Jacobson just has to get on with it
Loose forwards Luke Jacobson and Marino Mikaele-Tu’u know what it’s like to be brushed by the All Blacks’ selectors.
Jacobson and Mikaele-Tu’u, who will start at No 8 for the Chiefs and Highlanders in Hamilton tonight, weren’t wanted for the Tri Nations last year.
Jacobson, in particular, had reason to feel aggrieved. Considered good enough to play two tests in 2019, he was included in the World Cup squad before having to withdraw because of concussion issues, but was unable to get a look-in under new All Blacks coach Ian Foster in 2020. Mikaele-Tu’u didn’t get nearly as close. While his performances for the Highlanders were hot enough for some punters to predict he would look good spinning his wheels off the back of an international scrum, he wasn’t required to be a component in the 2020 All Blacks model.
Jacobson and Mikaele-Tu’u, like all the rest hunting for an All Blacks jersey, just have to get on with it in round 2 of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
1. Chiefs coach Clayton Mcmillan can’t have missed Highlanders coach Tony Brown blowing-up about the Crusaders’ high penalty count last weekend.
Brown made some valid points. Despite conceding 15 penalties, including two yellow cards, the Crusaders still beat the Highlanders 26-13 in Dunedin.
That resulted in Brown firing tasty verbal darts. Cynical by the Crusaders? Probably. But the question is whether the Highlanders, if forced to build their own wall of human flesh to repel the invaders, would have done anything different.
Players are paid to test the referee’s mettle. As Brown noted about the massive penalty count against the defending team: ‘‘That’s what sad about rugby at the minute.’’ He’s not wrong.
Mcmillan, in his first game in charge of the Chiefs, will hope referee Paul Williams doesn’t feel a need to appease Brown in Hamilton.
2. It all boils down to what people want from a rugby game doesn’t it?
Enterprising footy, spiced up with skill, flair and speed, gets the fans’ hearts racing.
Lineout drives? Not so much. The Highlanders huffed and puffed against the Crusaders and, eventually, ran out of ideas when they failed to breach their line. Plan B, quite simply, came too late.
3. Which brings us to the campaign launched by a group of ex-all Blacks, in conjunction with Wellington businessman Douglas Catley.
They genuinely care for the game and want an audience with the NZ Rugby board to voice their concerns about where rugby is headed.
Given his comments last weekend, Brown, himself a former All Black, could be tempted to join them.
4. On Tuesday, NZ Rugby and the Highlanders issued celebratory press releases to announce Aaron Smith had resigned until 2023.
If they could have convinced Smith to ride an elephant, accompanied by circus performers executing triple somersaults, down Dunedin’s George Street it would have been the cherry on top of the pancake pile.
Retaining Smith, a 97-test All Black, sent a muchneeded beam of sunlight through the clouds of gloom created by Covid-19.
Guess what happens next? Smith, 32, gets relegated to the bench by Brown to allow Folau Fakatava to start.
5. While Smith is the undisputed king of No 9s in New Zealand, Fakatava is not just snuffling around the throne looking for scraps.
The latter, clearly, is a player of immense promise. Yet his duel with Hawke’s Bay team-mate and Chiefs co-captain Brad Weber may not deliver on the hype.
Back the latter, given his experience with the All Blacks and Chiefs, to not allow the buzz around the Highlanders’ halfbacks to blur his focus.
The Chiefs forwards could also do Weber a big favour on this one.
Not many No 9s, not even those as talented as Fakatava (or Smith for that matter), like going backwards.