The likes of Fletcher Newell for Lincoln Uni, Tamaiti Williams for Burnside and Sevu Reece for Sumner, as well as many others across the country all managed to get some minutes in.
Player welfare is now monitored more than ever, especially in the area of head injury assessments, including compulsory stand-downs which has been a real step forward.
It has always been a fine line between getting players field time (head injuries aside) and what the specialists agree on. The bane of club coaches has always been the power the academies and high performance teams have on controlling their players’ minutes.
The over-cautious approach at times when a player has come back from either a light muscle injury or a tournament where they are required to rest for weeks after is frustrating.
They are obviously training longer than club teams and in some cases having to travel distances from tournaments as well, but many times the players themselves are fit, keen to play, and want to get on the field.
Look at the NRL competition where players can be involved in one of the toughest games of the year in State of Origin on a Wednesday and then front for their club at theweekend.
Look at Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu. What a show of leadership in the Super Rugby final, coming back from a knee injury and with a ‘follow me’ attitude on the field.
Tuipulotu took it out of the hands of the medical group and proved he was capable to play after a series of fitness tests.
As in Tuipulotu’s case, sometimes the players just know when they are going to be right to play. If he was in pain he didn’t show it.
Many times there have been players wanting to stay on the field past their allotted minutes and contribute to their team, but have been stopped by over-cautious physios and strength and conditioning coaches.
Has all this over-care brought the benefit of reducing the number of muscle strains?
This year especially, the number of hamstrings, groin strains and other soft tissue injuries seem higher than ever.
A well-respected strength and conditioning coach told me that trying to duplicate things such as speed loading and sprinting at training is difficult as players need to be closely monitored to ensure they are hitting the same speeds they do in the game.
It is hard for them to push to those efforts when not in the heat of battle.
With everything monitored, from running minutes, speed tracking, impacts and over-all loading, one aspect that seems to be missing is asking the players themselves.
If they feel up to it and there is no obvious reason except their “minutes are to high” then get them on the grass. The only time it shouldn’t be left to the players is in the case of head injuries – that’s a non-negotiable.
• Sisson is a former player, Lincoln, Lincoln University and representative coach and New Zealand age group selector
