All Blacks may be outflanked
Kaino injury a concern for Hansen
OPINION: Is that a furrow in Steve Hansen’s brow? Or even a spanner in the works of the All Blacks coach? Maybe. Just maybe. Not so much a crisis as a cause for consternation, Jerome Kaino’s injury scare throws the first potential wrinkle into Hansen’s Lions tour planning. That’s the initial take from news yesterday that the Blues and All Blacks flanker is to undergo knee surgery and face four to six weeks on the sideline.
Make no bones about it, this is a potentially destabilising situation for the All Blacks ahead of their three-test series against Warren Gatland’s British and Irish Lions in June-July.
Yes, Kaino could yet make it back to the field in time to present as fit for selection for the tests, the first of which takes place at Eden Park on June 24.
It’s going to be touch and go. The Blues’ match against the Lions is just under six weeks away, on June 7. Hansen names his squad to face the Lions the next day. Just over a week after that the All Blacks will have their one and only pre-series hitout against Samoa in Albany.
Kaino is desperate to make this series, after narrowly missing out on the chance to face them in 2005 (he came off the bench in Auckland’s 17-13 defeat of the tourists). But he’s going to have to have a few things go his way through the rehabilitation.
At the very least he’s going to be short of a gallop ahead of the series, with one, maybe two outings in which to shake off the rust and build some match fitness.
At worst he doesn’t get there at all, which is a dreaded thought for one of the great warriors of New Zealand rugby.
So why the angst for Hansen, you might ask?
It’s not like he doesn’t have some pretty capable alternatives up his sleeve.
Highlanders hard man Liam Squire was the preferred All Blacks’ backup at 6 and 8 last year, and shapes as the obvious next cab off the rank. He brings dashes of Kaino’s ferocity around the field.
Then there’s franchise teammate Elliot Dixon who has also had a full season in the national squad, and would add aerial expertise and athleticism to the blindside role.
Throw in veteran former international Liam Messam, who is still playing extremely well with the Chiefs, grunty Hurricanes grafter Brad Shields and even departing Blues (and 2016 touring All Black) loosie Steven Luatua, and it’s hardly as if Hansen is bereft of alternatives.
But none of them have Kaino’s hard physical edge, nor his giltedged experience. He has played 77 tests for the All Blacks and is easily the longest serving current player with a body of work stretching back to his debut in 2004.
Alongside skipper Kieran Read and the one-two No 7 punch of Sam Cane and Ardie Savea, Kaino is the perfect complement in the loose trio to face the Lions. He is as hard as nails, an excellent carrier, a bone-shuddering defender and his physicality is immense.
Against a Lions pack that will be firmly instructed to ask some serious questions of the All Blacks up front, Kaino shapes as a key cog.
Hansen doesn’t need him to beat the Lions. But he sure would be a comforting presence.