Former Manu Samoa No 10 and freelance rugby scribe Campbell Burnes farewells two brilliant outgoing Super Rugby players who should have played more Test rugby.
Enjoy them while you can.
As things stand, Hoskins Sotutu and Sevu Reece are leaving New Zealand Rugby in July, after final Super Rugby campaigns for the Blues and Crusaders respectively.
Sotutu is off to the Newcastle Bulls and, most probably, into an England jersey before the year is out. He was discarded, prematurely, by the Scott Robertson regime.
Reece, who signed with Perpignan, was marginalised, ostensibly due to perceived, but in my view overplayed, weaknesses under the high ball.
Just how watertight those deals are will be interesting after January’s sensational news of Scott Robertson’s sacking as head coach of the All Blacks. At the time of writing, we don’t know who the new man in the hot seat will be and just how sympathetic he is to the unique skillsets of men like Sotutu and Reece.
We have been sold the story, and one that should have long been discredited that, yes, Sotutu had all the skills, but that his work-rate and all-round game did not translate to the All Blacks, for whom he made 14 appearances from 2020-22.
In over 80 outings for the Blues, Sotutu has shown all his wares, never more tellingly than in the 2024 season, when he was the Super Rugby player of the year as the Blues roared to the title. Last season he was good, though not imperious, his highlight being an outrageous reverse pass against the Crusaders to set up a try for AJ Lam.
Sotutu has the kind of skillset most international coaches would love to work with, while imbuing that hard edge that a top No 8 needs. Robertson and Jason Ryan decided they could not work with Sotutu, which is one of the great shames of New Zealand rugby in the last two seasons. It was therefore strange that NZR did not grant Sotutu an early release to head to Newcastle if he was not going to be in the All Blacks’ frame.
Reece thrived under Robertson at the Crusaders. He is probably the finest No 14 in the franchise’s storied history and started the season on 66 tries in Super Rugby, the all-time record, from 88 games. That is some going.
Reece runs like a whippet, his work-rate and energy high. He was a standout in the Crusaders’ annus horribilis of 2024 His All Blacks’ record of 22 tries in 37 Tests is not to be sniffed at, and despite the fact the aerial game is not his forté, I cannot recall any Tests that have been lost directly because of this ‘weakness.’
The All Blacks have not been able to nail down their wings with Will Jordan seen as mainly a fullback. Caleb Clarke and Emoni Narawa have been hampered by injury, and we have seen the
rise of Leroy Carter and the return of Leicester Fainga’anuku in the last 12 months. Still, Reece was given five Tests and went okay. But the thinking now is that you have to be an aerial exponent if you are to be secure on the wing in Test rugby these days. Maybe, maybe not.
What is true is that high balls do not constantly rain down during Super Rugby. The competition is, and has been over the last 30 years, about entertainment. This is where men like Sotutu and Reece thrive. The shame of it is that they were not given more of
a go in black. Go well in the north, fellas.