Parker v Fury: It’s on ( again)
Weekend
alakai Fekitoa has a big decision to make in the next month or so. He’s at the crossroads many other good players have reached: the place where he has to ask what matters to him and whether he has the depth of character to convert adversity into a powerful and galvanising fuel or let it break him.
He has reached this place after not being included in the All Blacks squad to play the Lions. An All Blacks regular since 2014, there was no room for him this time around.
Ngani Laumape has charged past him as a bruising, direct No 12. Sonny Bill Williams is close to his unpredictable best and with Ryan Crotty and Anton Lienert- Brown so accurate, reliable and composed in the test arena, they were the men the selectors saw as their must- have midfield group.
And not only has Fekitoa not made the 33, but the fact Crusaders centre Jack Goodhue has been called in as injury cover for Crotty suggests the Highlander has slipped down the pecking order.
The decision he has to make now is whether to extend his contract in New Zealand beyond this year, or decide to take one of the inevitable major offers that will come his way from offshore clubs.
No doubt it will be tempting for him to cut and run. To take rejection hard and scurry off into the arms of a more willing and appreciative suitor.
Plenty of players have gone down this path in the past and made a lot of cash doing so. But privately, most admit they regret it.
The more emotionally rewarding path is to stay and at just 25, there is ample time for Fekitoa to absorb the hurt, reshape his game and prove himself again.
Fekitoa can see his situation as terminal or motivating.
To choose that second path, the hard part for Fekitoa will be reconciling the truth. He has to accept the decision to drop him from the All Blacks was fair. He hasn’t played well enough to be included and he hasn’t played as well as the others who have made it.
Such a sensation in 2014 when he shifted from the Blues to the Highlanders, Fekitoa hasn’t pushed on since. In that coming of age year, he was dynamic with and without the ball. He made mistakes, but ended most games having made a positive contribution.
There was so much power in his ball- carrying, such electric footwork and clear thinking. He seamlessly went from playing centre to second- five for the All Blacks and his versatility gave him a deeper offering. But Fekitoa’s progress has stalled. Last year, he was erratic. His game seemed to be bedevilled with doubt.
The spontaneous decisions dried up and the All Blacks selectors described him as wooden — in danger of tying himself in knots as he tried to over- think his options.
They stuck by him, though. He was rested during the second half of the Rugby Championship. The belief was time away from the game would help him refresh mentally and come back stronger, clearer.
There was some uplift from that strategy when Fekitoa produced more direct and powerful performances on the end of year Northern Hemisphere tour.
It turned out to be more a dead cat bounce, though, as he’s been mostly quiet for the Highlanders this year and the All Blacks selectors had to make a big decision.
“When you look at the breakdown of the squad, we have picked Sonny and Ngani as our two specialist 12s,” All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said. “Crotts [ Crotty] can play both, as can Anton [ Lienert- Brown], so we felt that if we were to lose a midfield player, we’d probably be short of a centre — an out- and- out centre. When we looked at Mala and then we looked at young Jack Goodhue, then Jack probably got the nod because of his ability to put people into space.
“Especially in those two- on- one situations, he’s very accurate for a young player and his skill- set is just that little bit higher than Mala’s.
“It was a tough decision but we don’t think we have seen the end of Mala. He’s a resilient young man and he will go away and work hard.”