Three former All Blacks have hit out at Clark Laidlaw’s decision to replace Cam Roigard in the first minute of the Hurricanes’ Super Rugby Pacific extra-time defeat to the Chiefs.
The Hurricanes were on a five-game winning streak heading into the clash and looked on track to make it six when they held a 12-3 half-time lead over the Chiefs.
However, Jono Gibbes’ men fought back into the match with Daniel Sinkinson’s try levelling the scores at 17 points apiece, pushing the game into a golden-point extra time.
Baffling Cam Roigard sub
Roigard had played the entire 80 minutes and remained on the pitch for the start of extra time before head coach Laidlaw decided to replace him with Ere Enari after just 40 seconds.
“What a moment this is, Goldie, taking off probably the game’s best player,” former All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald remarked on commentary.
“Ere Enari goes on and I know Cam Roigard is not going to be happy about that,” Jeff Wilson replied. “He will be disappointed, he played 80 minutes, and you don’t get to be there for the end of it. It doesn’t even look as if he has even played a game.”
Roigard certainly looked miffed as he marched to the bench, and in his absence, the Hurricanes were unable to hold out for the victory as Wallace Sititi scored the match-winning try after he pounced on the loose ball following Damian McKenzie’s drop goal attempt, which was charged down by Warner Dearns.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Breakdown show, Wilson said that Roigard was ‘filthy’ about the coaching team’s decision to take him off the park.
“This is right in front of me,” the former All Blacks wing said.
“I was commentating on the sideline, and I can tell you, he’s filthy. When you’ve played 80 minutes, and you’ve been influential in terms of doing your job, and he clearly looked fine to me, and just 30 seconds into extra time [he gets replaced].”
Hurricanes’ mistake
Donald was also perplexed by the decision and questioned why they didn’t make the change during the short break after full-time.
“Well, the funny thing was they just had a 5-minute breather at the end of 80 minutes,” he said.
“So then they decided, right, we’ll give him 5 minutes rest and then give him 29 seconds and then he’s gone.”
“I think that was a mistake, that was an error,” Wilson added.
“You’ve committed him to the 80 minutes. He can go the next 10 if he needs to. I thought he was good. There weren’t many opportunities for him, but once again, I come back to the fact that I think both of these two teams prepared really well.
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“He had a couple of really nice touches, but I didn’t understand the substitution at the time.”
Mils Muliaina was equally baffled and said that unless he was injured, he should have stayed on the pitch.
“This is a guy that we’re comparing to Dupont, and you’re taking him off 29 seconds into extra time,” he said.
“He’s either injured or there must be a different reason, but this is one of the best players in New Zealand rugby at the moment. So I don’t understand why they took him off – I was scratching my head.
“Did they lose it by taking him off? I don’t know. But why would you take someone of his caliber?”
Sam Cane-esque performance
While Roigard wasn’t on the pitch right to the end of the game, Chiefs flanker Luke Jacobson was as he celebrated his 100th appearance for the club in style with the clutch victory.
Wilson hailed the captain’s performance in the win and compared it to those that former Chiefs and All Blacks skipper Sam Cane has produced previously.
“Look, it was a big game. It’s not catastrophic for either of these teams,” Wilson said on the result that saw the Chiefs move into top spot on the Super Rugby table ahead of the Hurricanes.
“But for Luke Jacobson, I think it was it was really poignant about the way that he’s represented the jersey and the fact that the type of win it took it was very to me it was very Sam Cane-esque.
“The fact that he played right through the very last moment of the game, there were times you saw exactly how much he was putting into it, and the effort. He got banged up a couple of times, he always just picks himself back up, and he goes again, so for me, I think it was a really nice way for this group to honour him, having to go the distance.”