{"id":211242,"date":"2025-10-13T22:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T22:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211242\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T22:28:08","slug":"there-are-some-challenges-ahead-of-sevu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211242\/","title":{"rendered":"‘There are some challenges ahead of Sevu’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The All Blacks<\/a> have made minimal changes to their squad from the Rugby Championship<\/a> for the upcoming Northern Tour, sticking with the tried and tested, even if the tried and tested have fallen down the pecking order and out of the matchday squad.<\/p>\n

Winger Sevu Reece<\/a> is one of the handful of All Blacks who were left on the outside looking in after owning a starting berth to begin the Rugby Championship. Emoni Narawa<\/a> took his place on the right wing in round three, before Leroy Carter<\/a> stepped in when injury struck. Powerful showings from both Caleb Clarke<\/a> and Leicester<\/a> Fainga\u2019anuku have made the left edge a more crowded selection prospect.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks\u2019 wing positions are famously a young man\u2019s game, which made the 28-year-old\u2019s selection in Monday\u2019s squad anything but certain. But now, with his flights booked, Super Rugby\u2019s all-time leading try-scorer has another chance to prove his worth.<\/p>\n

All Blacks attack coach Scott Hansen shed some light on Reece\u2019s status in the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly, just acknowledging the competition that\u2019s there at the moment, you\u2019re looking at the wingers and the performances we\u2019ve had most recently, and they\u2019re in form,\u201d he told Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at Leicester (Faiga\u2019anuku\u2019s) performance most recently, and you look at (Leroy) Carter around how he\u2019s continuing to grow his game as an All Black winger. You\u2019ve got Caleb (Clarke), who\u2019s coming back from injury. So we do have a number of wingers currently putting their hand up. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got versatility in our squad, which we know, and Sevu is an experienced All Black. He knows what it takes to travel through Europe and the like. There are some challenges in front of Sevu, as there are for all the boys around getting that starting role. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that he\u2018ll work hard for it. But that\u2019s what the All Black environment should be doing. It should be creating competition. It should be hard to get into the starting 15.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for Sev, he\u2019s got some feedback around where he can grow his game, what we need from him around our preparation week to help us prepare also as a 23, and there\u2019ll be a big opportunity for Sev to put his hand up on this tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next generation of outside back talent is set to be named in the All Blacks XV<\/a> squad on Tuesday, revealing which up-and-comers selectors see as the biggest threats to Reece and the top squad.<\/p>\n

Taking a broader look at the upcoming tour, Hansen said the team was striving for a \u201ccontinuation of the growth in our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our ability always to be able to adjust during it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some challenges this year, most recently around one or two performances, but ultimately, for us, it\u2019s continuing to grow our game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s growing our set piece, the quality possession that we provide, having balance in our game around our defence in an attack, and ultimately, you want this group to be reaching its potential. And when we do that, what that looks like is a balanced game. It\u2019s applying pressure in the right area of the field. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a good review of the most recent competition around where we can get some learnings, and fundamentally for us, that is about controlling possession.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The All Blacks have made minimal changes to their squad from the Rugby Championship for the upcoming Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-211242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}