It's time to take the ABs out of their cotton wool

PETER MEECHAM / Fairfax Media

PLAY TIME: The All Blacks haven't lacked for "down time" in 2007. Why not get them back into the swing of Super 14 training a bit earlier?

Relevant offers

Duncan Johnstone

Junior ABs have every right to replace Maori 20 questions that answer themselves Luke's blunder sign of the times South Africans would be no great loss 14 ways to make this season Super Is there another coach out there who can do a Deans? Why didn't Tana get a parachute earlier? Tietjens has the X-factor like no other These guys have got points to prove Deans spells double trouble for NZRU

The Super 14 squads get together for preseason training next week but the All Blacks get an extra six weeks of holiday. That's preposterous given the light workload they have had this year.

There were more exceptions brought into the 2007 rugby season than ever before given the controversial – and failed – reconditioning and rotational programmes.

It all added up to our leading players having their lightest workload in playing terms since the game went professional.

So should they still be out on leave swimming, kayaking, fishing and doing all those recreational activities they were so busy with in the south of France?

No way! Get 'em back to work.

Of course much of their current break was based on the presumption that they would return home as all-conquering heroes with the World Cup in their luggage.

The fact is they got an extra two weeks leave with their sorry exit from the World Cup at the quarter-final stage.

The Wallabies suffered the same shock exit. Yet many of their leading players have already been back in training with their Super 14 squads.

The world champion Springboks are still busy running around in actual playing gear, about to take on Wales in a test this weekend and facing another match a week after that against the British Barbarians in London.

And in that Barbarians side will be three All Blacks – Sitiveni Sivivatu, Jerry Collins and Conrad Smith.

Why are they up there earning extra dosh when they could be back here working with their Super 14 squads for the betterment of the struggling New Zealand game?

Collins is an interesting case because since the World Cup debacle he's kept himself busy. The workaholic flanker has been playing for Barnstaple Second XV in Devon in the south of England to keep himself fit for his trot at Twickers. So much for needing a rest.

Mind you, we shouldn't blame Jerry for wanting a bit of action. Statistics show that during the Super 14, domestic and Tri-Nations tests and the World Cup he appeared in just 15 games of rugby in 2007.

He was the 18th most used player in the World Cup squad for the whole of 2007 and three forwards who played alongside him in that fateful match in Cardiff had even less time on the field.

That is one of the most damning figures to be thrown against coach Graham Henry as the battle for the next All Blacks coaching position starts on Monday.

In terms of match hardness the All Blacks were seriously underdone going into their quarter-final against France. It's ironic that for all the emphasis placed on conditioning Collins, one of their fittest and toughest players, was forced off injured in that match.

It's rare to see Collins leave the field at any time. But he wasn't alone as the backline stocks eroded through injury as the pressure from the French mounted.

These guys are being paid huge money by New Zealand standards and the rugby public can justifiably feel short-changed from a year when no Kiwi side featured in the Super 14 final and the All Blacks suffered the embarrassment of their earliest exit at a World Cup.

Would it be too much to ask a few of them to give a little in return – even those two weeks when they thought they be playing semifinals and finals in France – and turn up to Super 14 training next week?

We've already seen Keven Mealamu, Isaia Toeava and Rodney So'oialo turn out in the Air New Zealand Cup final and it's fair to say that more than a few players weren't happy with their enforced inactivity this year.

So guys, how about it? Rip off those shirts again and work up a sweat in the New Zealand sun as you prepare for your season of redemption in 2008.

It's time to get the show back on the road!

- © Fairfax NZ News