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Free from injury and with freedom to roam, Connor Garden-Bachop is quickly becoming an automatic selection at the Highlanders
Few probably knew who Connor Garden-Bachop was at the beginning of 2021 – let alone whether he was any good at rugby.
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Despite making his provincial debut in 2018 for Canterbury, the 21-year-old has made just seven appearances in the Mitre 10 Cup due to a run of troubling injuries, which also kept him sidelined for the entire 2020 Super Rugby season.
Highlanders coach Tony Brown admitted before the season kicked off that, much like many other folks in New Zealand, he hadn’t been lucky enough to catch any of Garden-Bachop’s seven professional appearances to date (plus two showings for the NZ Schools Barbarians side in 2016).
“Connor, I’ve actually never seen him play,” Brown said during the Aotearoa pre-season.
“So I’m excited to watch him go and he’s pretty excited to get out there because I know he’s had a tough year last year, and it’s going to be good to see what he can deliver first up.”
Despite his limited minutes, former Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger signed up Garden-Bachop last year on a two-season deal. A lower back injury suffered in the latter stages of 2019, however, quickly curtailed his season.
While he missed out on running out for the Highlanders and Wellington last year, Garden-Bachop has hardly looked rusty in the opening six rounds of this year’s competition, carving up opposition from the wing and at fullback.
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That’s been helped by Tony Brown’s expansive approach to coaching, allowing players to take risks on the field and play what’s in front of them.
Brown made sure his young charge knew heading into the season that he had full trust in the 21-year-old to make decisions on the fly.
“Before my first game, I asked him,” Garden-Bachop told Stuff this week. “I said, ‘How much free licence do I have to attack and do what I want?’ and before I had even finished the question he said, ‘Free’.
“He backs us 100 per cent just to pull the trigger, and that’s one of my favourite things about playing for this team and playing for Tony.”
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Highlanders halfback Folau Fakatava is out of rugby for the rest of the year after sustaining a knee injury on Friday night against the Crusaders.https://t.co/pq41cpvUzn
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 7, 2021
Garden-Bachop is one of just three Highlanders players to have started in all five of their Super Rugby matches played so far this season, alongside prop Siate Tokolahi and flanker Shannon Frizell.
He’s comfortably the youngest and least experienced of that trio, however, indicating just how superb his form has been to date.
Two of those starts have come in his preferred No 15 jersey – although an early-game injury to Jona Nareki in one of those matches saw him shifted to the wing.
Against the Chiefs this week, Garden-Bachop is expected to again be named to play at fullback, where he’s shown a deft pair of feet and some speed to boot.
No one was talking about the 21-year-old before Super Rugby Aotearoa had kicked off – few had even heard of him – but he could be the name on everyone’s lips come the end of the season if he can maintain his impressive form.
Listen to the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod below:
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
28 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments