Confused fans are flooding the All Blacks Twitter with the same question about Caleb Clarke
One of the breakout stars of the All Blacks 2020 has been young Blues winger Caleb Clarke, who elevated onto the world's stage after a blockbusting display at Eden Park against the Wallabies in his first start.
The young wing began to draw unrestrained hype after beating 11 defenders in a dominant performance of power running on his home ground. Since that game, Clarke earned two more starts against Argentina, scoring his first test try after the buzzer in the loss in Sydney.
In the final test of the season Clarke was frequently used by the All Blacks all over the park to generate strong carries, finishing with 13 runs, just one less than Number 8 Ardie Savea.
His increased involvement led to more screen time on the TV broadcast, where fans began to notice Clarke looked different to the rest of his teammates, appearing to have a different uniform.
The All Blacks official Twitter received the same question over and over again from fans, asking why Caleb Clarke had a different pair of socks to his teammates on the field.
Clarke's All Blacks socks appeared to have three vertical stripes down the back compared to the regulation three hoops around the top of the sock. One fan offered the theory that Clarke was wearing the All Blacks Sevens socks from his time in the shorter version of the game.
Of course, the answer to the fans question is quite simple. Clarke was not wearing non-regulation socks as many had thought, just compression socks underneath his normal ones which had rolled down.
Clarke's socks weren't the only discussion point by fans during the match, with many Northern Hemisphere fans questioning the young winger's finishing ability on the night after a couple of missed opportunities.
Many Northern Hemisphere fans, including the popular social media personality Squidge Rugby, were prepared to tout Welsh winger Josh Adams as a player who would have made more of the same opportunities.
Another Irish fan claimed he was 'diet James Lowe' as an inferior version of the recently capped former Chiefs wing.
Whilst some of the comments were made in jest, there were enough questions asked of Clarke as his teammate Will Jordan came on and scored two long range tries with his first two touches against the run in play on the right wing.
The expectations on Clarke seems to have spiralled out of control as the 21-year-old has only four tests under his belt, with three starts.
Clarke has plenty of time to hone his finishing skills over the summer with the season now over for the All Blacks, as well as finding some new tape to keep his socks up.
But for now, he will put his feet up as the team completes a two-week isolation on the return leg home.
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Great read on a fascinating topic.
Couple of questions related to Bristol and Black Ferns.
They were properly hammered and struggled to score many points at all in the two European matches preceding the demolition of Leicester. Was it lack of ambition in those matches or a better opponent? This Tigers mob has been less than the sum of their parts since their ugly GP win under Borthwick.
I went to Twickenham with a large group of parents and young ladies from Barnes RFC to watch NZ v England last season. The dads among us were deeply frustrated by how inflexible the Black Ferns were with their strategy to run and not kick and they were duly put to the sword.
Pretty clearly, there is more depth and quality in the England squad and, whilst on any given day (and with the help of a red card), NZ might sneak one the strategy can go horribly wrong given the level of passing and catching skill in the women's game. Was Smith very lucky and it's the wrong way to play big games or was he showing us the way forward? I'm not at all sure.
Go to commentsI can't see them getting to the final of the Champons Cup.
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