Why players keep leaving: Blues struggling to make All Blacks - and having shorter international careers
Four new caps were named in the first All Blacks squad of the year announced earlier this week.
Chiefs loosie Luke Jacobson, Highlanders first five Josh Ioane and Crusaders backs Braydon Ennor and Sevu Reece have all received their first call ups to the national side. Front rowers Atu Moli (Chiefs) and Asafo Aumua (Hurricanes), who have been selected before but never taken the field in a test match, are also included in the squad.
Of the six uncapped players selected, four of New Zealand’s five Super Rugby franchises are represented with only the Blues failing to promote a new player from within their ranks into the squad.
That probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise, given that the Blues once again finished bottom of the New Zealand conference.
The bigger concern for the country’s biggest franchise is that of the newly selected players, two were actually schooled in Auckland before heading elsewhere for their professional rugby.
Few Aucklanders sticking around for Super Rugby
Braydon Ennor captained the Saint Kentigern 1st XV before heading south for university and, eventually, provincial rugby. Josh Ioane earned his stripes at King’s College but now runs out for Otago.
These two young players contribute to an already large contingent of Auckland-schooled All Blacks that have since departed the region for greater opportunities elsewhere.
In fact, of the 39 All Blacks selected in the squad, over a quarter ran out for Auckland schools.
Alongside Ennor and Ioane, Angus Ta’avao, Vaea Fifita, Jack Goodhue, Ofa Tu’ungafasi, Patrick Tuipulotu, Dalton Papalii, Sonny Bill Williams and Rieko Ioane all spent their final year of college in Auckland. Only the latter four represented the Blues in this year’s Super Rugby competition whilst the others were spread amongst the other franchises.
Contrast that with the Crusaders, who have been the main benefactor of player movements since graduation and, arguably, fastidious player recruitment. Only seven of the most recently selected All Blacks represented Canterbury or Tasman at a high school level, yet no less than 11 of the current squad turned out for the Crusaders in 2018.
Crusaders reeling in the youth
Not one of Codie Taylor, Sam Whitelock, Kieran Read, Jack Goodhue, George Bridge, Ennor or Reece played for high schools that are caught under the Crusaders catchment area. Only Moli, Anton Lienert-Brown and Brodie Retallick have abandoned the Crusaders juggernaut in favour of other franchises (all three at the Chiefs).
Whilst there are obviously numerous non-rugby justifications for moving provinces, it would be a huge mistake to write off these numbers as completely unrelated to the pull of the Crusaders and the contrasting push of the Blues.
Long-term success not found at the Blues
The fact of the matter is that an astronomically higher number of long-term All Blacks come from the Crusaders than they do the Blues.
When considering only players that aren’t still in the formative years of their careers, almost 50% more All Blacks have come from the Crusaders than they have the Blues since 2008. Further, the Crusaders players are earning more than three times as many caps as the Blues players, on average.
The Blues have also had a number of players earn caps that have then been later discarded from the All Blacks, whilst the Crusaders players tend to hang around a lot longer. Remember the likes of Rudi Wulf, Benson Stanley, Francis Saili, Frank Halai and George Moala? They all managed fewer than five caps for New Zealand. In the past ten years, only three of the Crusaders newly minted All Blacks have managed earned five or fewer caps – which is all the more impressive when you consider the sheer number they’ve produced.
Of course, the Crusaders have historically been New Zealand’s top team – but the numbers don’t look significantly brighter for the Blues even when comparing them to the other three franchises. Only the Highlanders have elevated fewer players to the national side over the past ten years – but their All Blacks tend to stick around a lot longer. Jarrad Hoeata and Jamie Mackintosh both rose above their station, but the Highlanders’ other national representatives have all been very able performers.
The Crusaders have an excellent recruitment system in place. Yes, players want to go to the franchise already because of how successful they’ve been (both on and off the field), but that doesn’t mean the franchises’ scouts won’t be working tirelessly to ensure that they’ve got the best cattle coming into the region on a regular basis. It seems to be the opposite story at the Blues, who both lose out on some of their own home-grown talent, and fail to promote the players that they do retain.
Just how deep is the All Blacks talent pool? See what the Twittersphere thinks:
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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 commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments