Famine to feast in quality locks - NZ Herald (2024)

In late 2004, there was enough anxiety about the All Black locking resources for Norm Maxwell to be summoned for an end-of-year tour to Europe.

Maxwell had been gallivanting around the globe, was still suffering a variety of ailments and had only returned to the sport in the national provincial championship.

He had trouble lasting a full game in the NPC but answered a plea to shore up the side's experience and sort out the French.

Keith Robinson was injured, Simon Maling and Brad Thorn had taken up offshore contracts.

Jono Gibbes was taken on tour but was injured and both he and his replacement Reuben Thorne were more utility forwards than specialist locks. Ali Williams was also chosen but had been out of form.

Those dramas were only 18 months ago but there has been a huge change in fortune since.

It has been so good that the All Blacks can send out Chris Jack and Troy Flavell as locks against Ireland today at Eden Park with Greg Rawlinson in the reserves, while Williams and Jason Eaton have landed in Buenos Aires with the advance party for next week's test against Argentina.

Add in Highlanders lock James Ryan who is convalescing from shoulder surgery and should be available for the end-of-year tour to Europe, and the selectors' problem is who to leave out rather than who to include.

How has this change come about, why has there been such a dramatic change when, just a few years ago, there was such a dearth of top quality locks?

"I think it is just the selectors have given guys a chance," said Jack. "For a long time it was just Norm and me and no one else got a real go.

"Occasionally Simon Maling got a run but the selectors are now much more prepared to give others a decent go, to give them a chance to prove themselves.

"The Super 14 has helped enormously because every franchise has had to develop some locks and that has increased the depth of players for the selectors to sort out.

"It is a bit of an employment thing. Guys have looked around to see what positions are available, they see a chance and take it. If I had been a prop at the time we were struggling for tightheads I would have had a go."

It is a reasonable theory except for the physical limitations which bar most players' applications. Someone like Sam Tuitupou might have the aggressive attitude needed from a tight forward but his frame has consigned him to the midfield.

Utilities such as Gibbes and Thorne bridge the gap between lock and blindside flanker but are never treated as specialist locks for international combat. That sort of scrutiny about Flavell gets another airing today at Eden Park.

"Locks are very different from when I started," Jack said.

"They are very athletic - I am one of the slow ones now, I struggle to keep up.

"The guys coming through have great skills and that shows how much the goalposts have moved in the job descriptions. Those skills take a long time to develop.

"As a lock you are not necessarily looking to use those sort of things, you have to concentrate on your basic duties of set piece. But when the need arises you have to be able to draw and pass or tackle outside backs.

"That is the expectation for the All Blacks these days from numbers one to 15. All of our guys work hard on those skills. They are all capable of putting a man into a gap or running into one."

Guidance for the forwards and locks in particular, comes from Steve Hansen. A midfield back in his playing days, Hansen has turned his coaching talents to the forwards.

"He sees things very differently from someone who has played lock all his life and that is a benefit," Jack said. "He pushes the small things and is a very strong sounding board."