Storied All Blacks 7 jersey awaits a transformed Ardie Savea
“Ardie, Ardie, Ardie.”
That was the name being chanted around Westpac Stadium on the night the Hurricanes took home Super Rugby’s spoils for the first time in August 2016.
The Capital’s favourite was the 22-year old local boy, who made rampaging runs in an unstoppable Super Rugby final performance that many thought was deserving of the man-of-the-match award. He clocked up the most metres of any player, 64 on 11 carries, as well as 13 tackles with zero missed.
This was two months after his All Blacks debut in the June series against Wales, where in front of his home crowd he scored a breakaway 40-metre try sparking similar chants.
The form of the dynamic flanker sparked debates about who the best openside in the country was, and who should inherit McCaw’s number seven jersey. Sam Cane was the groomed heir, but on the back of a Super Rugby title Savea’s form couldn’t be ignored any longer.
His unique athleticism intrigued selectors, this wasn’t a prototype fetcher in the mould of McCaw, Cane or Todd. He was an explosive athlete, with powerful leg-drive and upper body strength to match the skills and speed usually found with outside backs. He could play anywhere in the back row, and as an edge forward could cause chaos on the fringes.
He had ‘X-factor’ and was coming of age at the Hurricanes.
However, his genetic gifts became a double-edged sword in a way. He could bring impact into a game, and coupled with his versatility, he became ideal for a bench role. Similar to the early international careers of Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie, this is how the All Blacks preferred him.
His size also played a role in the cautious introduction to test rugby. As an apprentice on the 2013 end of year tour, Savea weighed in at 95kg after just one season of Super Rugby. During his breakout year in 2016, he was tipping the scales at 102kg. He was growing fast but Cane was always a step ahead in size.
Cane’s own body transformation added a dominant physical edge to his game, at 109kg he was belting players like he never had before, leading Hanson to praise his form as the best of his career which kept Savea at bay. Hansen believed that if Savea could get past 105 it would be his optimal playing weight, and he would reach his potential at test level.
This task wouldn’t be so cut and dry as new challenges arose. A few niggling injuries during the 2017 Super Rugby season and an All Blacks demotion at the end of 2017 presented setbacks to overcome, which Savea rectified in 2018.
He won another start in the All Blacks seven jersey for the third and final French test, only to be forced from the field in the first twenty minutes with an ankle injury that ruled him out for the Super Rugby playoffs.
Overcoming that he returned to the All Blacks bench for the start of the Rugby Championship, before the opportunity to start against Argentina gave Savea the chance he has been waiting for.
His return to the international fold as a starter in the last month has shown shades of the 2016 form that had captured everyone’s attention, but with the bulk he’s never had before.
This is a transformed Savea, coming through the fire as a rebuilt player. He was listed at 100kg in the Argentinian broadcast, but he sure looks like he has reached 105. If he hasn’t, it must be mere grams away. The visual comparison to 2016 is as clear as night and day, he has reached another physical level.
In his first start against Argentina, he took on the grunt work and left most of the support lines to his fellow backrower, Shannon Frizell. He cleaned rucks and handled the Pumas big men at the breakdown, while Frizell made his name that night as a ball-carrying option, breaking the Pumas open as a tip runner.
The limited carries Savea took showed glimpses that he can dominate this level as a ball carrier, flattening Agustin Creevy at one stage and doing the same to his replacement.
In the return test, Savea donned the Number 8 jersey and played a different role to Nelson, tasked with more ball-carrying.
He took more exit carries and offered an option of the back of the scrum, as well as flanking the right edge in attack where he troubled the Pumas time and time again.
Savea showed again his power running can create front-foot ball consistently and was awarded his first man-of-the-match award as an All Blacks starter.
In both starts he put up 80-minute shifts, maintaining a solid work rate throughout, proving his newfound size hasn’t come at the expense of his fitness.
A bench cameo against the Springboks proved pivotal as he won crucial turnovers at the breakdown and scored the match-winning try from close range, rounding out his month of international rugby as a valuable part of the All Blacks set-up.
With Sam Cane now set for a long-term layoff following a serious neck injury, Savea has come of age at the international level at just the right time. With Matt Todd having an off-season stint in Japan, there are no established candidates to keep him away from the seven jersey.
Having re-signed for just one more season, he will now get the chance to establish himself on a crucial end of year tour. Set to turn 25-years-old next week, Savea still has a big future in the black jersey. Read will depart at some stage and Savea’s versatility as a Number 8 may find him starting alongside Cane post-World Cup, if not finding regular time at openside.
This November ‘audition’ tour will be the perfect way to convince Savea to stick around.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
I think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
5 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
5 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
5 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
33 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
2 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
33 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
33 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
33 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
33 Go to commentsNo SA supporter miss Super Rugby - a product that is experiencing significant head wind in ANZ - the competition from rival codes are intense, match attendance figures are at a historical low and the negativity of commentators such as Kirwan and Wilson have accelerated the downward spiral in NZ. After the next RWC in 2027 sponsors will follow Qantas and start leaving in droves.
2 Go to commentsLike others, I am not seeing the connection between this edition of the Crusaders and the All Blacks future prospects under Razor. I think the analysis of the Crusaders attack recently is helpful because Razor and his coaching team used to be able to slot new guys in to their systems and see them succeed. Several of Razor’s coaches are still there so it would be surprising if the current attack and set piece has been overhauled to a great extent - but based on that analysis, it may have been. Whether it is too many new guys due to injuries or retirement or a failure of current Crusaders systems is the main question to be answered imo. It doesn’t seem relevant for the ABs.
33 Go to commentsharry potter is set in stone. he creates stability and finishes well. exactly what schmidt likes. he’s the ben smith of australian rugby. i think it could quite easily be potter toole and kellaway for the foreseeable future.
5 Go to commentsThis is short sighted from Clayton if you ask me, smacks of too much preseason planning and no adaptability. What if DMac is out for a must win match, are they still only going to bring their best first five and playmaker on late in the game? Trusting the game to someone who wasn’t even part of planning (they would have had Trask pinned in as Jacomb preseason). Perhaps if the Crusaders were better they would not have done this, but either way imo you take this opportunity to play a guy you might need starting in a final rather than having their 12th game getting comfortable coming off the bench.
1 Go to comments