Cruden intent on retaining tee
Aaron Cruden isn’t going to relinquish the kicking tee lightly.
The Chiefs co-captain nailed just 1/4 in the 31-24 loss to the Crusaders in Fiji last Friday night, but is determined to right those wrongs rather than handing the duties to Damian McKenzie, who slotted the final attempt in Suva.
The duo have shared the responsibility this season, with Cruden having kicked 27/37 (73.0 per cent) and McKenzie 21/29 (72.4 per cent). Last year it was McKenzie (64/90 at 71.1 per cent) doing most of it while Cruden (11/20 at 55.0 per cent) returned from his knee injury.
But, going into their round 14 match against the Blues at Eden Park on Friday night, coach Dave Rennie labelled Cruden the team’s best kicker, and said, if fit, he will kick. Only some ordinary form during the training week is set to change that.
‘‘We’ll have a chat between us,’’ Rennie said. ‘‘We’re fortunate we’ve got a couple of good options. We believe Aaron’s our best goalkicker, he didn’t have a great night by his own admission.
‘‘So we’ll make a decision based on how well they kick during the week.
‘‘They both want to kick. So, invariably, if Aaron’s happy and we were happy with the way he’s kicking, then he’ll kick. We certainly won’t let one game spook us.’’
Prior to the Crusaders game, McKenzie hit a splendid 7/8 against the Reds in New Plymouth when Cruden was sidelined with concussion, while Rennie said in the Sunwolves game before that it was because Cruden hurt his groin in the warmup that McKenzie took the kicks (3/5).
With Cruden set to assume a bench role for the All Blacks in the series against the British and Irish Lions, it’s he who may well have the responsibility of the country on his shoulders late in those tests, depending on Beauden Barrett’s whereabouts and kicking form or desires.
And Cruden, who is off to French club Montpellier at the end of the Super Rugby season, said he ‘‘absolutely’’ wanted to continue to be the go-to goalkicker for his franchise, and that he would be leaning on assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge to help him feel comfortable again.
‘‘Obviously it was a bit of a bummer the way that I kicked in the weekend, especially in such a crucial game,’’ Cruden said. ’’I wasn’t quite hitting the sweet spot of the ball, and the contact on my foot just didn’t quite feel right.
‘‘But kickers have those games sometimes, the rhythm just wasn’t quite there for me, and I’ll be putting the work in this week to make sure it doesn’t happen again this weekend.’’
Asked if he might be quicker to hand the tee on to McKenzie if he didn’t feel his rhythm was in place in-game, Cruden said it was of course an option, but that he would generally back himself to come right.
‘‘Oh, absolutely you consider it. But I think it’s just one of those game by game situations. I’ve been really happy with how my goalkicking’s been going this year.
‘‘I have high standards in myself, and expectations, and I’m pretty disappointed that in a big game like that I wasn’t quite feeling it. But, hey, I won’t let it get me down. The sun’s still shining again today, and we’ve got another great challenge this weekend.’’