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The blockbusting loosie crowned New Zealand's best performer ahead of Cullen Grace and Quinn Tupaea

By Tom Vinicombe
Devan Flanders. (Original photo by Rodrigo Valle/Getty Images)

When the New Zealand secondary schools side beat their Australian counterparts 34-11 in 2017, five players in the NZ backline cracked over 100 running metres. Not one of those five players were awarded the prestigious Jerry Collins Memorial Bronze Boot, however. Instead, it was talented loose forward Devan Flanders who was deemed the player of the series.

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That’s no mean feat, given the quality of players that were sprinkled amongst that team. That 2017 side has already produced 9 Super Rugby players, including Naitoa Ah Kuoi, Cullen Grace, Tupou Vaa’i, Leicester Fainga’anuku, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Kini Naholo, Danny Toala and Quinn Tupaea – as well as Flanders himself.

Flanders, who was a member of the famous Hasting Boys’ High School first XV that made two consecutive national finals, is in his first full-time season with the Hurricanes this year. Last Sunday, the dynamic number 8 started just his second match of Super Rugby and dotted down for his first try.

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We spoke to the young Blue flanker after his impressive start to Super Rugby Aotearoa about what’s motivating his consistently outstanding performances.

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We spoke to the young Blue flanker after his impressive start to Super Rugby Aotearoa about what’s motivating his consistently outstanding performances.

By his own admission, he’s still very much finding his feet at this level of the game, having played two seasons of Mitre 10 Cup for Hawke’s Bay.

“We had a few injuries at the start of the season, which allowed me to get a few minutes,” Flanders told RugbyPass. “I’m pretty happy with the minutes that I’ve had at the moment but not as happy with the way I’ve been playing.

“I think it’ll take a bit of time. I suppose it’s just adapting to the new style, playing with different players and just trying to be more confident in myself to play, really.”

Flanders, himself, is his biggest critic. While there are always tales of young players bursting onto the scene and immediately shining at Super Rugby level, even the greats of the game tend to take a while to warm up before they’re ready for the big leagues.

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Of course, Super Rugby Aotearoa is an even tougher competition than what most young men are faced with in their first few seasons of representing their local franchise. Every match is a must-win game and there are no real opportunities for rest or rotation.

It can also be tough to really find your feet when you’re regularly coming off the bench and facing up against other players who have already figured out the pace of the match.

“The game against the Chiefs, just before the COVID situation, that my first start,” said Flanders.

“For me, I find starting just a bit easier than coming off the bench because you’re beginning fresh with everyone. When you’re coming on later in the match, you’re a bit cold while everyone’s been playing for a while and have gotten used to the game.”

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The problem, of course, is that the Hurricanes are fairly well stocked in the loose forwards. Even though Ardie Savea was absent from the team prior to Super Rugby Aotearoa’s kick-off, the Hurricanes were still able to call on the likes of Vaea Fifita, Gareth Evans, Reed Prinsep and Du’Plessis Kirifi.

While that’s prevented Flanders from being thrust straight into the spotlight, it’s also provided the 20-year-old with plenty of role-models to learn from – especially Magpies teammate Evans and New Zealand’s best player at last year’s World Cup, Savea.

“[Evans] is another loose forward that I can learn a lot off, especially coming from Hawke’s Bay,” Flanders said. “I know him quite well now, so I can pretty much ask him anything. He helps me out with on-field and off-field stuff, so he’s a bit of a mentor for me.

“Ardie’s world-class. He was in my team at training [when the Super Rugby squads first came back together following the COVID-enforced break] and I just tried to learn as much off him as I could.

“He’s got a lot of good off-field stuff going on and he’s always trying to help out wherever he can. He does some early morning swims or has a coffee before training with whoever wants to go. He’s just a good guy, all-around.”

While Flanders trained with the Hurricanes in the lead-up to the 2018 and 2019 seasons, this is the first year where he’s really had the opportunity to regularly interact with the side’s All Blacks – who are normally absent for a large part of the pre-season.

“This is the first year that I’ve got to train properly and see what it’s like instead of just doing pre-season the whole time,” said Flanders. “I feel like I’m more part of the team now than I used to be – it’s a much better feeling knowing that training you’re doing with everyone is directly contributing to the season ahead.

“When you see the All Blacks for the first time, it’s awesome. You see them on TV and now you’re training with them, it’s pretty cool but it took me quite a while to get used to it. Even just getting a follow on Instagram – us new guys are all showing each other who follows who and all that kind of stuff.”

Flanders elects his flatmate and Hawke’s Bay teammate Danny Toala as the man who was quickest out of the blocks to snare the All Blacks and Hurricanes followers: “I think he got most of them straight away.”

While the Bronze Boot award was indicative of Flanders’ prowess, even at a high school level, it’s not the only sport that he excelled in during his formative years.

“Me and my brothers all played canoe polo too – I’m not sure if many people know what that is. It’s basically water polo but in a boat.

“I think it was about year six when we first started playing it, and then played it through intermediate and high school, then started playing for Hawke’s Bay and those sort of teams. My older brother played in the top team and he won nationals two years in a row and then I made the top team and we won again, so we go the three-peat, which was pretty good. We got sports team of the year at school too.”

While there are few similarities between canoe polo and Flanders’ current sport, you can imagine that the strength acquired from being involved in a pastime where navigation is almost entirely dependant on the arms and shoulder might come in useful for a budding rugby player.

“There are a few chicken legs but it was good for the upper body, of course, and fitness and strength,” Flanders said.

“In my early years, I trained quite hard for it. I was going to give it up in year 12 but I twisted my leg so I came back for year 13. I’ve got too heavy for a boat now; I can’t really fit in them.”

The focus is purely on rugby now – and Flanders is aiming to get as many matches under his belt as possible in the new competition. The regularity of play will allow the up-and-coming loose forward to build his confidence and show New Zealand what he’s capable of on a wider scale.

Still, Flanders acknowledges that the biggest improvement he can make right now is to just own his game and own his abilities – and he knows he’s more than capable of taking his game to the next level.

“Probably at the moment, I just need to focus on being more confident and more physical – just getting into the game more instead of trying to save myself.

“I felt like I was waiting for the game to come to me instead of going out there and getting it myself so, at the moment, I need to put my foot forward and take charge.

“I probably can’t wait until game time because that would be too late. At training, I need to do the little things right so that I’m feared and confident enough when it comes to the game time. When I first came in, I was just the quiet little boy. Now, I’m just trying to work on my game, be more confident and do what I want to do instead of just standing back.”

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Jon 1 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This 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”?

34 Go to comments
j
john 3 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But 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.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks 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

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 8 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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