Not Enough, Shelford tells Ioane

Auckland: Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford has issued a blunt challenge to Blues No 8 Akira Ioane: “Be more of a workhorse than a showpony.”

Ioane is one of the most talented players in the country but was left out of the All Blacks’ 51-man squad for their tour of Japan and Europe in November.

It’s a tough love policy that has found a supporter in Shelford, one of the hardest men to wear the black jersey.

“Akira is definitely a No 8, without a doubt,” Shelford told Rugby Heaven.

“But I agree with what the selectors say, his workrate isn’t high enough at the moment. “He’s got to be more of a workhorse than a showpony.

“He tends to hang off a lot and not do a lot of work.”

Ioane’s response to his omission from the All Blacks was dramatic. He produced two big games for Auckland at the sharp end of the Mitre 10 Cup and it’s that sort of dominant form that Shelford wants to see on a consistent basis.

“Akira is a good No. 8,” Shelford said. “He has some really good games and then he has some games where he falls off and doesn’t have a good game.

“He’s a very good runner, he’s very powerful around his hips and can break tackles. It’s just that we see his good things quite often in the game but it’s not enough.” Shelford said he had some sympathy for Ioane because in modern attack structures the No. 8 and No. 6 were often not involved for ‘minutes at time’, giving the impression they were ‘lazy.’

However, it was on defence that Shelford wanted to see an improvement, particularly at the ruck.