Justin Marshall's tip to replace Caleb Clarke in the All Blacks set-up

Former All Blacks scrumhalf Justin Marshall is tipping an imposing ball carrier for a Test call-up as a potential replacement for Caleb Clarke, should the Blues winger be sent to the Olympics in Japan.

What’s more, Marshall has posited a simple theory as to why block-busting ball carrier Clarke has failed to make the same impact in 2021. Clarke took the sport by storm in 2020, leading to comparisons to the legendary Jonah Lomu, such was his ability to cause chaos in the rank of Tri-Nations opposition.

Clarke’s focus is shifting away from the fifteen man code temporarily in favour of a return to the shorter form of the game. A former All Blacks Sevens representative, Clarke is one of a number of Super Rugby players competing for a place in head coach Clark Laidlaw’s squad to travel to the Japanese capital in July, and made a successful return to the sevens field against Australia in a Trans-Tasman tournament held in Auckland this weekend.

The move comes after a relatively quiet Super Rugby season for the 6’2, 107kg Blues back. Writing in his column in The XV, Marshall suggests it’s not just a case of second-season syndrome.

“…Clarke has struggled a bit since then and that can often happen to players who burst on to the scene,” writes Marshall. “This year he didn’t brush aside defenders and make the same impact in Super Rugby because he was more heavily marked. That’s when players have to make adjust and find their way into the game.

“If, for argument’s sake, Beauden Barrett, currently on sabbatical in Japan, wasn’t returning to the #AllBlacks this year, then who would be the All Blacks’ second-choice first five?”

Justin Marshall looks at #SuperRugbyAotearoa‘s movers and shakers.https://t.co/gxW4TYiyG9

— The XV Rugby (@TheXV) May 10, 2021

“I feel Clarke has been stuck on his wing this year and therefore struggled for form because he didn’t get the ball enough. I remember playing against the great Jonah Lomu and Rupeni Caucaunibuca – as a defender you give everything to bring them down before they get momentum and that’s what Clarke is running into this year.”