Clayton McMillan compares new Chiefs halfback to former All Black
In Brad Weber, the Chiefs have arguably the second-best halfback in New Zealand at their disposal and in 2022, they’ll have two exceptional young talents backing up the All Black for minutes throughout the season.
Weber, who will enter his ninth season of Super Rugby when the competition kicks off next year, put his best foot forward for the All Blacks this season and were it not for an untimely head knock suffered against Italy, was odds-on to start in the New Zealand national side’s final two games of the season against Ireland and France.
Instead, the 30-year-old had to make do with just 30 minutes of action off the bench against Les Bleus and while he will undoubtedly make the most of an extended summer away from the game, Weber will likely enter the new season rearing to build off his solid outings in black throughout 2021.
For similar reasons, 22-year-old Xavier Roe will be hoping to quickly put his best foot forward for the Chiefs during the pre-season after missing the latter half of the NPC through concussion. The Pauanui native made his Super Rugby debut earlier in the year and while he started out as the Chiefs’ third-choice option behind Weber and Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, Roe fought his way into the No 21 jersey for the Trans-Tasman section of the season.
With Tahuriorangi heading south to the Crusaders to try and reignite his fleeting international career, the Chiefs have now called up another Waikato halfback, 20-year-old Cortez Ratima.
Ratima was Roe’s back-up during the first half of the NPC season but following Roe’s injury, Ratima took over at halfback and made a solid fist of a handful of starts in the No 9 jersey. Already, the evidence was there that the young No 9 was likely to quickly ascend the ranks, with Ratima selected in the 2021 New Zealand Under 20s side, despite undergoing shoulder surgery late last year and playing next to no rugby in the lead-up to the team selection.
Although Roe may enter 2022 as the third-choice halfback at the Chiefs, there’s likely little between him and Roe and whoever impresses the most during the pre-season may get the first chance once Super Rugby Pacific kicks off.
With Tahuriorangi heading south, McMillan said that Ratima was clearly the next cab off the ranks in the Chiefs region, even if he still has huge room for growth.
“We think he’s a real player for the future,” said McMillan after the squad was named last week. “He’s making a bloody good fist of his craft at the moment but we really, really like where we think that Cortez can get to.
“He reminds us a lot of Tawera Kerr-Barlow, another great Chief. He’s a bigger halfback, he’s combative, he’s a competitor and we think that he’s going to really challenge the other two in our environment for an opportunity in a match-day 23.”
Chiefs head coach Clayton McMillan has a challenge on his hands following the departure of Damian McKenzie to Japan and the arrival of Josh Ioane from the Highlanders. #SuperRugbyPacific https://t.co/pQXyD6humO
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 27, 2021
Ratima is just one of several Chiefs players to have featured in the NPC Premiership and Championship finals played last weekend.
Newbies Ratima, Finau and Wrampling were all on Waikato’s books this year, as well as Ollie Norris, Laghlan McWhannell and Simon Parker. Taranaki, who won the Championship, included the likes of Bradley Slater, Josh Lord, Kaylum Boshier and Pita Gus Sowakula.
McMillan said that the importance of those players getting some knockout rugby under their belt can’t be understated.
“I think it’s huge,” he said. “First of all, I’m really happy for my old mate Barnesy [former Chiefs forwards coach Neil Barnes], he’s gone down to Taranaki and he’s been able to create something special down there. To go through a season unbeaten is pretty phenomenal, really, and they’ve played some bloody good rugby. It hasn’t come easy to them because they’ve had a whole number of injuries but they’ve still managed to maintain a high level so it’s been great for them and I think a lot of the Chiefs boys that are in that squad have played really well.
“And equally, Waikato. I like to think that they probably had a great six weeks living in the paradise that is Mount Maunganui but for them, it’s been bloody tough to effectively move away from home and base yourself in a hotel and yet they’ve punched their way through that and to see them win a final against a quality Tasman side was a fantastic achievement so congratulations to both of those teams and I really thought they played some great rugby and some of our players who have been selected in the Chiefs squad were at the forefront of those performances.”
The inaugural season of Super Rugby Pacific is set to kick off in late February.
Comments on RugbyPass
My heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
75 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
75 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to comments