ABs must grab chances
OPINION: It’s one thing to dive out of the long shadows once cast by All Blacks in absentia.
Proving you deserve to keep baking under the bright lights is another thing altogether. Not that such a statement will strike Kane Hames, Nepo Laulala, Scott Barrett, Waisake Naholo, Seta Tamanivalu and Damian McKenzie like a thunderbolt between the eyes as they prepare for the All Blacks’ final test of the year against Wales at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday morning (NZT).
Neither will this statement. Come next season, as all contenders for places in the All Blacks squad flex their muscles for their respective Super Rugby teams, the pressure to gain a place in the elite XV for the first test of the year against France in Auckland will be intense.
Injuries ripped a decent-sized hole in the All Blacks squad prior to the departure for the northern hemisphere tour. Props Owen Franks and Joe Moody and outside backs Israel Dagg, Nehe Milner-Skudder and Jordie Barrett never got near the departure gates.
Lock Brodie Retallick and fullback/wing Ben Smith, the latter was also the vice-captain, were unavailable because of personal reasons and sabbatical respectively, back rower Jerome Kaino returned home because of a shoulder complaint and hooker Dane Coles’ nightmare year continued when his knee folded under him in the match against France in Paris.
Wing Rieko Ioane cannot play in Cardiff because of a wounded shoulder, which is likely to open up a chance for Tamanivalu to start against the Welsh. Another finisher, Julian Savea, having fallen from favour when axed prior to the Rugby Championship, has more to prove than anyone if he is to force his way back into the test squad.
In other words, the log-jam for black jerseys is going to be impressive.
Sport often presents us with stories about the honest toilers who defy seemingly insurmountable odds to get back on the paddock and succeed at the highest level.
The majority of rugby players have to get their heads around the fact they will, at some point of their career, end-up getting badly hurt. Tighthead prop Nepo Laulala already knows all about that.
During pre-season training with the Chiefs in 2016 Laulala tore the anterior and cruciate ligaments in his knee, and medial collateral one as well. A doctor told him he may not play again, something that displeased the 116kg front rower no end.
Laulala, who made his test debut against Samoa in Apia in 2015, jabbed the naughty finger at the medical experts by refusing to buckle; he is presently considered the best No 3 in New Zealand in the wake of Franks requiring surgery to tidy-up a painful Achilles tendon injury.
On the other side of the front row Kane Hames has done a tidy job of replacing Moody, who had to have an operation to fix the shoulder he dislocated against Argentina in New Plymouth in September.
If Laulala and Hames represented any other country they could stride out under the roof at the stadium in Cardiff knowing their places in the team, barring injury or any other unforeseen circumstances, were safe. Not with Franks and Moody grafting away in the gym back in Christchurch, they aren’t.
Lock Barrett, wings Naholo and Tamanivalu and fullback McKenzie are in a similar position. Once revived and refreshed, Retallick, Dagg, Smith and Barrett will have ample opportunity to make some points of their own during Super Rugby.
As the saying goes, it never pays to give a sucker an even break. You take your chance when you can grab it. Reputations will continue to be on the line in Cardiff.