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The NZ provincial sides that could be unstoppable with their All Blacks available for selection
While it will still be some time before we know what the rugby calendar will look like in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, there have been suggestions aplenty regarding what we could expect from the compacted season.
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One such suggestion would see New Zealand’s provincial competition again take pride of place in the rugby year.
The Mitre 10 Cup has fallen in prominence over the last decade, typically competing for the spotlight with Test rugby due to the congested calendar.
In 2019, six rounds of action were completed before the Rugby World Cup took over the airwaves but there were also various international warm-ups taking place throughout those first weeks.
2018 was a similar story, with the Rugby Championship and the Mitre 10 Cup kicking off on the same weekend.
While this naturally has a direct impact on the viewership of the Mitre 10 Cup, the arguably bigger issue is that All Blacks are almost entirely absent from New Zealand’s oldest nationwide rugby competition.
Last year, Brad Weber, Liam Coltman, Atu Moli and Rieko Ioane were the only All Backs who travelled to the World Cup who notched up any game time for their provinces.
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It was a similar situation the year prior with just a handful of players who were lacking in game time allowed to turn out for their provincial sides.
You have to look back to 2006 for the last time that All Blacks played any sort of meaningful role in what was then called the Air New Zealand Cup.
In that year, the likes of Mils Muliaina, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Byron Kelleher and Keith Robinson faced up against Tana Umaga, Conrad Smith and Piri Weepu in the competition’s final.
This was only possible as the Super Rugby season was considerably shorter (16 weeks instead of 21), allowing the slightly more compact Tri-Nations (10 weeks instead of 14) to finish up with six rounds of action still go to in the Air New Zealand Cup.
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It’s gotten to the point where many All Blacks’ provincial teams are token alliances used almost exclusively for marketing.
It was trumpeted as a fairly big deal when Kieran Read changed provinces from Canterbury to his native Counties Manukau back in 2017 but the All Blacks captain never donned Counties colours for anything other than promotional purposes.
That wouldn’t have been the case if the provincial season wasn’t now simply treated as a development competition.
Super Rugby could still take place in some form this year but at best we’re likely to see a New Zealand-only competition.
The alternative is to kick off the Mitre 10 Cup a little earlier in the year, whenever professional sports becomes viable once more, and welcome New Zealand’s top talent back into the provincial fold.
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Yes, it’s only 30-odd extra players being added to a competition which sees upwards of 400 players already taking part, but it’s 30-odd of the best players – men who could not only lift their sides’ performances but also help mentor the many rookies in the early stages of their careers.
The fact that the All Blacks are relatively evenly distributed amongst the provinces compared to 20 years ago would also mean that the likes of Canterbury, Auckland and Wellington wouldn’t simply be injected with all the talent.
Last year, Taranaki finished 5th in the Championship division – effectively ranking them as the 12th strongest province in New Zealand.
It would take a brave man to suggest that Taranaki wouldn’t challenge for the overall title if they had all their All Blacks on deck, however.
Simply adding the three Barrett brothers, Beauden, Scott and Jordie, to a side already well supported by Super Rugby players, would help take the 2014 champions’ game to another level.
In fact, Scott and Jordie have never actually had the opportunity to don the amber and black hoops of the Taranaki provincial side, originally earning their stripes for Canterbury.
The other team that might significantly benefit from having all their All Blacks fit and available for selection is Waikato, who weren’t far off making the finals in last year’s Premiership.
While their pack may not get too much propping up (although a fit Luke Jacobson would be a huge boon), their backline would suddenly be teeming with X-factor in the form of Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown and Sevu Reece.
Couple those three with Solomon Alaimalo, Quinn Tupaea and Fletcher Smith and you’ve got a backs division on par with any in Super Rugby.
It’s also worth considering there are a huge number of former NZ players who now ply their trade in Japan, where the Top League season has been cancelled for the rest of the year. It may be a pipe dream, but is there a chance that some of these players could return for a one-off season in New Zealand? Could Kieran Read run out for the Counties Manukau Steelers after all?
Back in the real world, the extra time allotted to the Mitre 10 Cup could also allow for a full round-robin instead of the contracted season and Premiership/Championship split that fans have had to put up with for the last few years.
The whole season could be capped off with the much-fabled North Island v South Island match, selecting players based on their performances from throughout the Mitre 10 Cup.
Now may not be the time to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but it is a great opportunity for New Zealand Rugby to try something different. The season has been so comprehensively upturned that the status quo is no longer possible and a one-off refresh would certainly not be a bad thing.
The provinces that would benefit from having their All Blacks available:
Northland – Jack Goodhue
Auckland – Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Rieko Ioane
Counties Manukau – Nepo Laulala
Waikato – Luke Jacobson, Anton Lienert-Brown, Sevu Reece
Bay of Plenty – Sam Cane
Taranaki – Angus Ta’avao, Scott Barrett, Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett
Hawke’s Bay – Brodie Retallick (in Japan), Brad Weber
Manawatu – Aaron Smith
Wellington – Dane Coles, Ardie Savea, TJ Perenara
Tasman – Atu Moli, Shannon Frizell
Canterbury – Codie Taylor, Joe Moody, Sam Whitelock (in Japan), Richie Mo’unga, George Bridge
Otago – Liam Coltman
Comments on RugbyPass
Beaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
2 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
2 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
14 Go to comments