Savea steps up for duties at boot camp
I don’t know what to expect and I’m just very excited. Samoa saga ‘a bad look’
THE Hurricanes’ new wonder wing Julian Savea says he has no idea what he’ll be getting into when he joins the All Blacks training squad in Auckland today, but is buzzing about the experience.
Savea has come on in leaps and bounds this season. He always had that X-factor about him which few wingers in New Zealand possess these days but there were too many rough edges in his game, especially under the high ball.
But he has been able to sort out those issues and, as he showed with his last-minute match-winning try against the Highlanders last weekend, he’s deserving of his call-up to the All Blacks training squad.
‘‘I don’t know what to expect and I’m just very excited,’’ Savea told Sunday News.
‘‘I wanted to think about the Brumbies first and my mind was on that game. I can’t wait until I get to the camp, but I am still very disappointed about losing to them.’’
The 37-25 loss leaves the Hurricanes with six wins and six losses and it means they’ll be relying on other results to sneak their way into the playoffs from here.
As a young side, winning half of their games isn’t such a bad thing, but they completely failed to turn the Cake Tin into a fortress, having won just one game in Wellington all season, against the lowly Blues.
Savea put the loss down to some mistakes late in the second half as they went from being 25-16 up to conceding three straight tries.
‘‘There were a couple of missed tackles that let them straight back into the game,’’ he said.
‘‘I guess they scored too easily and it was one of those nights where they were able to capitalise on little errors.
‘‘I thought I got involved quite a lot, but we did keep turning the ball over, they kept kicking it back to us and we couldn’t get our game going. So again, it’s very disappointing.’’
But while it’s almost season over for the Canes, it’s only just beginning for the Brumbies. They are well clear in the Australian conference but they’re treating Saturday’s home game against the Reds as a final, believing that if they win this game, they’re locked in for top spot.
Brumbies second-five Pat Mccabe says it’s a massive game and that they’ll now have higher expectations on them than what there were at the start of the year.
‘‘It’s a huge game for us, they are closest to us on the ladder and they beat us convincingly last time, so we’re desperate to get a result there.
‘‘There is a completely new pressure on us now that we haven’t had from the start of the season,’’ Mccabe said. ‘‘But I think that we’ll handle it well.
‘‘As a group we’re not overly happy with how we’re playing and there is still a lot more to come out of us.’’ MANU Samoa’s world cup firstfive Tasesa Lavea fears it could take years for the team to replace the experience lost in the controversial axing of senior players.
New coach Stephen Betham has dumped Mahonri Schwalger, Eliota Fuimaono-sapolu, Alesani Tuilagi, George Stowers, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Filipo Levi and Seilala Mapusua for the Pacific Nations Cup and the one-off home test against Scotland.
Senior players spoke out after the world cup at the way top Samoan rugby officials conducted themselves during the tournament.
Lavea says the whole saga is a bad look for Samoan rugby.
‘‘It’s a shame that those boys got cut, it’s the core of the leadership group and they are the ones who came out and spoke at the end,’’ Lavea told Sunday News.
‘‘I’m an outsider looking in and it appears to be a bit of a shambles at the moment.’’
Lavea joined Sale after the cup, but moved back to New Zealand for family reasons.