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New Zealand's Sitiveni Sivivatu catches the ball. Photo/Tom Hevezi
The All Blacks squad named for the RWC 2011 tournament is its oldest ever assembled, with 1132 Test caps spread around the 30 players.
But as Graham Henry pointed out at a generally up-beat media conference in Brisbane yesterday, there are some exciting young outside backs who add, or should add, some sparkle to the experienced game played by the old-timers.
By my count, there are 8 players in the squad with 50 Test caps or more. And there are 11 members of the squad with 20 Test caps or fewer.
An example of the mix of experience and youth (in rugby terms) is in the second row, where Brad Thorn has 51 Test caps and is the second oldest Test All Black ever, and Sam Whitelock, who will be his main locking partner (ahead of Ali Williams with 65 Tests), has played only 17 Tests.
Another example of the ying and yang of the side lies in the back-three selections.
The selectors have dropped Hosea Gear and the veteran Sitiveni Sivivatu and opted for Israel Dagg (surely the greatest New Zealand rugby name ever) with 7 Tests and Zac Guilford with 6 Tests.
At the press conference, Henry gave the very broad hint that Dagg was being considered as a fullback. If this is the case, he’d replace (and should replace him, in my view) Mil Muliaina, a 97 Test veteran.
Henry, usually a taciturn man who makes Robbie Deans seem to be an inveterate chatterer, waxed eloquent about the potential of Dagg.
He played splendidly against the Springboks in his first major match in nearly 6 months. Dagg has the potential to be the next great All Black, and Henry was hinting at that in the press conference.
Victor Vito, with 7 Tests only and dropped after a poor display last season against the Wallabies at Sydney, has been brought back at the expense of Liam Messam who just can’t seem to rise to a higher level required of Test players.
Henry mentioned Vito’s lineout ability as a plus.
My guess is that he will be used in lesser matches as the back-up for Richie McCaw. Against the Springboks and the French a couple of years ago, the experiment of using Adam Thomson as a number 7 was an abject failure.
Both the All Blacks and the Wallabies go into the RWC 2011 tournament dependent on an outstanding number 7 (McCaw and David Pocock) and an outstanding number 10 (Daniel Carter and Quade Cooper).
Neither squad has any cover for these players. The theory is, presumably, that they will play all the crucial matches so back-ups are superfluous.
If any one of them gets injured, then someone outside the squad will be brought in.
In the case of Carter, Henry gave the hint that this would be Aaron Cruden (‘I love how he’s playing right now). Henry also made it clear that Colin Slade was in the squad because he was a perfect reserve 10, with the ability to play on the wing and at fullback.
With the Wallabies, I would imagine that Berrick Barnes would move into the number 10 slot if Cooper were injured, or even (all is forgiven, perhaps) James O’Connor.
If Pocock is injured, I would imagine that Beau Robinson would be rushed into the squad. But on Saturday against the All Blacks, Ben McCalman is the back-up to Pocock – a huge risk, in my view.
Robbie Deans has also shown his concern about the toughness of the pack by promoting Radike Samo, who was most impressive at number 8 against the Springboks.
He is also trialling Daniel Vickerman as the partner for James Horwill, the new Wallabies captain. Rob Simmons, another second-rower, is in the reserves.
It seems to me that Vickerman and Nathan Sharpe are the contenders for the number 4 lineout position, a position that needs someone to play with more physical aggression than the incumbents this season.
James O’Connor’s absence gives Deans the chance to test whether Anthony Fainga’a is a starter or a bit player. He made an impressive cameo against the Springboks.
His hard-tackling and direct running and enthusiasm seems to offer more than the lacklustre play of Adam Ashley-Cooper so far this season.
The Brisbane Test is the last hit-out for squads.
It will test whether the selectors have made the right decisions. It will also test whether the game plans the coaches intend to take into RWC 2011 make sense in a tournament that traditionally, and unfortunately, finds referees favouring defensive teams over attacking sides.
I will make this point about insight.
George Clancy, the Irish referee who officiated at Springboks-All Blacks Test, made one of the worst decisions ever seen in Test rugby (and this is a big call admittedly) when he accepted the advice of the video referee that Dagg had passed the ball forward before Jimmy Cowan scored his ‘try’ against the Springboks.
Everyone knows that the video referee, when asked about whether a grounding is correct or not, is NOT allowed to view anything that happens BEFORE the try line is crossed.
When the video referee told Clancy that the grounding was correctly made, the try should have been awarded. But the video referee asked Clancy if he wanted any further information.
Clancy to his eternal shame said ‘yes’ to this question.
And when he was told the pass was forward, illegal advice, he then incorrectly ruled a scrum rather than a try.
Paddy O’Brien, the IRB boss of referees, ruled that a mistake was made but that the mistake would not have ‘any World Cup consequences.’
This is not good enough.
O’Brien has been too tolerant of northern hemisphere referees who resist refereeing to ensure running rugby. Last season the ARU lodged an official and detailed complaint against Nigel Owens, the Welsh referee, who virtually refused to referee the tackled ball protocols to ensure that the tackled player is allowed to play the ball.
Owens somehow survived this and is one of the 10 designated World Cup referees.
Now we have Clancy behaving in the same manner with his string of penalties against the All Blacks when they were taking the ball into the tackle.
Shades of RWC 2007 all over again.
The point about all this is that Clancy is the designated referee for the first match of the tournament, New Zealand-Tonga. The referee for this opening match is expected to set the standard for the rest of the tournament.
It looks like O’Brien is setting up the All Blacks and the Wallabies with their enthusiam and passion for running rugby for a referees ambush, as in 2007.
Put in this context, the Wallabies and the All Blacks squad might have to turn away from their expansive games and adopt the kicking tactics of the Springboks to conform to the type of game the referees, with the approval apparently of O’Brien, will want to impose on the tournament.
Let’s hope this is not the case.
For the Wallabies and now the All Blacks have picked squads capable of playing the thrilling brilliant rugby the IRB said it wanted after the referee-imposed dross of the RWC 2007.