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All Black draws comparisons to legend Jerome Kaino after ‘game for the ages’
By Finn Morton
Shannon Frizell has been compared to one of the greatest blindside flankers in All Blacks history after his sensational performance against the Springboks in Auckland last weekend.
Some rugby fans may have doubted Frizell’s ability to perform on the biggest stage going into this year’s international campaign. With a World Cup on the horizon, the battle for the No. 6 was going to be fierce.
But the Highlanders forward was given the first opportunity to make that jersey his own.
Coach Ian Foster and the All Blacks selectors named Frizell at blindside against Los Pumas earlier this month, and the 29-year-old took the opportunity with both hands.
After impressing during New Zealand’s dominant win in Mendoza, Frizell was given a potentially career-defining chance to start against world champions South Africa on Saturday.
Frizell was immense. Except for maybe Will Jordan, no player performed better than the flanker that night.
Coming up against a star-studded forward pack which included captain Eben Etzebeth, lock Lood de Jager, and former sevens ace Kwagga Smith, Frizell was a class above.
Of course, it’s hard to look past the flanker’s Lomu-esque try during the first half. Much like the late All Black great back at the ’95 World Cup against England, Frizell ran over a defender with ease.
But that was just one of many highlights that night. Frizell stole the show against the Boks, and has seemingly made that No. 6 jersey his own ahead of a two-Test Bledisloe Cup series with Australia.
“A game for the ages really and I’m sure you’ve had people say this on your station Piney, the best blindside flanker performance I’ve seen since Jerome Kaino in the 2011 World Cup semi-final against Australia,” broadcaster James McOnie said on Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.
“That’s his jersey now, we can safely say it’s gonna take something special to take it off him but I think he deserves that chance now that he’s done it against such esteemed opposition.
“Even when the freaks came on from South Africa… the giants, RG Snyman (who is) six foot nine, Pieter-Steph du Toit – World Player of the Year. Even when they came on, I thought Shannon Frizell stood up.”
After singing Frizell’s praises, McOnie began talking about the selection battle at flyhalf between “all-time great” Richie Mo’unga and Damian McKenzie.
McKenzie impressed in the No. 10 jersey against Argentina, but Mo’unga stepped up against fierce rivals South Africa with potentially his best performance in the black jersey.
“If you look at history, have we done something maybe in the last World Cup when Beauden Barrett had just been named World Player of the Year twice, and was just starting to crack the code as a number 10 – and then we moved him.
“We don’t want to do that again. Richie Mo’unga had just won seven Super Rugby titles in a row, and had just got used to being a Test rugby player, why shift him now?
“Even though you know how much I love Damian, don’t forget you’ve got this absolute gem and all-time great in your midst and you wouldn’t want to waste his talents.”
The All Blacks take on rivals Australia in the first of two Bledisloe Cup Test matches later this month. Following that clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the two teams will meet again a week later in Dunedin.
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Latest Comments
The manner of all these comments is that it doesn’t matter who plays No10 for the All Blacks, apparently they are all rubbish!
Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop obsessing over every tiny error made from an overscrutinised position. DMac was good this year for the most part, as was Beauden Barrett. Mo’unga was good last year and would be an asset in the group if he did come back. I don’t see it as an area of concern.
The main concern in 2025 is finding another world class lock and loose forward, followed by some scrutiny over the midfield combination in my view.
Go to commentsI was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
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