Super Rugby: Make All Blacks sit out first three rounds of competition, says Chiefs coach Colin Cooper

Chiefs head coach Colin Cooper. Photo / Photosport

Chiefs coach Colin Cooper believes a simpler process is needed for managing the Super Rugby playing minutes of All Blacks.

Super Rugby franchises will be under pressure this week to stick to a player welfare agreement with NZ Rugby and the All Blacks – to limit the nation's top players to 180 minutes over the first three rounds.

With the season well and truly underway, the ever-present prospect of injuries have been piling up, and coaches are finding it increasingly difficult to limit the minutes of All Blacks while juggling the best interests of their team.

A frustrated Cooper suggested today that making All Blacks sit out the first three rounds of the competition would make it easier for the franchises to plan and account for things like injuries.

"I think they should just cut them out of the first three games ... just play it simple," Cooper said ahead of the Chiefs' home clash against the Sunwolves in Hamilton on Saturday. "The minutes are tough because of injuries. You can have a good plan but injuries always muck that up.

"I'm just saying [we need] a simple process. Is that the easiest way to do it rather than minutes? I'm not sure because they had no pre-season at all either. So if you knock them out of the first three games, then we all know where we are, and they know where they are.

"Particularly in a World Cup year, a World Cup year is important to the country, to rugby here. And we're all rugby men, we want the best for the players but it's hard to manage in the Super at the moment in the way it is. But it is what it is."

Cooper confirmed that All Blacks Nathan Harris, Anton Lienert-Brown and Nepo Laulala will be rested this week, while captain Brodie Retallick will be available but on limited minutes.

"[Retallick's] got minutes that we can use," he said. "We had a plan to take him off in the Brumbies game but obviously Michael Allardyce got injured so he had to play the whole 80.

"We didn't want him playing the whole 80. It would've been better to play more minutes in this game in front of his home crowd but we are on limited minutes on that because of the All Blacks.

"If you got a plan you gotta stick to the plan. But injuries happen in this game of ours all the time so we'll try and stay to their plan."