read. “I’ve obviously gotta keep the standard up cause
Kieran Read. When Beauden Barrett’s contract was up for renewal in 2016 every club in New Zealand wanted him but only the Hurricanes were going to get him.
Barrett, who grew up watching the Hurricanes for whom his father played, never once considered leaving the club he had joined in 2011 as a 19-year-old.
“It would be hard to see him move from there,” said Blues coach Tana Umaga at the time, while confirming he’d made an offer to Barrett.
“We’ve shown interest and we’ll see how that goes. But we are not banking on him leaving because he’s such an integral part [of the team] down there.”
It was the same when Kieran Read was off contract in early 2017. He was never going to leave the Crusaders or give the prospect a thought.
Ben Smith, born and bred in Dunedin, has never been on the market in New Zealand. He looked at offshore clubs in early 2017, but once he knew he was staying in New Zealand, it was only ever going to be with the Highlanders.
The best players in the country don’t waver when it comes to making a commitment to their Super Rugby club. The likes of Barrett, Read, Smith, Dane Coles, Aaron Smith, Ryan Crotty, Owen Franks, Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock have never felt the need to ask whether it would be they’ve been going pretty good. [I’m] 100 per cent ready to go. Probably won’t be doing 80 [minutes] but I’m ready to get the game started.”
Read showed no signs of discomfort playing for Counties Manukau but admitted after the match that it will take time to get back to his best. He says getting the start against the Highlanders will be a good opportunity to work towards getting back to full fitness.
“I’m not [back] in terms of match fitness, a wee way off that. But I think starting, you get the opportunity to just empty the tank.
“In terms of the back it actually feels really good. It’s a bonus . . . [there’s] no pain at all. It’s all good.
“It was actually really good to get that hit-out last week and go for it 100 per cent. The back’s not the issue, it’s gonna be all the other things.”
Joining Read in the Crusaders team for the Kiwi derby are 10 All Blacks who will all be returning to Super Rugby action after sweeping France in their three-game series. However, Tim Perry and Luke Romano aren’t named, while 66-test veteran Israel Dagg misses out despite being fit and available. “It was the toughest decision for us,” Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson explained. Robertson says Dagg, who will play club rugby this weekend, will get another chance before the Super Rugby regular season ends, and he’ll need to take it to force his way into the table-topping side. better for their respective careers to switch Super Rugby allegiance.
The Blues, as is often the case, are the exception. For the last decade, maybe longer, there has never been a guarantee that their best players would automatically re-sign.
There is some kind of subliminal pressure on the best Blues players to consider shifting if they are serious about getting the best out of themselves.
That was evident early this week when Hurricanes coach-elect John Plumtree revealed that Blues loose forward Akira Ioane had been touted around the country.
Born and bred in Auckland, Ioane came through all the age-grade representative teams in the city and first played for the Blues in 2015.
He is seen as an integral part of the Blues’ future, a local boy with the explosive physique and skills to be a world-class performer and yet he entered serious negotiations with the Hurricanes about shifting there.
“He was made available to every franchise in the country a little while ago and I’m sure there were a lot of clubs interested in Akira, like we were, but we believe he’s staying at the Blues,” said Plumtree.
The Blues had the red carpet rolled
“We’ve gone for our in-form players,” Robertson said, citing David Havili, Seta Tamanivalu, George Bridge and Manasa Mataele. “So when you have a conversation and you explain to Daggy these things, he can obviously say ‘Look, I need to perform next time I get an opportunity,’ and that’s what he needs to do.” out for him, but still Ioane needed to ask whether he could be the player he wants to be by staying there.
It’s a delicate business because it is obvious now that promising players fear they will be judged for lacking ambition if they opt to stay with the Blues.
Ioane has played his way to the cusp of the All Blacks but can’t find the last components he needs to crack the squad.
There are plenty of good judges who now wonder whether Ioane has made the wrong choice by staying — given the impression he’s opted to stay in his comfort zone where his bad habits will be tolerated.
If he was serious about making the All Blacks surely he would have moved? That seems to be the inference and it is one which is a killer for the Blues’ reputation.
And that ultimately is what should trouble the Blues most — this growing sentiment that the club restricts the potential growth of local superstars who can only fix their flaws by getting away.
This sense of players underselling themselves by staying at the Blues is presumably a consequence of continued dire results and underperformance.
Ioane has made his commitment to the Blues but the fact he flirted with the Hurricanes isn’t a great advert for the club and doesn’t bode well for their future retention prospects. Wherever England seems to follow.
After four decades of watching the Three Lions, that has become one of the great truisms of world football.
Yet again yesterday, an England World Cup knockout match ended in a particularly improbable fashion.
But, for once, England was on the right side of the ledger.
That looked highly unlikely at just after 11pm on a cool Moscow night, when the referee blew his whistle for the end of extra time.
Not just because of their wretched penalty history, and the fact that Colombia went first in the shootout (historically a big advantage) and also that England fell behind midway goes, drama through the series. But also because the South American team had all the momentum after their late, late equaliser, and the atmosphere at Spartak Stadium felt like Bogota or Medellin, such was the huge volume of fans in yellow.
“Si, se puede, Si se puede [Yes we can, yes we can]” they roared, soon followed by “Esta noche, tenemos que ganar [Tonight, we have to win].”
The small pocket of fans in white — surely a rare sight for England to be outnumbered in a World Cup match in Europe — had been silent for most of extra time, still no doubt shocked by Colombia’s 93rd minute equaliser.
Their supporters had been inconspicuous during the day in Moscow, perhaps wanting to stay undercover England manager Gareth Southgate is elated as England win.