Blues player brings game alive and excites the masses - something that's desperately needed
Rene Ranger. Now there's the future for rugby, even if Ranger's own future is clouded at the moment by an upcoming court case.
How did Ben Smith end up in the All Blacks last year while Rene Ranger didn't? Actually, how did Smith end up in the All Blacks full
stop?
Ranger - who plays wing or centre - is what rugby desperately needs, a powerful outside back with an individual style. If he's not busting through defenders, he hurls them aside. Ranger can make something out of nothing and draw the crowds.
With absolutely no disrespect to the classy Cory Jane, who has proved a much smarter test player than might have been expected, what the game doesn't need are smallish, converted fullbacks patrolling the flanks.
There is such little room on the field any more, so few chances for flamboyance and daring to excel, that to turn over the wing positions to lightweight utilities is to run up the white flag in the battle to keep rugby interesting.
Alas Smith and Jane - the All Blacks are failing to take advantage of their natural advantages by promoting wings who lack any devastating attacking prowess beyond speed and anticipation.
What Ranger proved again with his smashing performance against the Brumbies is that rugby does not have to be a claustrophobic chess battle. There is still room for a few blockbusting superstars.
The onus here is firmly on coaches to open the game up, to take risks and chances in their selections, to keep the game alive.
Rugby bosses - the grey brigade - may not know this, but there is a general atmosphere of indifference around the Super 14, which is supposed to be an entertainment zone played on hard grounds.
The public interest is nowhere near what it was in the competition's heyday of open attack. More than anything, perhaps, the game lacks superstars.
This is not an argument about how many tries are scored either, it's how they are scored, and what the game looks like. For too long, there has been a lot of blame on the rules with little attention on the team rulers.
Who are the turnstile clickers left in the game, the dashing power merchants who will excite the masses?
In all of New Zealand rugby, only Ranger, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Ma'a Nonu might fit the bill. In a nation famous for producing powerful league and union athletes, this is a very bare minimum.
And the problem is emanating from the top, where the All Blacks have promoted characters such as Jane and Smith as wings.
Here is one example of how the Ranger factor works. The Sydney press is writing about Ranger danger when the Blues play the Waratahs on Saturday night.
This is priceless pre-match publicity that Jane and Smith never attract.
The All Blacks should provide the lead. The new rules, which allow ball carriers to take more risks, provide a chance to change selection trends.
Wings, we were told last year, had to include fullback-types who take the high ball and return it safely, mainly through kicking, as it turned out.
Under the new rule interpretations, though, we don't have to accept this rugby horror story any more.
Big, powerful ball playing blindside flankers and No 8s wouldn't go amiss, either.
Sione Lauaki has his problems, and not only on the field. If only he dedicated himself to the game with the sort of vigour he uses to chase down lost drinks in pubs.
Yet half a game of the mammoth Chief at his best is worth a season of Kieran Read worthiness from this spectator's point of view.
Lauaki is a complete stuff-up for much of the time, and surely an embarrassment to Chiefs coach Ian Foster who might have had a brain explosion himself when naming Lauaki as temporary captain early this season.
His indiscipline on and off the field made a mess of this poacher-turned-gamekeeper attempt.
And yet you can't help but remember the night Lauaki destroyed the Crusaders in a unique performance.
There must be more Lauaki types about - ones with brains to match the brawn - and you could start with Thomas Waldrom.
The well-shaped Crusader doesn't look like the typical new-age footballer.
Waldrom has a healthy supply of chins.
But watching this wrecking ball is a lot of fun, and he can wreak havoc on behalf of his team.
Rugby needs to work harder at releasing the shackles - Rene Ranger is proof of the possibilities.
Unfortunately, the Bulls also proved over the weekend that rugby can revert to old ways that should be outlawed.
That they were able to shut the game down against the Hurricanes using a series of collapsed mauls was criminal.
Rugby should prevent such tactics, but workable rules to achieve this are difficult to formulate.
* As the first cricket test in Wellington headed towards an inevitable conclusion, television commentator and former Black Cap Simon Doull argued forcefully for star batsman Brendon McCullum to remain on test wicketkeeping duty, saying he was a natural allrounder and New Zealand needed his skill in both departments.
Doull cited Aussie legend Adam Gilchrist's remarkable statistics as proof of the possibilities for a test wicketkeeper-batsman.
I've always been in the other camp, the one which argues that McCullum's batting prowess needs protecting and enhancing, that he should give the gloves away.
There are major differences between Gilchrist and McCullum's situations. For a start, Gilchrist handled the dual roles far better, with a final test average that is a whopping 12 runs above what McCullum has managed so far.
And the Aussies, laden with batting superstars, didn't need Gilchrist's contribution with the bat the way the beleaguered Black Caps need McCullum's. With Jesse Ryder sidelined, the situation is even more dire.
When McCullum came to the wicket against Australia in Wellington, only the dubious combined batting talents of Darryl Tuffey, Tim Southee, Brent Arnel and Chris Martin were to follow.
Tuffey did a great job, but on another day those four could disappear in very short order, leaving McCullum stranded.
As a wicketkeeper, and one who even stood up to the wicket for Arnel's medium-fast bowling, McCullum also faces a greater than normal risk of hand injuries.
Every time he flings off a glove to shake a battered finger, a shudder goes up the spine, such is the frailty of New Zealand's batting.
Statistics on cricket's finest wicketkeeper-batsmen show they fare far better when free of wicketkeeping responsibilities.
The frustration of McCullum's situation is this - he has the potential to be a test batting genius and we may never know what he was truly capable of.
At the very least, he should be promoted above Daniel Vettori immediately.
* It's official: take the Warriors' team announcements with a grain of salt.
The club kept Brett Seymour's broken thumb quiet last week, with the halfback's withdrawal from the game against Cronulla only made public just before kick-off.
Seymour was named in the team on Tuesday, when there was already doubt about his fitness to play.
By coach Ivan Cleary's explanation, the Warriors certainly knew by Thursday that Seymour could not play on Saturday night, but no press release was forthcoming. Cleary says he was never asked the question.
But journalists say that after Seymour was made unavailable for media interviews on Thursday, Cleary was asked how the controversial footballer was feeling about playing against his old club.
Cleary did not reveal Seymour's injury at that point.
The whole aim of the NRL's team naming schedule is to help feed the media and draw publicity, yet this concept falls apart if there is no way of relying on the information.
The Warriors will have to provide better evidence to prevent this conclusion: they kept Seymour's injury quiet to fool Cronulla. Along the way, the paying (and gambling) public gets deceived as well.
