Rest and rotations for All Blacks isn't staving off injuries
It’s almost safer not to let them play at all.
You might have noticed a few All Blacks getting injured in Super Rugby Pacific.
Hurricanes halfback Cam Roigard is the most long-term one, followed by teammate Asafo Aumua.
Rieko Ioane, Scott Barrett, Damian McKenzie and Samipeni Finau all got dinged up over the weekend. Ethan Blackadder didn’t even take the field for the Crusaders against the Reds because of a thigh strain suffered at training.
It’s no mean feat for any All Black to be sustaining injuries given the number on sabbaticals and load-management regimes. Throw in mid-season byes and you wonder why we’re restricting players’ minutes at all.
Rugby in New Zealand has its challenges.
Provincial unions and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) are at loggerheads. Television staples such as Grassroots Rugby and Mainfreight Rugby have already gone by the wayside, with live NPC games potentially following suit.
It kind of puts the onus on NZR to ensure Super Rugby Pacific is a competition in which All Blacks are ever-present and the ball is in play for more than 20-odd minutes of each match.
Perhaps if our elite players actually played a bit more, they wouldn’t get injured quite so often.
In absolute fairness, I’ve never understood the rationale for rest and rotation and can’t believe it didn’t die a death following the All Blacks’ disastrous 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign.
“You can’t expect they’re going to play 17 games and then go and play 14 tests,’’ All Blacks coach Scott Robertson said ahead of the start of this Super Rugby season.
“They’re not going to play 31 games this year, and players aren’t going to play 17 games of Super Rugby and get them peaking for finals.
“They’re going to have to be managed and what does that individual athlete need…then it’s individualised conversations, medical are involved and we’re open and honest.
“It’s a fine balance for everyone.’”
A lot of that’s nonsense, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, why can’t they play?
Elite NRL players seem to, as well as competing in a State of Origin series and a couple of test matches. That’s the obvious Australasian comparison, given our competitions run head-to-head.
The way Robertson presents it makes it appear as if these blokes are playing 31 weeks in a row, which is cobblers for starters. And since when did the All Blacks roll the same 23 out for 14 games in succession?
There are enough breaks and windows in the season not to have to prescribe rest. A bit of rotation is inevitable too, because you don’t need your best 15 for every Test.
This situation isn’t a fine balance for everyone, of course, because the paying public never gets to have a say.
Sure, we buy television subscriptions and season tickets, but we do so on trust. We have no input into who plays and when.
We certainly don’t get a discount or refund when the second-stringers are having a run.
We’re forever saving players for a rainy day. Sitting them out or substituting them so that, when a Rugby World Cup final eventually comes, they’re fit enough to win it.
Only we don’t always win. Not everyone – despite the best management methods – is fit and available to play, regardless of what’s been lost or sacrificed along the way.
Are we eventually going to go the whole hog here? Are All Blacks never going to play provincial and franchise footy?
Are they just permanently going to be cotton-wooled in All Blacks training camps, with a diet of Test matches and nothing else?
I have a simple solution here: if you’re contracted to NZR, you play in New Zealand all year round and you play every week that you’re fit for selection.
No sabbaticals, no rest weeks, no restricted minutes.
Trying to pre-empt injury, by meeting players’ individual needs, doesn’t stop them from getting hurt.
You either play or you don’t play. There’s no in between.
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Comments on RugbyPass
A distinct discomfort with the officiating they were probably selected from the local IRA narcos branch along with the commentators bloody fly tippers.
1 Go to commentsWow, never thought I would read that
1 Go to commentsExcellent match. Great to see Keenan and Ryan back for Leinster. Super result for Ulster. Season is turning around.
1 Go to comments“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers”. So why are they scouting a retired fullback who himself admits that his “body is broken”?
1 Go to commentsBrumbies hand, knocked a Crusaders hand. Therefore, knock on in goal. Crusaders, goal line drop out should’ve been awarded. most likely after that 24 each at full time, so extra time would’ve been the right an entertaining outcome. Act Jim
1 Go to commentsSpeell cehck
1 Go to commentsColeman is gaawwwwnnn.
1 Go to commentsnext SA head coach?
3 Go to commentsGreat try by van Poortvliet.
1 Go to commentsThey have been cruelled by injuries but almost nobody (Sevu Reece and Fletcher Newell big exceptions) has played above himself which regularly happened before. Surely Scott Robertson had maintained the recruitment programme and it looks like a reasonable squad. Last in this competition will stall a lot of careers. Penny seems likeable. But it’s not enough even though this was better. We haven’t been good enough and it’s not helped by the “it’s been 15 years since… “etc “after nearly every match. Seems somehow a soft gifting of something once valuable. Kieran Read giving comments last week almost choked describing the easy surrender of possession by the forwards. I’d love to think that the senior players some of whom are back can show enough pride in the jersey to test the Blues next week.
3 Go to commentsWho will Joe select for the back three with so many in form candidates? Just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Dave Rennie and to a lesser extent Deans.
6 Go to commentsAlways reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
3 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
6 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
5 Go to comments> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
5 Go to comments