Hooker patiently waiting for a call from selectors
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HIKA Elliot may have missed out on a place in the All Blacks’ training group, but surely his time will come.
One of the most surprising decisions from the All Blacks selection panel of Steve Hansen, Ian Foster and Grant Fox was that they named only two hookers in their 35-man squad, especially as four halfbacks were selected.
Andrew Hore and Keven Mealamu have both been in the All Blacks for 10 years and have picked up 155 test caps between them.
Since Anton Oliver retired after the 2007 world cup, every other New Zealand hooker has struggled to get a look in.
Elliot has played just two tests, Corey Flynn has played 15 in the past nine years but started in just three of them, while all five of Aled de Malmanche’s test appearances came from the bench.
But eventually the All Blacks coaches will have to move on. Mealamu and Hore are both aged 33 and as Flynn is 31 the future looks to be in the hands of Elliot and Dane Coles.
For Elliot, he says he wants to continue playing well for the Chiefs so that the selectors can no longer ignore him.
‘‘I just want to keep building on my form,’’ Elliot told Sunday News.
‘‘I’m happy with where I’m at but I know I can play better.
‘‘So I want to keep improving and put some pressure on the All Blacks coaches to make a selection.’’
Elliot did have a meeting with the All Blacks coaches a couple of weeks ago when they were in the Chiefs camp interviewing players, and he felt the conversation went well.
‘‘They gave me some positive feedback and told me about some stuff I needed to work on too, so I’m looking to do that over the next couple of months,’’ he said.
Elliot, 26, went on the end-ofyear tours in 2008 and 2010, but admits that being in and out of the squad has been tough to handle.
‘‘It has been frustrating in a way, but when you’ve got guys like Andrew Hore and Keven Mealamu in the team, who’ve been there for a decade, it’s always going to be hard to push them off their mantel,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve got to keep in there and play rugby consistently week in, week out.’’
Meanwhile, Elliot got to have a break this week as the Chiefs have their second bye round.
Although they lost a high-scoring game to the Reds last Sunday, it has still been and impressive season for the Hamilton-based side.
The Chiefs have been the surprise of the New Zealand confer- ence, Elliot said there was always quiet optimism inside the camp.
‘‘We were quietly confident going into the season,’’ he said.
‘‘We knew we had the players we needed to play the style of rugby we wanted to be up there with the best and hopefully we can keep trucking along.
‘‘We’ve exceeded a lot of people’s expectations. That’s good from the Chiefs’ point of view.
‘‘But it’s good that the people inside the circle knew how well we could go.
‘‘We have attacked well and that’s matched the intensity of our defence and I think we’re going to be dangerous.
‘‘I’m thoroughly enjoying the season, it’s always good to be a part of a team that’s winning and to be in a pack that’s going forward.
‘‘There were question marks over our tight five this year and the boys in the tight five have definitely gone out there and answered some of those questions.’’