Given half a chance, Perenara can step up
If ever a situation appeared tailor-made for a player of TJ Perenara’s ilk, and a man of his quality, it’s the Cam Roigard post-injury rugby landscape that’s suffered what you might call a dramatic tilt.
While details of Roigard’s injury to his left knee, suffered in the 57th minute of their 47-12 victory over the Highlanders in Dunedin last Saturday night, were still to emerge after his visit to the specialist in Auckland yesterday, the expected prognosis is a gloomy one.
It’s understood the Hurricanes are resigned to losing their rising halfback star for the rest of Super Rugby Pacific – an absence likely to extend to the All Blacks’ first campaign under Scott Robertson with the 23-year-old’s suspected torn patella set to involve a six-month recovery period, minimum.
It’s an injury that comes as a devastating blow especially for the Hurricanes – the only undefeated team in Super Rugby – and to a slightly lesser extent for the All Blacks.
Roigard was in the form of his life in this brilliant Canes opening to the season, and was very much at the forefront of so much of what they were doing so well.
Undoubtedly he was the premier No 9 in the New Zealand game, and was considered the frontrunner to be Robertson’s first-choice distributor when his debut All Blacks season rolls around in July. Now, all bets are off.
It’s the Hurricanes that will feel Roigard’s absence the keenest, so central was he to their up-tempo attacking game.
But it’s also the Canes who might be the best equipped to survive, and even thrive, in his absence. In Perenara, the 32-yearold, 80-test All Black, the Wellington-based outfit have the perfect understudy to step up into a leading role.
Perenara might just be at the stage of his career where he is beautifully poised for such a step back up in responsibility. He spent the best part of 17 months out of the game, not once, but twice repairing an Achilles tendon rupture that was problematic, to say the least.
There was a long rehab from the original injury in November of ’22, a re-injury, another procedure, then a mentally challenging second recovery period that finally saw him return to the field in March for the Canes.
“I know where I want to take my game and what I can offer,” he said after his first start of the year against the Rebels. “I know with the work I continue to put in that my game is going to grow.”
His chief driver at this stage of his career? “Whether I’m starting, coming off the bench or not playing, I want to be the best in the world at my given role at any time.”
As of now that role is going to be as the senior halfback in a squad shooting for it all in Super Rugby Pacific. It is a challenge right up the Perenara alley, and one that could springboard him back into a storybook All Blacks return.
You just wonder if the All Blacks might feel Roigard’s absence even more keenly. Now Robertson will likely use the Blues’ Fin Christie, Highlanders’ Folau Fakatava and Perenara to cover in his absence. He’ll also be closely assessing some young comers such as the Chiefs’ Cortez Ratima and Crusaders’ Noah Hotham over the back end of Super Rugby, though it’s likely their time is a year or two hence.
It was interesting to hear Sky’s The Breakdown panel of former All Blacks anoint Christie the likely test starter in Roigard’s absence.
“You know what you’re going to get. He holds his form,” noted Jeff Wilson. “It might not be spectacular …. [but] he does the fundamentals of a halfback really well.”
Added Sir John Kirwan: “He doesn’t really have a weakness – he can defend, he’s got a really good pass, he can kick, he can dart when he needs to, and he’s our incumbent.”
However, Mils Muliaina urged his fellow panellists not to forget Perenara who has looked in “excellent nick” on his return.
It’s a reminder you can expect the veteran Wellingtonian to offer himself a lot between now and June.
That 17 months of toil now has some payoff in prospect.