'A tough 12 months': What the Blues expect from forgotten star Caleb Clarke
The Blues have been bolstered by the headline signing of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck for their 2022 season, but a couple of returning All Blacks will also add plenty of firepower as they look to build on their 2021 Super Rugby Trans-Tasman title success.
All Blacks playmaker Beauden Barrett and powerful wing Caleb Clarke have both rejoined the Auckland-based franchise to help form one of the strongest squads in Super Rugby Pacific.
Barrett returns following a stint with Suntory Sungoliath in Japan as part of a sabbatical deal that saw him miss the entire Blues season this year.
He came back into the squad in time for the final of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman after guiding Suntory to a runner-up finish in the Top League, but didn’t feature in the Blues’ victory over the Highlanders at Eden Park.
Clarke, the All Blacks’ breakout star of last year, returns after his switch to sevens for the Tokyo Olympics. Despite missing out on the All Blacks Sevens Olympic squad, he travelled with the team as injury cover, but didn’t play in Japan.
His non-selection in the national sevens team contributed to a difficult year for the 22-year-old, but Blues head coach Leon Macdonald is eager to settle him back into the squad to help him reach the great heights he achieved in 2020.
“Caleb’s just got to get back and get settled again. It was a bit of a topsy turvy year, with the sevens, with the XVs and then in Japan, in MIQ, and now in lockdown for a long time,” MacDonald told media on Monday.
“It’s been a tough 12 months for Caleb. I think the familiarity of the guys he knows at the Blues, in the Blues environment, has been really good, he’s enjoying his training. He looks in fantastic nick, he’s really motivated.”
MacDonald said Clarke is working with coaches and teammates to expand his game, which no other Super Rugby defence wants to see considering what he showed he can do with ball-in-hand for the Blues and All Blacks last year.
After the disappointments of 2021, and now looking at the All Blacks from the outside-in, 2022 shapes as a big year for Clarke to put himself back in the frame for test rugby.
“We’ve got a lot of depth in the outside backs and that competition is going to bring the best out of him. It’s going to keep pushing him,” MacDonald said.
“He’s already found a little working group, he’s working alongside a couple of guys, they are doing extras.
“He’s working hard on his skillset and he’s talking about how we can evolve his game to become even more of a threat. These sort of conversations in the time that we’ve got is really important.
“It’s an exciting year for Caleb, probably a chance for him to take a bit of pressure off himself and just get back on the grass and play a bit of rugby again.”
Having won back his first-five position with the All Blacks Barrett will return to the Blues as their number one option after the departure of Otere Black to Japan.
However, youngsters Harry Plummer and Stephen Perofeta are likely to see game time early in the season as the Blues manage Barrett’s minutes upon his return from a long test season this year.
“All the All Blacks will have managed minutes and have potentially, rest weeks,” said Macdonald.
“That’s just standard now, that’s the landscape we live in, we’re used to that. It’s because of the year that they’ve had, finishing up now, a lot of other players just haven’t had to do that.
“We want them playing in New Zealand happy, and staying in New Zealand as long as they can so it makes sense to us.
“There’s nothing unusual in his [Barrett’s] contract, he’s here to play. He’s already indicated he’s coming back to the Blues and is talking about our season here already.
“He’s excited about coming back and pulling on the Blues jersey, which is really exciting.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Coin flip between Ardie and Scott Barrett. Both have their pros and cons, and both would probably be decent. Ardie has way more passion on the field, but that hasn’t always translated into the best decisions. They will both turn 34 at the next World Cup, so both will most likely have their best days a few years behind them. It’s hard to imagine now, but looking at young players coming through Ardie will probably be under the most pressure to retain his place in the team. Beauden Barrett also an outside chance if Razor sees him as the first choice 10.
3 Go to commentsQuality stuff from Flats. Rugby can’t replace football nor should we want it to. I think the ‘product’ (awful term sorry) now is absolutely fantastic. Growing the game shouldn’t be at the expense of losing its brutal beauty.
1 Go to commentsI think they’ll choose Scott Barret as captain, Ardie 7, Hoskins 8, Finau at 6.
3 Go to commentsSo what were saying is if you make it through to the play offs in Europe you’re likely to suffer at the tail end of the prem. No extra cash for playing in Europe, more chance of injury, fatiguing the team…while others not through rest up. whats the point??
1 Go to commentsClaims that Finau is a risky proposition are hyperbole. His tackles have been mostly perfectly timed and executed except for the Lynach one and that was a split-second out, certainly not 2 seconds. Social media criticism shows opposition fans are nervous about Finau’s impact. I see Jacobson and Blackadder as no.7s, they don’t have the power, size or dynamism to be 6 or 8 at Test level. Akira has shown he lacks the intuition and technique to play Tests. If he learnt to bend his back more and hit breakdowns and tackles low and hard, it would do wonders for his game. Finau is the standout option for 6 with Grace or Shields as his backup. I’d like to see Finau, Sotutu and Jacobson as an experimental back-row combo; lineout nous, dynamic ball carrying, hard defence, etc.
