Caleb Clarke’s swift rise up the 15s ranks will force him to make a hard decision sooner rather than later.
Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes cannot see a day when the Olympics will ever trump the All Blacks for most players.
Every four years we have this discussion.
We had it before the Olympic Games were postponed for 12 months. How many All Blacks would put their hands up to go for gold?
As it happens, fewer than in 2016, when Ardie Savea, Ben Smith, Sonny Bill Williams and Liam Messam were all interested. Smith was a non-starter when it became apparent that he would not be able to skipper the Highlanders for the full season the year after they won the title. Someone, whose initials were quite possibly SW Hansen, got in Savea’s ear and reminded him he was looking good to wear an All Blacks jersey if he stayed on the 15s path. All Blacks coaches have never been fans of sevens, even though the athlete always returns in top shape from the abbreviated game.
Messam tried his tail off but was four years past his peak and his body wasn’t quite up to the rigours of international sevens. Neither was Sonny Bill Williams’ frame, but he still made the squad for Rio in a desperate attempt to tick off another in his long and ambitious bucket list.
As we know, it all turned to custard as the All Blacks Sevens placed fifth. There was much gnashing of teeth, the obligatory review and a demand that the best players had to be on deck for the world’s biggest sporting event so we could claim the gold that was rightfully ours.
Not so fast. New coach Clark Laidlaw has been steadily building a very good side, a compelling mix of sevens specialists as such as Tim Mikkelson and Scott Curry alongside men such as Sione Molia, Jona Nareki and Regan Ware, who have all made marks in 15s, at least at provincial level.
Young Super Rugby talent such as Caleb Clarke, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Scott Gregory and Salesi Rayasi all put their hands up for Tokyo, but found themselves back on the 15s beat due to the postponement. I’m willing to beat two of out of this four will one day wear the black jersey. By the time you read this, Clarke, who was selected in the September squad for the All Blacks, may have joined his father in the club.
This will trigger the need for Clarke to make a choice. Does he forgo Super Rugby for much of 2021 in a bid to make the cut for an event that may not even happen? He is not a guaranteed All Blacks starter, with George Bridge and possibly Rieko Ioane ahead of him as a left wing.
But you’ll find that the delay in the Olympics and his subsequent outstanding Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign for the Blues may have set off a seismic shift in his thinking.
Black usually trumps gold in this country. It did in 2016 and it will surely do so again in 2021. That is the way of this rugby world. Don’t bag Clarke for it. He’s a young man on the way up and the Olympics timing will likely just not work for him. Blame the virus. But the All Blacks will be the beneficiary, not the All Blacks Sevens.