Caleb Clarke celebrates his try with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Photo / Photosport
Caleb Clarke celebrates his try with Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Supply chain issues are impacting everywhere, including Super Rugby which after two rounds appears to be well-stocked in some positions and still a little thin in others.
What's equally apparent is that there is quite the fire smouldering within the senior All Blacks cabal who most acutely felt thepain of their underwhelming finish to 2021.
Rarely in the last decade have we seen the country's best players storm the early rounds of Super Rugby with the same intent and impact that has been on show this year.
Super Rugby has previously been treated like a vaccine rollout by the star names who have typically been late to start, before gradually posting impressive numbers in all their key metrics.
That's the way it has been for an age now: the competition having slipped into this routine where the early rounds are the time for newbies and lesser-known hopefuls to have their moment before the heavyweights kick into form when the whole business starts turning serious.
But already Ardie Savea has been at his world class best. Will Jordan has been sensational and Brodie Retallick has looked, in just one outing, motivated to re-establish himself as the most rugged and athletic lock in the world game.
Ardie Savea scores the winning try for the Hurricanes against the Blues. Photo / Photosport
Shannon Frizell has played with a bit of rage and Aaron Smith has been his usual effervescent self and there is an undeniable sense that the accumulated frustration in the collective system which has built since the 2019 World Cup semifinal loss and steadily grown in the last two years, is now serving to fuel a handful of disgruntled types to new heights.
What also seems to be true is that those who have sat on the cusp of test selection these past two years have realised that if they are going to force their way into contention for the World Cup, 2022 is their last chance to do so.
Last weekend may yet prove to be an aberration but it did suggest that New Zealand may in fact be harbouring an unrealised cache of midfield weaponry.
Filling jerseys 12 and 13 has been problematic for the All Blacks as far back as 2016. No combination has quite worked, and no individual has looked indisputably right for either role and yet there were four midfield combinations on view last weekend that all had their moments, and all looked worthy of further examination.
The bonus ball on All Blacks coach Ian Foster's selection lottery ticket was Bailyn Sullivan, who having spent three seasons at the Chiefs as a barely used wing, has shifted to the Hurricanes and been recast as a ball-playing, power centre.
Bailyn Sullivan in action. Photo / Photosport
With one performance he has most definitely grabbed everyone's attention and between him, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, the Umaga-Jensen twins and the soon-to-return Jack Goodhue, there is perhaps reason to be hopeful, if not optimistic, about the All Blacks' midfield.
Which is equally true now of the back three where already it is apparent that come early April when the All Blacks selectors begin to survey their rugby kingdom in earnest, there will be high quality outside backs for as far as the eye can see.
There's been this false narrative that this has long been the case, that in the last few years New Zealand could haul out any wing from Super Rugby, stick them in an All Blacks shirt and they would light up test football.
That hasn't been the case at all, however, as many commentators have grossly overstated New Zealand's stockpile of test-ready outside backs – unable to see that many wings in this country have been lacking the breadth of skill-set the international game now requires.
Even last year the All Blacks had an illusionary element of being better equipped in the backfield than they were.
When injuries struck and Rieko Ioane had to be shifted to play at centre, there was no obvious or compelling candidate to slot in on the left wing beside Will Jordan and Jordie Barrett.
Sevu Reece and George Bridge never produced much when they were given the chance and the All Blacks didn't have the embarrassment of riches at wing that so many said they had.
Caleb Clarke celebrates his try for the Blues. Photo / Photosport
But maybe they do now. Caleb Clarke, with his Olympic ambitions out the way, has returned to the Blues a leaner, hungrier, chastened athlete with the adversity of non-selection for the Tokyo games having sparked something within him.
Salesi Rayasi has played too many good Super Rugby games now to be unsure about his calibre, something which could also be said of Leicester Fainga'unuku.
The early rounds haven't quite so dramatically suggested the game is rich with ball-carrying, scrummaging props or that the All Blacks are going to find the bone-crunching, oversized loose forward that can win lineout ball which they still seem to be missing.
But the performances of Alex Hodgman at the Blues, Oli Jager at the Crusaders and Jermaine Ainsley at the Crusaders have hinted at there being hidden potential within the wider front-row ranks and Blues stand-in captain Tom Robinson continues to do enough to suggest he's worth a cap on the side of the scrum.
