Jason Nightingale’s non-selection for New Zealand at the Rugby League World Cup is an odd decision considering his service to the Kiwis over a long period of time.
Nightingale defied age and his many critics in 2017 to score an impressive 16 tries for the Dragons, bringing up the great achievement of a career century of tries in the process.
His record in the New Zealand jumper is equally impressive, with 15 tries in 31 appearances for a team that often underperforms and he has been a loyal servant since way back in 2008.
Instead, they went with Jordan Rapana – fair enough, he was great all season for the Raiders – and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, who had an up-and-down year.
‘DWZ’ played 24 games, scored nine tries, made 12 line-breaks, missed 32 tackles and made a whopping 30 errors, better than one a game. Not terrible, but certainly not stats warranting a starting spot.
Nightingale, on the other hand, played 24 games, scored 16 tries, made 18 line breaks, missed 30 tackles and made only 19 errors. Surely these stats, combined with his reliability and experience on the international stage, should have ensured him a spot in David Kidwell’s side.
DWZ is the incumbent winger for New Zealand, but they were smashed 30-12 in the Anzac Test back in May, and considering his season, you wouldn’t think he’d done enough to keep his place in the team ahead of a wily veteran.
Nightingale deserves a chance later in the tournament, as he is a joy to watch, with his awkward, gangly running style, and high work rate.
The pressure is now on Watene-Zelezniak to produce a big game against Samoa in Auckland on Saturday night.
Kiwijack
Guest
I can live with DWZ on the wing he is a stronger returner of the ball than Nightingale. The problem is in the centres selected, Whare and Hiku are far superior by far to Beale and Takairangi. Could be a short career for Kidwell. Time will tell.
Dean
Guest
I think Nightingale is in the squad for insurance. Most of his tries are scored close to the line these days. Admittedly many of them are scored in heavy traffic making it hard work to get the ball down. However, bringing the ball back from his end of the field, he is now quite a bit slower and gets picked off quite easily these days. If the performance of the wingers picked for this game are poor, we can expect to see Nightingale back in the wing position rather quickly.
Nat
Roar Guru
Agree with this. Cannot argue with Rapana but Nightingale has been one of NZs best for some time. He's rarely out of position or misses the opportunity to score and I'd say he is the pioneer of the over-the-sideline try all wingers train for these days. Plus his maturity could be something needed around the NZ camp.
Aem
Guest
I don't like Kidwell as a coach AT ALL (he may well - perhaps even probably - end up being looked back at as Gary Kemble Mk II, which is darkly funny considering the circumstances of Kemble's dismissal), but I'm with him on this one. The Nightingale v DWZ thing is multifaceted. Those stats are interesting, but not really contextualized - Nightingale was playing on a team with a forward pack that ran over nearly everyone they played (which just makes the team's results look even worse for McGregor as a coach... but that's a different topic), opposite a big fella in Macdonald for the whole season... DWZ in contrast had to take some very different runs from Nightingale (particularly in the first half of the season, when Mansour was out and the pack had struggled), and looked slightly better making them (higher rate of tackle breaks per run, more metres per run offsetting the extra errors/run). Now let's look at who we are selecting for - this Kiwis team. With the loss of Bromwich, Taumalolo, Mau, Taukeiaho (and the rest), the Kiwis need go forward - from everywhere. You can't replace those guys like-for-like, so you need to alter things across the team. One of those things is DWZ coming in over Nightingale - he's a much stronger runner, and particularly does better than Nightingale in the hard, early set runs... something desperately needed at this point for NZ. Is DWZ as good a finisher or defender as Nightingale? No. Is he as consistent? No again. But it's a trade-off, and one the Kiwis have probably been forced into, given other circumstances.
uglykiwi
Roar Pro
And Hargraves.... hasn't played a decent game in 2 years.
Fox Lvy
Guest
Taumalolo is the biggest name missing from the team and Blair is the biggest mistake in the team.
Cedric
Guest
thought biggest names missing out were Whare and Martin. I think Kidwell is trying to play mind games when he says this team for Saturday is their best.