By Ross Karl
The dynamic Hurricanes openside will make his All Blacks debut off the bench on Saturday against Wales. That’s a tried and true practice for blooding newcomers to the international scene. But is 20 or 30 minutes of Savea off the bench enough?
He has an athletic x-factor unmatched by any international forward since Springbok Pierre Spies. He powers through tackles and refuses to go to ground. While there is no doubt he will be a world class impact player, he can break a game open from the first minute to the last.
Savea is the kind of player who could be the difference in a tight test. What if the moment for that difference needs to be in the 15th minute, not the 75th?
There's a school of thought that when someone brings something different to the game, you have to take advantage immediately, before they get figured out. It's most often the case with wingers. Joe Rokocoko was a try scoring machine for two years, before opposition cottoned on to his spin moves and fresh bag of tricks. I believe a similar thing must be done with all players of such obvious and unique ability, no matter the position.
The problem is Sam Cane is also a high quality openside flanker.
There’s no surprise he’s the first choice for this weekend in what looks like a shadow top team. He’s earned it. Cane’s a quality footballer and has been in the All Blacks leadership group for some time, despite being just 24. He’s an impressive bloke to chat with.
He’s down to earth, friendly and smart. You get insight, not clichés, when he answers questions. He has the kind of all-round flanker’s game any team would want. Cane’s also scored 10 tries in 30 tests, so is a vital cog on attack, with the knack of being in the right place at the right time.
The selectors are so confident in him that he’s already captained the All Blacks and there’s no doubt he could be a good successor to Kieran Read. All of that would make you think he’s a shoo-in in the seven jersey. But it’s not necessarily the case.
The current thinking must be that Cane does the donkey work and Savea comes on to wreak havoc. That doesn’t mean they won’t feature at the same time though. Assistant coach Ian Foster suggested this week there’s a good chance they could team up at some point. You’d expect that to be late in games.
Still, you can’t help but feel it’s a waste of Savea’s talents to only utilise him for short periods.
Can you play dual opensides, the way the Aussies have when they’ve had an abundance of talent? Is there a way of using both, without creating an imbalance or weakening the lineout options? Do we need a Kaino-type enforcer, to complement Read and the openside, whoever it may be? Could Savea’s dynamism replace that need?
Cane or Savea? Or both? The current selection panel almost never puts a foot wrong, so it’ll be interesting to see how their thinking evolves on this conundrum.
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