2024 NZ Schools Rugby
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Since the announcement of the NZ Schools squad, I’ve watched quite a lot of the different individual players. Some general thoughts on the locks and loosies:
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Positions (1): I’d like to take back my earlier suggestion of Hutchings as a potential openside. I’ll admit, this suggestion was mostly based on a game where he showed good aggressive defence and physicality. Since that time, I’ve seen him being burned in open space slightly too many times to still think that this would be a good option. He’s a lock/6, not really fast and mobile enough to play 7 or 8. Although he has good work-rate and gets around the field, he doesn’t have particularly quick feet. There’s quite a few of these lock/6 players in the squad, with Finn McLeod and Bede Giera having similar profiles (McLeod looked to me to be the fastest of the three).
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Positions (2): Tocker is probably selected as a loosie. He’s tall (I’d say the second tallest player in the squad after Tatafu) and he’s played a lot at lock for Palmerston North Boys but he doesn’t really strike me as a lock-kind of player. He’s very fast and has explosive speed – I saw that he’s the Manawatu Secondary School 100 m sprint champion – but, in the games that I watched (vs. Tauranga, Feilding, Hamilton & Gisborne), he was gassed pretty quickly and mainly positioned himself out wide and in the backline. Not a lot of cleaning rucks, not a lot of pillar defence, probably best as a wide-playing blindside.
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Discipline: There were a lot of penalties given away across the games I’ve seen, a lot of them very avoidable as well. Aio Keith, for example, was really aggressive at the breakdown against Nelson College in the Top 4 semi-final (3 breakdown turnovers, plus plenty of disrupted ball) but he was also penalized 3 times for some really cynical play around the ruck, one leading to a sinbin period during which Nelson College scored 14 points to nil.
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Breakdown: Like Keith, there are multiple players who are able to effectively contest the breakdown in this group, with Giera, and Saumaki, for example, having multiple steals across the games I watched. As it’s a noticeable trait across the different players, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was something the NZ Schools selection panel specifically looked out for. In terms of the attacking rucks, I didn’t really come across a player who really stood out as having a high work-rate through the middle with plenty of cleans (the quality of the clean also varied a lot). Mostly players who stood out with their athleticism and physicality in the carry, and were used in that capacity by their respective teams.
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Lineout: With Tatafu in the squad, there is already one guaranteed good target in the lineout. I also really liked Aio Keith’s work as the Kelston Boys’ lineout operator: he is very quick in the air, both in securing own ball and in contesting opposition throws. The other lineout players – McLeod, Giera, Tocker, Hutchings – were solid in their core roles if somewhat unspectacular.
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Balance loose trio: It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll use Saumaki Saumaki and Aidan Spratley. Probably the two most physical players, neither of them are genuine lineout options, which could make using both of them in a loose forward trio somewhat risky. At the same time, Fale and Mathis played at 6 and 7 last year in the second game against Australia and I don’t remember the lineout being particularly bad in that game (although they had two tall units with Tengblad and Vakasiuola in the second row). The threat of two hard carriers with Saumaki and Spratley might make it worth the risk.
All in all, a lot of fun watching these First XV games with a single-player focus in anticipation of the upcoming matches. I was probably most impressed by Aio Keith: good athlete with a solid skillset and an impressive all-round game, even if he can concede the occasional bad penalty. I think the group as a whole is solid enough, although I still think the strength of the team will more likely be found in the backline rather than in the pack. Apologies for the long post, I’ll try cutting it down a bit more in the future.
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@Mauss One of the NZ Schools locks has been ruled out through injury and Johnny Falloon from Rathkeale has been called in from Barbarians. He is a big 6' 7" fellow and has some heft about him - but can be absent at times in a match. Aerially he has a lot of work to do. Because of his size - Rathkeale struggled to lift him as they didn't have the units to do so for the entire match.
I'm surprised that George Prouting from NBHS was not named in any side. Best lock I have seen play in person this year. Great in the air. Massive ticker and works hard the entire game. Tocker definitely more of a 6 and tends to go missing at times. His pace however is incredible. He can really move.
