The Fullback is Back!

The rugby year of 2009 will be remembered for many things amongst them the failed Lions tour, the quite disgraceful Bloodgate Scandal and the even headier shame of Renault/Briatori and it's premeditated crash in formula 1, lets not forget The Springboks powerful and relentless Tri-Nations campaign not disimiliar to the act of laying tarmac a process that is both inevitable and all encompassing.

My interest mainly lays at the doorstep of the return of the Fullback.

I remember in the not too distant past the scything runs of Andre Joubert, the eel like movements of Christen Cullen, the sure boot and surer defence of Matt Burke, all legends in their own right were capable of turning a match on it's head and did so week in and week out.

What happened? following a set of rule changes and the arrival of rugby league like defences, it has since stunted the fleet of foot and monster boots of the men with 15 on their backs.

The full back became obsolete as we knew it, teams opted for a third winger or even a third centre and they just became another body on the line.

This year, I have seen a revival, first Ireland's Rob Kearney made his appearance in the Lions tour coming in for an injured Lee Burne who himself is a very dangerous full back.

I firmly believe that were Kearney not at 15 then the British & Irish Lions would not have come off half as well as they did.

His sure claiming of up and unders and blistering runs ensured that the Lions were on the front foot and set up the moves that created those all too frequent midfield breaks.

Kearney even scored a try by joining the line, and this announced the arrival of the full back with a great big bang.

This revival threatened to become a revolution when Frans Steyn came on the scene during the Tri-Nations and literally kicked the Springbok's rivals into the stone age.

Everytime the All Blacks and the Wallabies received the ball they treated it like the neandethal man's first encounter with a hot coal, with great difficulty.

Steyn's presence was sorely missed in Brisbane and on his return in Wellington his incredibly influencial penalty kicks over 50 metres will not be soon forgotten and in particular, old Henry will have many a sleepless night for years to come.

After the first penalty kick Richie McCaw famously said to his bewildered team mates "right, no mistakes within 60 metres!" which does show if anything that the All Black captain has a wry sense of humour.

Steyn followed up his kicking brilliance with some trojan defence and some incisive runs, but not nearly enough as the Bok's gameplan did not allow for it.

Since Mills Muliaina is no slouch either, come the November internationals I suspect we will be in store for some strategically brilliant full back play that might just set the game alight and hopefully, it will never be put it out again.

A Cullen My kingdom for a Cullen

Christen Cullen, that great All Black fullback, who ran the ball from everywhere, it wasn't so much that he couldn't kick it was just that he didn't have to.

Any player that would be graced with his sidewinder style of running coupled with shrugging off tackles like a slippery eel would run it at every opportunity and might not even stop at the end of the field, but would keep on running like something out of Forrest Gump.

The experts would always talk of his low centre of gravity, that he could bench press more than anybody on his team and that he could probably run the 100m in ten flat, however it was something else that made him such a rugby great and that being his vision for the game and the ability to make that vision a reality.

Sadly his illustrious career hit a speed bump during that very dark patch in All black history, the year of 1998 wherein a fair amount of legendary All Blacks were sent out to pasture after losing all their tri-nations matches.

There were very many things not quite right in the All Black camp and the fact that the Springboks were finding their feet for the first time in the professional era did not help.

Cullen was adversely affected by being played out of position amongst other things during their unsuccessful world cup campaign in 1999 and was being taken for granted by John Hart, also being spoilt for choice with Tana Umaga and Jeff Wilson on the wings put additional pressure on Cullen which eventually resulted in him being moved to centre.

This would have amounted to career suicide for any mere mortal but for the Hermesian fullback.

It didn't bother him and he bounced back in 2000 silencing his critics with 10 tries from 11 games for the Hurricanes and a record 7 tries in 4 tri-nations games.

Following a severe knee injury in 2001, Cullen never regained a permanent position in the All Black squad, this can be strongly attributed to disagreements with the coach John Hart and his replacement John Mitchell.

Cullen's omission from the 2003 world cup squad was an insult and a travesty to New Zealanders and world rugby fans alike but none more so than to the man himself.

In the Cullen era, opposition teams were very wary in their kick and chase game plans, as should their kick not be accurate enough, then they would most certainly be severly punished for it.

This was to happen time and time again, resulting in teams either overcooking their kicks out on the full or trying to run the ball from precarious positions while passing it along like a hot potato.

Since the Cullen's days I have not seen that sense of panic in a team facing the All Blacks.

It is now recognised among the experts that Cullen didn't nearly get enough credit for the good fortunes of the All Blacks as he was so unassuming while the team was so heavily loaded with other, more visually explosive players

Today, the All Blacks find themselves in a serious predicament, they have played their traditional blend of hard forward play with smooth backline play that is not unlike flowing water and have run dry, not once but 4 times this year, the Boks and the French have been able to disturb their gameplan in a horrid fashion.

The players seem to be looking to the sky for answers after every demoralising loss and the New Zealand faithful have thought it has fallen on their heads.

The scoreboards have indicated that the games have been close however this is not a true reflection of the game for various reasons, i.e. the weak Springbok bench and their very harsh tour schedule this year made it a certainty for the Boks to fade in the last 30 of every match. It is no surprise that the South African are the first team to win 3 games on the trot in the Tri-nations. All these factors contributed to a scoreboard that was as close as it was after 80 minutes.

The Springboks have a side full of established stars and upcoming ones, the media punits openly claim that they would fill an international fifteen with Springboks and not the once Mighty All Blacks and that, is exactly my point.

Look at young Franscois Steyn this lad has everybody talking.

He has found a way to win a game in a way that no one else is capable of, basically kicking drop goals and penalties from anywhere.

Pierre Spies, is a giant number 8 that has the running power and acceleration of a super wing let alone a normal one. It is no wonder So'oialo describes him as " built like a madman"

The list goes on and on.

Yes, the Blacks have Dan Carter and Ricci McCaw but where are the fleetfooted players that can make something from nothing, the "magic" as I call it. Don't get me wrong Sitivini Sivivatu and Mils Muliaina are brilliant athletes but at this level I have not seen them tear the world apart at a whim.

I mean someone that can perform miracles that should be beyond their physical and mental ability.

Who was capable of such feats you ask?

You guessed it

Cullen!