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With the Super Rugby season already nearing the half way stage, focus is slowly but surely turning towards the June Test window and international selections.
Debate is heating up, as young players showcase their credentials for higher honours while some of the older, established stars battle to find form.
There is an old adage in sport that form is temporary and class is permanent and this saying certainly does hold true for a select group of players. The challenge for coaches is trying to identify just how bad a player’s form is and whether their class is certain to come through again.
International coaches have many factors to consider, such as whether a player struggling in Super Rugby necessarily translates to them not delivering on the international stage. Myriad questions arise when considering Super Rugby form – or lack thereof.
Can you expect players in weaker Super teams to play as well for those sides as they do in international rugby when surrounded by other class players?
How much of the lack of form is mental? Or down to tiredness or injury? When is the time right to jettison a player and bring in new blood?
Ma’a Nonu and Scott Higginbotham are two players copping their fair share of flack at the moment. Both are established international players, with Nonu having established himself as arguably the world’s best 12 over the past three or four years.
The question for coaches Steve Hansen and Robbie Deans is whether to drop these guys based on poor Super Rugby form or to back their ability and experience to step it up and deliver for their countries on the big stage, in international matches.
For the Wallabies in particular, with the Lions’ arrival on Australian shores imminent, they are going to need all the experience they can get.
Surely the Wallaby camp will bring out the best in players such as Higginbotham, James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale, who are hardly lighting it up for the Rebels at present (or, in Beale’s case, not even playing).
Deans is known to talk about the DNA of players and their relative big game temperament. For this reason, I believe he will back this trio to perform when it counts.
Nonu’s selection for me is an absolute no brainer. Yes he has yet to reach his best in this Super Rugby season but this is not a new phenomenon for him.
Like Walter Little and Frank Bunce before him, two of the All Blacks’ greatest midfield players, Nonu saves his best for the black jersey and has built up enough goodwill for his country to start in his number 12 jersey against the French.
We will see Nonu at his best again this year, unfortunately for Highlanders fans it just won’t be while wearing their jersey.
The form is temporary and class is permanent argument is a valid and proven one. It is however a fine line for coaches to decide when the players time may be up. It will eventually happen for every player, even the greatest – Ricky Ponting being a case in point.
Both Deans and Hansen in particular will have to make a few bold and important calls in 2013 where players whose class has served them and their country so well for so long, may just be starting to wane.
Class may be permanent but youth most definitely isn’t.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.