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@BMR323 Cheers for the update. Do you know which one of the NZ Schools locks has been ruled out?
I haven't seen much of Prouting specifically, but watching Napier Boys his workrate did stand out. You'd expect a player like that to at least make the Barbarians U18s.
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I'll put this team in here as they play the Māori U18s.
For the first time, under 20 age-grade players from across the Heartland Unions will compete in against New Zealand Māori Under 18 Ngā Whatukura in Hamilton on Sunday 6th October.
The newly formed New Zealand Heartland Under 20 team has been named and includes players from each of the 12 Heartland Provincial Unions. Whanganui Coach, Todd Cowan will head the team alongside Assistant Coach James White (King Country).
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I was interested in taking a closer look at Liam Van Der Heyden’s scrum performances, because it could vary from being very dominant (for example, against Tauranga Boys’ College) to being severely under pressure (against Napier Boys’ High School).
After looking at a lot of Hamilton scrums, I personally feel that the crucial moment for Van Der Heyden seems to occur at the moment of the engage. If Van Der Heyden wins the hit and forces the opposing loosehead to scrum at his preferred (high) height, he is able to use his considerable mass to simply overpower his opponent, forcing the loosehead to come up while still moving forward himself. The problems usually occur when he faces short and sturdy looseheads – such as Damian Annandale of Napier Boys’ or Palmerston North Boys’ Sione Taeiloa) who are able to force Van Der Heyden to scrum lower or are able to use footwork in order to shift the big Hamilton tighthead’s weight across. When this occurs, Van Der Heyden does tend to be a bit passive as he is not yet able to quickly find solutions for when this happens, like attacking the seam between the loosehead and hooker, shifting his own bind and weight, or using footwork to reassert physical dominance.
By no means do I want to claim that these are easy adjustments to make. Nick Bishop recently wrote a pretty interesting piece (https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/turnaround-tyrel-epitomises-the-foggy-state-of-the-bledisloe-cup/) where he shows some good examples of how Lomax (a tall tighthead) combatted someone like Nche (pretty much the prototype of the short, powerful loosehead). While it’s difficult to reconstruct exactly what Lomax does to reassert superiority over Nche, it does appear to be a combination of seam/bind/footwork.
It would be ridiculous to expect a Y12 prop like Van Der Heyden to show a wiliness similar to that of a 28 year old AB tighthead (although you could see the young tighthead trying certain things here and there, for example, by turning more inwards when pressured by the New Plymouth Boys’ High loosehead and hooker). If Australia U18 has a short powerful loosehead, the reality is that the NZ Schools scrum might struggle a bit (I don’t think Jennings, the Southland Boys’ tighthead, would solve these issues either). But Van Der Heyden has so many qualities (fitness, work-rate, terrific presence in the maul, breakdown threat, carry, solid shoulder in the tackle) for such a big body, that you would take the occasional scrum penalty in order to ensure he gets plenty of minutes on the field. He is a special player.
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The Australia U18 squad has been named today (see @Bovidae's post).
I've only been able to read some reports of the trial between Australia U18 and the ASRU Schools side, there was no video footage freely available. I was surprised the trial games were so close, I was expecting the U18s to comfortably blow out the Schools side. So either the Schools team is better than expected or there might be some issues with the U18 side.
The standouts of the U18 team seem to be in the loose forwards and the backline, with the most high-profile athletes seemingly destined to end up in the NRL: the number 8, Heinz Lemoto (Penrith Panthers), the winger Heamasi Makasini (Wests Tigers) and the fullback Rex Bassingthwaite (Sydney Roosters).
There are some rugby league highlights available of Lemoto:
It doesn't really say much of his ability in the upcoming games, but, if anything, he should be a handful to tackle. I wasn't always convinced of some of the individual defensive efforts of the NZ Schools loosies, so Lemoto might have a good impact.
New Waratah Fittler, Makasani included as Australia U18s squad named for New Zealand tour
