Read’s cool head is needed in Brisbane
OPINION: Even the meekest inquiry about whether Kieran Read should be omitted from the test in Brisbane should make the alarm bells scream.
Given the All Blacks captain’s heavy workload during the international window, he has started nine tests since the first test against the British and Irish Lions on June 24, spelling him from the game against the Wallabies next Saturday night seems the ideal way to rest his weary bones before the upcoming five-match tour of the northern hemisphere.
Come on, why not?
The Bledisloe Cup is already back inside the NZ Rugby bunker and with the Rugby Championship done and dusted, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen now has the chance to tell his co-selectors Ian Foster and Grant Fox that it’s time to let their hair down a bit and give someone else a run at No 8.
Rather than spend another week away from home Read could be permitted to stay with the family in Christchurch, enabling Sam Cane or Sam Whitelock to be take on the job of leading the team.
It all sounds good in theory. But the reality is the selectors should jam that idea as far down the S-bend as possible, and punch the flush button as hard as they can.
No-one would be more pleased for Read to be given a holiday than Wallabies coach Michael Cheika. Then again, his players could be just as thrilled.
Brisbane is no place for the All Blacks to start taking risks.
Since 1996 they have played six games in the Sunshine State.
For many teams a record of four wins, a draw and a loss would be nothing to get hysterical about but by the All Blacks’ standards it isn’t deemed to be flash.
Scratch a little bit deeper and you can understand why the selectors should be so reticent about telling Read he can chillax and forget about footy next weekend.
The All Blacks’ biggest winning margin in Brisbane over the last 21 years has been by seven points when they beat the Wallabies 32-25 in a match remembered almost as much for the unprovoked attack Michael Brial launched on Frank Bunce, as the try the latter scored late in the game.
On that occasion the All Blacks were able to overcome a lacklustre start, having trailed 22-9 midway through the second half.
In 2011 they weren’t so lucky. Behind 20-3 at halftime they roared back but lost 25-20 when Kurtley Beale nabbed the match-winner near the death.
A year later Keven Mealamu hoped to celebrate his 100th test with a victory against the Aussies, but the All Blacks were kept try-less for the first time in 2002 as the game ended in an 18-18 draw. In 2014 there was more drama. Malakai Fekitoa dotted down in injury time, and Colin Slade converted, giving the New Zealanders a memorable 29-28 victory.
It was a miserable way for Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie, who announced immediately afterwards that he was walking the plank, to end his international coaching career.
With Nehe Milner-Skudder expected to take around six months to recover from the shoulder injury he suffered in the 25-24 win over the Springboks in Cape Town last Sunday morning, Waisake Naholo should get a start on the right wing and make his third test appearance of the year at Suncorp Stadium.
If Brodie Retallick is available – he missed the recent match because of a personal matter – he should start at lock ahead of Scott Barrett.
Maybe Jerome Kaino will return to blindside flanker in place of Liam Squire. And that may be the end of the amendments to the team sheet.
History proves the All Blacks may require multiple cool heads in what could prove to be a frantic evening in Brisbane.
That starts with enlisting Kieran James Read in a starter’s kit.