Anything Is Possible

Ardie Savea Is A Talent Like No Other. This Year He’S Hoping To Add Yet More Qualities To His Game.

- Gregor Paul

It’s not often that a player comes along who doesn’t have any fixed point of reference. Usually, almost always, a player will conform to some kind of expectation.

They might push the boundaries, take certain skills to new levels, but essentially they are an improvement or an adaptation of an existing template.

Not Ardie Savea. He’s different. A lot different and it would be fascinating to show clips of him to someone who didn’t know him but did know the game, and get them to guess what position he plays.

Savea wears No 7 but he could just as easily wear No 12. He could just as easily be a fullback because what makes him work is his athleticism, instincts, speed, skills and awareness.

He isn’t confined by any sense of convention. He really does just play what he sees and the results are at times astonishing. In his career to date he has pulled off some of the most unbelievable turnovers at crucial times.

He has scored tries that only wings could. He has kicked and chased. He has driven over the top of defenders as if he was a 135kg prop.

There’s no way to define Savea, or at least no way to pigeonhole him. He’s not like Richie McCaw. He’s not like Sam Cane or Matt Todd. He’s not like any other No 7 that has been playing anywhere in the world these past two decades.

Some may say he’s closest in style to Michael Jones, but other than both being supremely athletic, there’s not much else to tie them together. Savea himself isn’t even sure nor does he particularly like the idea that he has to be neatly labelled.

“People see some players as fetchers or as ball carriers,” he says. “You have just got to find your strengths. I don’t know what I see myself as and I don’t know what people see me as. I just go out there and be me and work on the little things that I don’t think I am good at.”