Ardie Savea was yellow-carded after being involved in a scuffle. Photo / Photosport
Ardie Savea was yellow-carded after being involved in a scuffle. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
There is a steely desire building within New Zealand’s best players to make a defining statement later this year.
It looks, from what has been seen in the early rounds of Super Rugby, like many of them are determined to make a point before they leave, or indeed, justmake a point because it’s about time they did.
The last three years haven’t been great for New Zealand rugby. The All Blacks have tumbled quite a way down the hill and ceased to look the invincible force everyone used to say they were.
They have rarely looked so frail, so beatable and so prone to imploding when things don’t go their way.
For whatever reasons, since the last World Cup, the All Blacks have become run of the mill: a team that only occasionally excites and one that only sporadically creates a wow factor.
It’s been a tough period and it would seem many senior players have decided that 2023 is the year when things must change: the year in which New Zealand reconnects with their true rugby self and finds a way to make the rest of the world fear them again.
It’s easy enough to see the determination already. It’s there in body shapes – everyone in the frame to make the All Blacks squad to go to France having turned up to start Super Rugby that little bit leaner than they have been.
It certainly looks like the men that will most likely play a key role for the All Blacks later this year have used the summer break to drop a little weight, tighten the definition and play a little lighter but hungrier.
The All Blacks had a training camp in late January and by all accounts, the coaching staff were delighted with the general condition of the athletes.
There’s also been, in the games so far, a desire among the big-name players to get involved and bring a level of energy that we don’t normally see.
Or at least, that we don’t normally from the All Blacks contingent until later in the competition.
But this year is already shaping as different and while the early rounds of Super Rugby haven’t necessarily been memorable or wildly entertaining, there are signs everywhere that individuals are supremely focused and determined to induce a change of fortune this year.
Maybe that’s what Ardie Savea’s throat-slitting gesture was all about – his absolute determination to make this a year to remember.
It was decidedly out of character for Savea to get involved in any off the ball incident. He just doesn’t normally go there.
He’s a vibrant, energetic force of nature who’s never been one to snap and snarl. But there he was against the Rebels giving social media something almost worthwhile to get their knickers in a twist about when he did indeed threaten to kill someone.
Some will say it was a moment of madness, but it was more a reflection of his commitment to be successful this year. The intensity of his desire got the better of him.
Ardie Savea makes a throat-slitting gesture towards a Melbourne Rebels player. Photo / Sky Sport NZ
It was that simple. He and many of his All Blacks teammates have come into Super Rugby on a mission to change the narrative and make history by winning the World Cup later this year.
They have had enough of hearing about how the All Blacks are a fading force, and certainly they are bored witless by the never-ending focus on the coaching set-up within the national team.
They have had enough of hearing about how good Ireland are, about how France will be the team to beat and why Scotland are the dark horse.
And, most importantly, they have been stunned and hurt by the way the incumbent All Blacks coaching group have been treated.
Here we are five months from the World Cup kicking off and the All Blacks are not part of the conversation. Not really – not the way they normally are and what we are likely to see in the next few months of Super Rugby is big-name test players showing unusually high emotions and raw desire to impose themselves.
The opportunity to make a statement has never been so rich and Super Rugby may become littered with high-emotion incidents such as the one involving Savea in Melbourne.
Savea lost his cool for a second there and he probably won’t be the only one to have a moment like that because just like him, many of his senior test colleagues are playing on heightened emotion and increased desire to have the world talking about New Zealand again.
