PANNING FOR SUPER RUGBY GOLD
Selectors will say their eyes and minds are always open. They are, that's true, but the year after a World Cup is always a little different and 2020 will see a new All Blacks selection group scour Super Rugby particularly har
There's a number of reasons for that. Firstly, the All Blacks, like most other countries, saw a reasonable cleanout of senior personnel after the last World Cup.
Kieran Read, Ben Smith, Sonny Bill Williams, Ryan Crotty and Matt Todd who were all in Japan at the World Cup, have gone offshore. So too have Owen Franks and Jackson Hemopo who were in the test squad last year prior to the World Cup cull being made.
Others such as Liam Squire, Luke Whitelock, Nehe Milner-Skudder and Matt Proctor who were regular All Blacks or on the fringes in 2018 have also gone and of course, Brodie Retallick is unavailable this year due to his decision to have a sabbatical in Japan.
There is, then, an obvious supply and demand issue. The team has to be rebuilt to some extent and that fact alone obviously sharpens the selectors' need to be vigilant and focused throughout Super Rugby.
But there's a deeper sense of a post-World Cup year being one of significant opportunity to cast the selection net that bit wider and find the next generation of
