This week on the Breakdown, we celebrate the life of Andy Haden, Glen Jackson joins the panel, we go over the controversial decisions from the weekend and Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore gives us the low down on the upcoming Farah Palmer Cup. Video / Sky Sport
COMMENT:
It might be best if Caleb Clarke takes his Olympic dream down the back of his garden, stamp on it a few times, bury it and then leave it there.
He probably thinks that sounds like awful advice. Giving up now on his dream of playing sevens at nextyear's Tokyo Olympics is most likely not something he's ready to do.
He's barely 21, with his whole career ahead of him, and the prospect of being both an All Black and featuring at the Olympics must seem more achievable each week he plays for the Blues.
But the path along which he would have to travel to chase this double dream is laced with more danger than he may realise, not the least of which is the lack of certainty as to whether the games will even go ahead.
His foray into the world of sevens wasn't supposed to go like this. He signed up to join the programme in August last year – granted permission to skip Super Rugby in 2020 and focus on making it to Tokyo.
In the original version of his dream, he made a nine-month commitment to sevens – where he would play a handful of World Series tournaments, head to Tokyo and be done by the end of July.
It would have been a short, sharp tilt at sevens glory. A brief moment in time to collect a never-to-be-forgotten experience.
Blues winger Caleb Clarke scores a try during the Investec Super Rugby Aotearoa match, between the Blues and Highlanders held at Eden Park. Photo / Brett Phibbs
But he has to ask whether the sacrifice he'll have to make to keep his Olympic dream alive will be worth it because, unquestionably, there is much more at stake now.
The risk scenario has changed. When he signed to play sevens last year he wasn't gambling with much. What was he really giving up to play sevens?
Maybe a few games with the Blues as their back three looked then like it would be oversubscribed and he didn't appeal as a regular starter.
He's now the best power wing in the country and almost certainly going to find his way into Ian Foster's first All Blacks squad.
That's what he will be gambling with to pursue his Olympic dream – test caps. And while it might seem, given his form and age, that the All Blacks door will stay open for years to come, it has a nasty habit of springing shut surprisingly quickly.
Young players, particularly outside backs whose game is built on pace and agility, rarely understand the temporary nature of form or the fragility on which their athleticism is built.
These windows of super hot form that some outside backs experience often don't last long and there's no doubt that the likes of Julian Savea, Joe Rokocoko, Jonah Lomu and even Christian Cullen all played their best rugby between the ages of 19 and 24.
Clarke is on one of those hot streaks and he shouldn't be so sure it will withstand him returning to sevens next year.
To date he's been able to flit between New Zealand Sevens and the Blues and keep both teams satisfied he's good enough to be there.
Caleb Clarke, Highlanders v Blues, Super Rugby Aotearoa. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
It's not, however, a sustainable proposition to dip in and dip out as the two forms of the game are nowhere near as compatible as those who try to combine a career in both claim.
Sevens has been good for Clarke, but it has a shelf life. It's not going to provide an inexhaustible portfolio of transferable skills and it has almost certainly run its course as a means to ready him for bigger challenges in the XV-a-side game.
What he took from the abbreviated game was a tougher mental approach. He learned the importance of conditioning, attention to detail and planning.
He took on board the need to up his work-rate, to go looking for action and he developed his ability to take the ball in the air by chasing after kick-offs in sevens.
All of those qualities have been on view in Super Rugby Aotearoa but it will be a zero-sum game in regards to pushing his All Blacks credentials by going back to sevens now.
Ardie Savea realised much the same thing in 2016 when he played the house down in Super Rugby and decided the smart move was to pull the pin on his plans to play at the Rio Olympics that year.
It's telling that never once has he expressed any regret about making that decision.
The postponement of the Olympics has not been a cruel twist of fate. It has been serendipitous – shutting one path to Clarke but potentially opening the more rewarding and lasting journey to the summit of test football.
