The Blues have a problem at centre and Rieko Ioane is not the solution
The Blues have a problem at centre and Rieko Ioane is not the solution.
So says assistant coach Tana Umaga, who could play 12 and 13 with equal facility in his day. But the Blues have three key players – Sonny Bill Williams, Ma’a Nonu and TJ Faiane – who are all best suited to second five. Without a bonafide centre, the Blues have struggled to create space for their outsides and in fact, have scored just five tries in three outings. Last year they had 12 tries after three matches, though even then they grappled with deciding who was their best midfield as injuries bit hard.
Their problems run much deeper than just not being in synch through the midfield, but it is a useful starting point when one considers that Rieko Ioane has been under-employed on the left wing.
The Blues have opted for the Sonny Bill Williams (12)/TJ Faiane (13) combination for Saturday’s must-win home clash against the Sunwolves, who bring their own Kiwi No 12, Michael Little, in top form. Williams, who is down on his offloads and attacking punch, and Faiane also started against the Sharks, but Faiane is now seen as the main man at centre. Levi Aumua, the powerful Tasman centre, will come off the bench, as he covers wing.
Nonu played well enough individually at centre against the Crusaders but had his hands full with Braydon Ennor.
“Every week there’s going to be a headline. Either Sonny or Ma’a is going to miss out at 12. It’s a challenge for us to know exactly what that looks like,” says Blues head coach Leon MacDonald, who declared only a fortnight ago that he does not see either Williams or Nonu as a centre.
“Given the travel and age of a couple of the midfielders, it makes sense to manage the minutes between them and they are okay with that. The idea is to have them playing a lot of minutes in total throughout the whole season.
“It hasn’t gelled quite as well as we would have liked. We’re trying to do the best we can to get those combinations settled.”
Quite right too, but that puts the onus on Faiane, who is most effective at second five as seen in his breakout 2018 Mitre 10 Cup season with Auckland, where he partnered with Tumua Manu, now with the Chiefs.
Faiane is not playing badly in the No 13 jersey, especially on defence, but it is a fact that the Blues attack is stilted and they have yet to create a slick backline try. George Moala might have been the answer but is now wearing the yellow of Clermont in France. Orbyn Leger was used for much of 2018, even though he is a five-eighths. He made a decent fist of it but is now down the highway with the Chiefs. Michael Collins finished the 2018 season there for the Blues, but he was dropped after a nightmarish first two games at fullback in 2019. Young wing Tanielu Tele’a has plenty of background, though mainly at First XV level, at centre, while another First XV centre star Caleb Clarke, is not due back from a knee injury for several weeks, and is a wing at this level.
Umaga, who was heavily criticised for shifting the world’s best left wing to the No 12 jersey for large tracts of 2018, says Ioane will not be used to solve the No 13 issues, even just to get him more ball.
“We don’t need him at this stage. With all the injuries in the outside backs, we can’t move him. We didn’t have this calibre of player in the midfield last year,” Umaga told RugbyPass.
“We are conscious that Rieks hasn’t had a lot of ball out wide. So is he, but the other side of it is that teams are shutting us off getting it to him. He’s a superstar, so we’ve got to be smarter about how we get him the ball.”
Funnily enough, the best Blues’ attacking move against the Jaguares came off the first lineout, with Ioane making a midfield thrust off a nice inside ball by Nonu. Thereafter there was too much dusty passing and poor decision-making.
“We’re trying to utilise the resources and experience we have as best we can. It’s been tough juggling the three midfielders. We’ve brought in Levi as we know we’ve got to keep everyone involved and he was good for us in pre-season. And Tanielu has come of age sooner than we thought,” Umaga adds.
He is endorsing Faiane to come good on attack in the 13 jersey.
“TJ is probably the least experienced at centre, but Leon and I, with our backgrounds at centre, feel he’s got a natural game that fits there. He’s a busy player, high work-rate and good defender out wide.”
Of course, the midfield is not going to cook up anything if there is stilted service from the halves and slow ball from the pack.
The Blues are on notice in several areas.
Comments on RugbyPass
Beautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to comments