With David Kidwell out of the Anzac test match, there is no longer an obvious replacement.
One thing is for sure, Graham Lowe will be calling for Sonny Bill Williams to be made captain – he’s been vocal about this for some time now, so it will no doubt pop up in his NZ Herald column this week or next.
I don’t think SBW is a good choice. First he needs to get over his injury problems to a point where he at least plays more test matches than he misses. Aside from that he does not strike me as leadership material – yet. Give him a few more years and then lets see.
It will likely come down to Roy Asotasi, Nathan Cayless and Tony Puletua. The problem with Asotasi is that he, like Williams does not yet strike me as being captaincy material. The problem with Cayless is that he may not always be an automatic selection in the future.
For this match I would go with Puletua as he’s captained at club level, is an experienced player and well respected by his team-mates.
However, I think there is one more player that should be mentioned as a possible captain, and that’s Benji Marshall. It would be a huge amount of pressure for him, especially given our terrible record in Anzac test matches, but this won’t faze him.
Although he doesn’t captain his club team he strikes me as being mature enough and level headed enough to do the job. Also in his favour is the fact that aside from the captaincy, the Kiwis have a leadership group, so he’ll have plenty of support.
Anyhows, we’ll find out in the next two weeks.
Incidentally, what a freaky story about Kidwell . . . exactly how do you rupture knee ligaments by falling over your daughter?? South Sydney’s insurance company are probably asking the same question ☺
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