41 Go to commentsI find these articles so very interesting, giving a much more in depth series of insights than one can ever gain from “desktop” research. It is very significant that it is this English man that Joe Schmidt has turned to build the basement stability and reliability from the WB forwards that was so shredded during the Jones debacle. With his long period in Ireland, with both Leinster and Ireland, Schmidt will know Geoff Parling’s qualities as a player well, and he will have gone over, with a fine tooth comb, the mans time in Australia. This, one feels, will prove to be a shrewd decision. I’m particularly interested in Parling’s comments about the lineout, especially the differences in approach between the hemispheres. He talks about the impact of weather conditions on the type of lineout tactics employed. He is the right man to have preparing for a wet and windy game at Eden Park, the “Cake Tin”, or in Christchuch, or for that matter in Capetown. I must confess to being surprised by this comment though re Will Skelton: “ Is he a lineout jumper? No. But the lineout starts on the ground – contact work, lifting, utilising that massive body at the maul.” Geoff is spot on about the work Will does on the ground. But I would contest the view that he is not a lineout jumper. I think I have commented before on this one, so won’t go further than referring to the end of the last Cup Final in Dublin, LAR using Will on maybe 3 occasions at No 2 in the lineout. And I have seen him used by LAR in Top 14, and never seen him beaten to the catch…but in reality that would only be a total of 10 times max.
70 Go to commentsDaltons a great guy and can lead at any level with that humility
3 Go to commentsWell if Parling is an Australian citizen then I suppose that’s OK. It’s more than can be said for The Hobbit in Absentia. I’m guessing Jordan Useless won’t be getting a call up to the Wallabies then because the Melbourne Rebels lineout coached by Parling has been a complete disaster. Parling had better prove himself or it’s out. He’ll be flattered by having one of the best lineout operators in world rugby in Rodda hopefully. If Parling can teach the Wallabies one thing it would be to also teach Australian players to make a serious effort on charge downs. Only Frost and Rodda make an effort. The rest are half hearted and lazy, bar Harry Wilson’s effort last week. There are lots of big missed opportunities.
70 Go to commentsGreat read thanks and glad he’s committed to Aus rugby! The comment from the no 8 saying he’s never done lineouts before doesn’t surprise me. There often isn’t the same upbringing with rugby here as there is in nz and parts of Europe. Seems like he’s doing a great job at the Rebels
70 Go to commentsScott Barrett. End of story.
2 Go to commentsDu Plessis Kirifi will not be selected by the All Blacks. He is nowhere near 6’0” tall. He looks good in Super Rugby in wide open , fast pace rugby. That is not Test rugby. He would be rag dolled by South Africa, Ireland, France, and England.
7 Go to commentsIt’s Razor so Blackadder and Grace for starters. Although on second thoughts K Read looked in great shape on TV the other day.
41 Go to commentsGreat piece Nick, plenty to chew on. Loved this ‘biases’ line from Geoff, shows he is a thinker - “If you asked me for a shortlist of coaches who appealed to my biases, he would be on it.” I think Schmidt is towing a similar line to Rennie in regards to OS players, he is publicly saying he prefers local talent, but almost certainly will be fighting to have the likes of skelton in the team. Interesting to hear the backroom on the rebels and what a cockup that is, just when you think RA admin has hit rock bottom it digs deeper. Other bit that caught my eye was his skills focus on things like passing from 7s at the base of the lineout, great little details. but also scary that a SR level 8 didn’t know how to operate within a lineout - telling!
70 Go to commentsThoroughly enjoyed this thanks Nick. ‘The lineout starts on the ground…’ wish I’d thought of that line when discussing Will’s place in the Wallabies.
70 Go to commentsShannon Frizell’s second year is optional is how I heard it. Given nothing has been confirmed yet it gets more and more likely he signs to return next year. Cant wait to see Finau doing more work on Internal players.
41 Go to commentsBlindside flankers should be hard hitting defenders, good lineout jumper with height, and a hard worker who hits and cleans rucks. If he can be a destructive ball carrier it’s a bonus but not a necessity. Samipeni Fineau and Cullen Grace are excellent at those core skills and my choice at blindside. Brad Shields is dismissed because he is 33 but not sure why that should be a consideration for this season. Shields too does these core roles well. Just don’t pick an 8 and shift him to 6 like the wingers on The Breakdown suggest, as if 6 and 8 are interchangeable. They are not. An 8 is first and foremost a dynamic ball carrier, not necessarily a destructive defender as a 6 should be. Devon Flanders and Akira Ioane are #8 s forced to play blindside because their teams have better options at 8 than them. Do not pick them at blindside
41 Go to commentsSaints obviously didn’t get the memo, or needed an ego boost?
1 Go to commentsReturning to the Chiefs would be another good change that could only put him into a better position to succeed in black
7 Go to commentsSimply outrageous and demonstrably false to say Finau’s tackle on Lynagh was “2 seconds late” In reality it was probably 0.5 seconds after he passed the ball. If you carry the ball at speed to within 5m of the defensive line you can expect to get tackled. Finau could have pulled out of it and not absolutely flattened him for sure, but there was going to be contact either way. He seems like a high risk selection at the moment, but there is no one else like him in NZ at the moment. His big tackles make the highlight reels but he is also a great athlete, very fast for such a big man, spent most of his days at lock so also very strong in the line out.
41 Go to commentsYes, Finau looks like the best option. Blackadder is not big enough for an international 6 - he should join the queue at 7. Frizzell had the power and heft and line-out height to play lock, so maybe that is where the ABs should be looking, not at a 7 who’s not big enough for 6, but at a lock who might have the agility to play 6, like Scott Barrett, or… Natai Ah Kuoi, who absolutely fits that bill, but seldom gets to play 6 because the Chiefs have so many loosies.
41 Go to comments