AS WITH the start of any new four-year World Cup cycle, opportunity knocks for a number of players and even the world champions are no exception. In fact, given the customary post-World Cup exodus from the Southern Hemisphere superpowers, this is especially true of the big three.
Keeping Brad Thorn until he was 37 was a bonus and losing Mils Muliaina to Japan was also offset by having had his best years in a 100-cap career as well as the emergence of Israel Dagg. By contrast, there was much gnashing of teeth over John Afoa, not least from the NZRU chief executive Steve Tew even though the Ulster man was a fringe All Black.
However, the biggest setback was surely losing Jerome Kaino. Although currently injured, Kaino was the IRB World Under-20 player of the year when Jamie Heaslip was short-listed for the award, is still shy of his 30th birthday and two caps short of a half-century and is taking up a lucrative contract in Japan.
The smart money is on Victor Vito filling the void this Saturday, having been a surprise bolter for the Tri-Nations and then the World Cup last year, during which he played across the backrow.
They are quite different positions, with the role of blindside flanker in New Zealand seen very much as that of “enforcer” but, speaking pitch-side after an open session in Henderson in the suburban outskirts of Auckland yesterday, Vito spoke enthusiastically about inflicting pain on Ireland if afforded the opportunity.
“I see myself as someone going into that role, when you are an All Black loosie physicality is a huge part of that role. And I will be damned if I am the one letting them down and I just have to keep working on that and hurt people really.”
And if the World Cup taught Vito anything it was “to put it out on the field and have no reservations.”
For the first time ever, the expanded Super 15 programme is being temporarily interrupted before its climax, meaning that the All Blacks regrouped last Monday after a full round of games for their franchises.
“It is a mental thing really,” said Vito. “You just have to make sure you park up the season and all the things you have taken and sort of come in fresh, otherwise you will complain about the knocks you have had here and there. It was like in the weekend when your name is read out and then you are not so sore.”
For all the enforced changes, there is likely to remain a strong core of their World Cup winning side, with Conrad Smith one of the first names pencilled in at 13. Smith’s intelligence on the ball, exceptional lines and accuracy in almost everything he does remains undimmed judging by his form and leadership for the Hurricanes.
Although Smith scored with his first touch in Test rugby against Italy as long ago as 2004, the qualified lawyer has won all bar a dozen of his 54 caps in the last four years, and thus has only played opposite Brian O’Driscoll in the June wins of 2008 and 2010 in Wellington and New Plymouth.
“He is as good as they get,” Smith said of O’Driscoll. “I love how long he has played, I love the fact that he supposedly was not playing his best and there have been times when he has come over here and been written off. But he always comes back and shows his his class.
“In his position at centre, if you can keep churning out as many years as he has you have got some quality and character about you and he has bucketloads of that.”
The Hurricanes centre could be one of three Smiths in the All Blacks backline if Steve Hansen and his fellow selectors Ian Foster and Grant Fox opt for the slick passing of Aaron Smith at scrumhalf and the scorching pace of Ben Smith in the back three. But one player widely expected to be handed his first cap is Smith’s prolific Hurricanes team-mate Julien Savea on the wing. In any event, Smith says the best is still to come from Savea.
“That’s the scary thing. If he gets a chance I would be one saying to him to relax because he’s great to watch and have him outside me.”
