Rest and rotations for All Blacks isn't staving off injuries

It’s almost safer not to let them play at all.

You might have noticed a few All Blacks getting injured in Super Rugby Pacific.

Hurricanes halfback Cam Roigard is the most long-term one, followed by teammate Asafo Aumua.

Rieko Ioane, Scott Barrett, Damian McKenzie and Samipeni Finau all got dinged up over the weekend. Ethan Blackadder didn’t even take the field for the Crusaders against the Reds because of a thigh strain suffered at training.

It’s no mean feat for any All Black to be sustaining injuries given the number on sabbaticals and load-management regimes. Throw in mid-season byes and you wonder why we’re restricting players’ minutes at all.

Rugby in New Zealand has its challenges.

Provincial unions and New Zealand Rugby (NZR) are at loggerheads. Television staples such as Grassroots Rugby and Mainfreight Rugby have already gone by the wayside, with live NPC games potentially following suit.

It kind of puts the onus on NZR to ensure Super Rugby Pacific is a competition in which All Blacks are ever-present and the ball is in play for more than 20-odd minutes of each match.

Perhaps if our elite players actually played a bit more, they wouldn’t get injured quite so often.

In absolute fairness, I’ve never understood the rationale for rest and rotation and can’t believe it didn’t die a death following the All Blacks’ disastrous 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign.

“You can’t expect they’re going to play 17 games and then go and play 14 tests,’’ All Blacks coach Scott Robertson said ahead of the start of this Super Rugby season.

“They’re not going to play 31 games this year, and players aren’t going to play 17 games of Super Rugby and get them peaking for finals.

“They’re going to have to be managed and what does that individual athlete need…then it’s individualised conversations, medical are involved and we’re open and honest.

“It’s a fine balance for everyone.’”

A lot of that’s nonsense, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, why can’t they play?

Elite NRL players seem to, as well as competing in a State of Origin series and a couple of test matches. That’s the obvious Australasian comparison, given our competitions run head-to-head.

The way Robertson presents it makes it appear as if these blokes are playing 31 weeks in a row, which is cobblers for starters. And since when did the All Blacks roll the same 23 out for 14 games in succession?

There are enough breaks and windows in the season not to have to prescribe rest. A bit of rotation is inevitable too, because you don’t need your best 15 for every Test.

This situation isn’t a fine balance for everyone, of course, because the paying public never gets to have a say.

Sure, we buy television subscriptions and season tickets, but we do so on trust. We have no input into who plays and when.

We certainly don’t get a discount or refund when the second-stringers are having a run.

We’re forever saving players for a rainy day. Sitting them out or substituting them so that, when a Rugby World Cup final eventually comes, they’re fit enough to win it.

Only we don’t always win. Not everyone – despite the best management methods – is fit and available to play, regardless of what’s been lost or sacrificed along the way.

Are we eventually going to go the whole hog here? Are All Blacks never going to play provincial and franchise footy?

Are they just permanently going to be cotton-wooled in All Blacks training camps, with a diet of Test matches and nothing else?

I have a simple solution here: if you’re contracted to NZR, you play in New Zealand all year round and you play every week that you’re fit for selection.

No sabbaticals, no rest weeks, no restricted minutes.

Trying to pre-empt injury, by meeting players’ individual needs, doesn’t stop them from getting hurt.

You either play or you don’t play. There’s no in between.