LONG READ Analysing Leicester Fainga'anuku's 'overwhelmingly positive' hybrid debut

Thoughts become words, words turn into actions, and it is but a short step from action to the formation of character and a larger destiny. Three weeks ago RugbyPass pondered the possibilities of New Zealand selecting Leicester Fainga’anuku of the Crusaders as a hybrid back/forward in the André Esterhuizen mode pioneered by Rassie Erasmus for the Springboks. It did not take long for the idea and the words to take one big step closer to reality.

On Super Saturday at the One New Zealand Stadium, Rob Penney finally picked the versatile midfielder in his starting back-row against the NSW Waratahs.

Fainga’anuku played seven and did not look remotely out of place. Far from it. He will start with the same number on his back when the Crusaders take on the Hurricanes this Friday. His performance was one of the main topics on Sky Sport’s The Breakdown in the aftermath, and the consensus among the three backs discussing it – ex-All Black wing Jeff Wilson, former Wallaby midfielder Morgan Turinui and New Zealand and Samoa dual international Lima Sopoaga – was overwhelmingly positive.

LS: “I don’t know where they’re going to pick him next week. Pick him at centre, pick him at seven, who knows? It worked in my opinion; he was unbelievable. Did everything that he should have.”

JW: “Look, it was an outstanding performance on a short turnaround. I had spoken to him a couple of weeks earlier in Christchurch, and he actually just wanted to get more involved in the game, so this is the way to do it: convince the coaching staff that you can play in the loose forwards.”

MT: “That jersey, the number seven, meant that he could just ‘go’. And we saw that he did all the core roles so well of what a seven must do. His decision-making was good, but he did it just a little bit faster than everyone else.”

There were a couple of caveats raised about a forward playing as a back. First by Wilson. “I think his skill set absolutely suits the way the Springboks play. Does it suit the way Dave Rennie wants to play?’

Then Turinui. “There is ‘could’, then there is ‘should’. If you’re an outstanding back-rower, you stand more of a chance of being involved consistently than being put out into the midfield.”

The debate raised some questions of nuance – around the differences in a forward-playing-as-a-back, which represents the majority of the hybrid population at Test level; and a back-playing-as-a-forward, which is the role Fainga’anuku would occupy in the All Blacks.

The comparisons made by Wilson and Turinui cited the former, with Wilson also mentioning South African Kwagga Smith in dispatches, rather than Esterhuizen.

The principal reason for using Fainga’anuku in the back-row as well as midfield would be to increase his number of involvements in the game. Fainga’anuku is an 80-minute man who thrives on hard work, and he gets better with every repetition. When he was first shifted from wing into the 13 jersey by RC Toulon for the 2024-25 Top 14 season, with a smattering of back-row cameos added for good measure, his numbers were transformed.

Fainga’anuku carried on 41 more occasions than the next back in Top 14, Racing 92’s Josua Tuisova, and the four players who ranked ahead of him in the league for pure carry volume were all number eight forwards: Billy Vunipola, Jack Willis, Abraham Papali’i and Sione Kalamafoni. That is some heavyweight company indeed to be keeping.

Only Tuisova came close to Fainga’anuku as a back-line tackle-buster, with both juggernauts posting an average of four busts per game throughout the season. And when you see that 10:1 ratio of busts to breaks, it is the unmistakeable sign of a man who thrives on the hard, physical grind of the close carry, a true thoroughbred workhorse.

The other reason for the repositioning is the growing expectations of the role over the past few years. Wind the clock back to Ireland’s tour of New Zealand in 2022, and one of the main planks for Ireland’s historic series win was the new understanding of the open-side flanker’s function they brought with them to the shaky isles.

New Zealand have always been the undisputed kings of seven play historically, with a stream of outstanding individuals wearing the blue-riband shirt with distinction in the professional era, most notably Michael Jones, Josh Kronfeld and Richie McCaw.

In 2022 they had another good one in Sam Cane, but over the course of the series he was outworked on the carry and at the tackle by his opposite number, Leinster’s Josh van der Flier.

In the Leinster attacking system which Ireland adopted, the number seven has the extra responsibility to be a ball-carrier as well as a cleanout specialist and a link man, and Van der Flier’s success changed the idea of what the spot could produce with ball in hand. Since then, most international teams have broadened their expectations and espoused a similar approach.

That is just some of the background to the thought process behind Fainga’anuku’s shift. The ex-Touloun centre duly obliged against the Waratahs, topping the stats for total carries by a forward [19], pick and goes [six], offloads [four] and tackle busts [three], with one close-range try to add to his tally.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 28, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 28, 2026

Fainga’anuku’s ability to offload from the most unpromising of pick and go, or one-out situations is quite uncanny. He has a forward’s capacity to bend the line with power but the soft hands of a back are working to find the right moment in the background. In the next two sequences, the power close to the try line is self-evident in the first clip and the hands make all of the difference in the second.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 28, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 28, 2026

There are three major soft touches on the pass which keep the attacking momentum flowing before Macca Springer converts the try: an offload off the ground which springs full-back Johnny McNicholl through the hole, a tip-on and re-ruck over the carry by George Bower, and another pull-back ball from the first forward line of attack with the weighted dexterity of a Sexton or a Mo’unga. That is the short-hand for what a top-class hybrid can deliver.

The presence of Fainga’anuku offered the Crusaders plenty of flexibility on attack, as he lined up as a third centre on shorter lineouts and shifted to number eight at the base of attacking scrums. He also proved himself capable doing the dog-work at the driving lineout.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 28, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) April 28, 2026

In both instances, Fainga’anuku sets up as the ‘+1’ insert at a 5m attacking lineout, but they are two very different examples of the application of power. In the first example he stays tight and the drive proceeds directly through the dent he makes in the NSW defensive fabric, in the second he breaks off and used his tackling-busting strength to set up David Havili on the fringes of the maul.

Let’s leave it to another back, ex-Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall, speaking on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod, to summarize the quandary Fainga’anuku presents to New Zealand rugby.

“Leicester was the top ball carrier in the forward pack, and I think that’s what his role should be: to get over the advantage line, get touches, and make it a little bit more difficult for defences… You saw on the edge with the little offloads, picking and going through the middle, having more of a license in and around the ball.”

Scott Robertson was unwilling to shift from the 5/3 split or experiment with hybrids, and you can still sense some of the same reluctance among the All Blacks’ ex-player fraternity. Sometimes it’s not easy to see the wood for the trees, or the fundamental character of a player aside from the label of ‘back’ or ‘forward’. New supremo Dave Rennie may be just the eye-popping tonic rugby in athe land of the long white cloud needs.