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The All Blacks' answer at openside who can cause issues for South Africa and Argentina
By Ben Smith
Crusaders loose forward Ethan Blackadder returned to international action as an openside flanker against Fiji as the All Blacks trialled new combinations.
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The 29-year-old played just his second Test in three years after featuring just once in 2023 at the Rugby World Cup against Uruguay.
Even after just five Super Rugby Pacific games this season, Blackadder was able to produce a starring performance which caught the eye of Sir John Kirwan.
“Ethan Blackadder absolutely impressed me yesterday,” Kirwan told Sky Sport’s The Breakdown, “I haven’t seen a No 7 play like that for a long time.”
The former All Black would like to see a new combination for the Rugby Championship, moving Papali’i to the blindside to accomodate Blackadder on the openside.
“I would play Dalton [Papali’i] at No 6, I’d play Ardie at No 8, and I’d play Blackadder at seven, because he’s also a line out option.”
“I think Dalton’s bringing what a six, a traditional six used to do, but Ethan had everything yesterday, and I want to see that against Argentina and against South Africa.
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“Because if he plays like that, gets wide, makes those passes like that, Dalton will compliment him, because you can’t have three like that.
“Dalton will bash people, get up his line, make his defense, get over the ball, and Ardie will be Ardie, right?”
The backrow combination against England were edged by their counterparts, Chandler Cunningham-South, Sam Underhill and Ben Earl as the All Blacks were unable to get dominance in those position battles.
Blindside specialist Samipeni Finau is currently the number one option at No 6 but Kirwan believed his best will take time.
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“Where does that put Samipeni Finau? I’d like to persist with Samipeni, because some of these players at the next level, are a bit more slow burners,” he said.
“He’ll get better and better, but we’re looking for that aggression.
“And right now I think, wow, that I’d love to see that [Papali’i, Blackadder, Savea] as a combo.”