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Death on game day: Blues star Caleb Clarke pays tribute to late grandfather after superb display
By Online Editors
Blues coach Leon MacDonald heaped praise on Caleb Clarke's standout performance against the Highlanders after the highly-promising wing lost his grandfather earlier in the day.
Clarke shed tears during a pre-match moment of silence as the 27,000 strong Eden Park crowd paused to honour slain Constable Matthew Hunt, who died in the line of duty in Auckland last week.
The 21-year-old is enjoying a breakout year after returning to the Blues from the New Zealand sevens team, and the loss of his grandfather inspired him to deliver another impressive display.
Speaking to Sky after the match, Clarke dedicated his superb performance to his grandfather.
"It was a big day losing my grandfather just before kick-off,'' Clarke said. "It was a bit hard and it was a bit iffy whether I was going to play.'
"But I know he would want me to play so I just dedicated that game to him - that was to you grandpa."
Clarke pointed to the sky in tribute after scoring the opening try in the Blues' 27-24 victory. He then laid on Rieko Ioane's first half strike after a brilliant break, and snaffled one Beauden Barrett restart to showcase his talents in the air.
"What an effort," MacDonald said. "It's been a big day, obviously, for him and his family. It's been tough. He really wanted to go out and put a performance his grandfather would be proud of and I thought he was brilliant tonight. He'll be emotionally drained so what a mighty effort from him. We're all thinking for their family of their loss."
After watching his team blow a 22-10 halftime lead and then cling on for victory, MacDonald was pleased to welcome next week's bye following three straight Super Rugby Aotearoa victories since lockdown.
"The Highlanders were really gritty and tough and did everything but win really. We'll take the win. It highlights just how tough this competition is. It's good for the crowd but not good for the heart rate.
"It's a good time for the bye it gives us a chance to have a decent look at the Crusaders and start again really.
"It will allow us to regroup. We were a bit beaten and battered leading into this game and probably didn't have the same zip we had in the previous couple of weeks.
"Going to Christchurch is a great challenge they haven't lost down there for a long time so it doesn't take much motivation to get excited about it."
Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger, meanwhile, does not expect Nehe Milner-Skudder to be available for selection next week despite losing wing Sam Gilbert to a knee injury against the Blues.
Mauger instead predicted the former All Black would return the following week against the Hurricanes, his former team, in Wellington.
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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