Rugby: Canterbury's Fruean shows he's Cup class

Canterbury's Robbie Fruean is a rising star. Photo / Getty Images

Canterbury coach Rob Penney can understand why the All Blacks didn't take star centre Robbie Fruean on tour - but the pay-off is that Fruean is available for next weekend's ITM Cup final.

Fruean was again outstanding on Friday night in Canterbury's high-scoring 57-41 defeat of Wellington. The 22-year-old scored one try and set up two more against his old side and would surely be on the All Blacks tour if it wasn't for team-mate Sonny Bill Williams.

"He's a world-class talent and he's only 22," Penney said. "He will get better and he's a smart kid. He's got unique qualities - he can be brutal, he's quick, got great agility and has subtlety that is quite unique. He can offload in the tackle, has width both ways in his passing and he knows when to pass, when to hold and when to carry.

"I can understand why the All Blacks didn't take him just yet but I wouldn't be counting him out of being in that World Cup group. He took it [the disappointment of missing out on the end-of-year tour] brilliantly. Anyone who has come through the issues he has with his heart and has an outlook on life like he does will deal with adversity in such a positive way. He's such a fantastically optimistic individual and he moves on quickly."

Some coaches like to spout off that they treat playing in a final as just another game. They try to say they do nothing differently in the lead-up to the match and try to encourage their players to treat it as any normal encounter.

Penney doesn't. "It's not just another game," the Canterbury coach emphasised ahead of Friday's ITM Cup final against (Auckland/Waikato). "Shit, no. It's like the [Ranfurly] Shield. People try to treat it like another game. It's crap. It's not. It's as close to international rugby a lot of players ever get. Finals are the same. It's not just another game of footy. The players know it."

Perhaps surprisingly given Canterbury's recent dominance of the NPC - they are gunning for their third straight title - there are few survivors from the previous two campaigns. Three remain from the 2008 title-winning team and six from last year. It's why Penney thinks what happened before is largely irrelevant.

There's always an expectation the red and blacks will still be standing at the end of a season, whether that's the Crusaders or Canterbury. They know what it takes to win and are able to develop and recruit talent to keep them at the head of the pack.

This year's campaign, however, has been more difficult than most. As well as displaying unexpected vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed by Tasman and beaten up by Waikato last weekend, they endured an uncomfortable few weeks when the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks hit.

"You can't underestimate the amount of emotional energy taken out of the guys around the earthquake and aftershocks," Penney said. "When you are in it, you just have to deal with what you have to but, on reflection, it was a difficult period. I think the guys handled it bloody well but it was often difficult for them to sleep or recover properly.

"This team, what I'm really proud of, on the back of a poor performance they have got up and played really well. There's a lot of resilience in this group."

There were a number of aspects that didn't please Canterbury's coach. While their commitment, work at the breakdown and ability to put runners into space was excellent, as well as Colin Slade's goalkicking, they struggled at lineout time, bungled a handful of kickoffs, struggled to build pressure and were loose at times in their decision making.

There will always be issues stemming from a game that yields 98 points. The game was played at such a frenetic pace, and both sides throwing the ball around, it was inevitable there would be errors and defensive frailties as players tired.