Sports After Dark

Rugbyheaven co-editors Marc Hinton and Duncan Johnstone take a look at their picks for loose forwards for the 35 man squad to go on the All Blacks end of year tour.

Given their loyalty to the original back row mix who eventually saw them through the Tri-Nations and helped retain the Bledisloe Cup, that probably means there is room for two other faces in this key area.

Hard to argue with that, once the All Blacks settled on the right mix, the loose forward trio really clicked and dominated their opponents.

There’s an obvious need for some sort of decent cover at openside behind Richie McCaw

Well duh! Without McCaw the All Black loose forwards looked lost and unsurprisingly, the games without McCaw were the games where the All Blacks stuggled. The experiment of playing Rodney So’oialo at openside was clearly a failure up against a world class opponent. Likewise Adam Thomson is not suited to openside at international level. Daniel Braid once again looked out of his depth in the black jersey and must surely be running out of chance at the top level.

This shapes as an intriguing selection call for the three wise men if indeed it comes down to a straight decision between Waikato’s outstanding prospect Liam Messam and Canterbury’s Reuben Thorne clone Kieran Read.

Jerome Kaino has really made the blindside position his own, but on a long tour with a large squad, it’s important to try new players. Messam and Read have both shown a great deal of potention, by my nod goes to Read. Messam was outstanding last weekend against Otago, but, like most of his recent top performances, this came in the substandard Air New Zealand Cup, and against a struggling team. Read, on the other hand, performed admirably during the Super 14, to the point where many were surprised he didn’t get called up to the Tri-Nations squad.

Also the comparison of Read to Thorne is one that seems to have little basis in reality. Sure they both play blindside and come from Canterbury, but that’s where the similarities end as Read is a far more mobile and flashy player than Thorne, frequently showing up out wide and running like a centre.

Presuming Henry and Steve Hansen stay loyal to their Tri-Nations loosies Richie McCaw, Rodney So’oialo, Jerome Kaino, Thomson and Lauaki, that leaves two spots minimum.

So either Read or Messam and whoever is picked to back up McCaw.

…will probably come down to a tossup between experience (Daniel Braid) and a look to the future (Tanerau Latimer). Neither have made what you might call compelling cases, and there is some justification in saying the position as Richie McCaw’s openside understudy is one of the All Blacks’ real problem areas.

Exactly right. One of the problems with having a once in a generation player like McCaw in your team is that any possible understudies will not hang around very long, like Marty Holah, leaving a distinct lack of depth behind that player.

Clearly there is the chance to bring in some specialist cover for what is arguably the most important position on the field in terms of ball supply.

Agreed, What is needed in a specialist opensider, not playing another loose forward out of position.

Braid’s a proven talent at Super 14 level but like many in this position in recent years he’s had no real chances to go up a notch because of McCaw’s mortgage on the black jersey.

And when he’s been given the chance to play in black, he hasn’t been up to the task.

Which leaves Latimer, an out and out No 7 whose game is really starting to come of age.

Just 22 he’s already got three years of Super 14 play under his belt and he’s learned from some of the best.

He was McCaw’s backup at the Crusaders in 2006. He filled the same role for Marty Holah at the Chiefs last year. And when Holah finally tired of battling McCaw for the All Blacks spot and headed off to Wales Latimer stepped up this year to eventually take control of the openside role in a Chiefs squad stacked full of loose forward talent.

Hard to argue with that, particularly when the New Zealand openside landscape is littered with players like Braid, who has been found wanting at international level, or players like Scott Waldrom who are excellent Super 14 players but don’t have the talent to go any further.

Latimer certainly wouldn’t disgrace himself against the Scots and he would be better than anything Munster will throw at the All Blacks.

And, injury problems aside, that’s all that will be required - McCaw can do the rest.

Quite right, plus give Latimer 20 minutes off the bench against Wales or England and give him a taste of top level international rugby and see how he goes. All indications are that he should do very well.

Personally I would be taking Read and Latimer, leaving Messam at home based one his poor Super 14 campaign. While the Air New Zealand Cup has its place, I rate Super 14 performances much higher, as they are much closer to test level.

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The Hinton and Johnstone on AB loosies by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.