All Blacks warrior Savea fronts up for another battle of wills

SYDNEY : There has been much, sometimes furious, discussion about the balance of the All Blacks back row over the last few years but it would be a brave soul to suggest that Ardie Savea does not deserve a place in it.

Tough, athletic, dynamic and ferociously competitive, Savea is one of the best loose forwards in the game and his absence from the nominations for the World Rugby Player of the Year award over the last two seasons has been baffling.

Back-to-back All Blacks Player of the Year awards show his abiding importance to New Zealand, where many believe he, not the oft-maligned Sam Cane, should be leading the team on a permanent basis.

Savea has played in all three back-row positions since his test debut in 2016 and will travel to France as the incumbent number eight, a position where he makes up for a relative lack of size by sheer force of will.

That was most famously seen recently in his off-the-ball wrestling match with Springboks man mountain Eben Etzebeth during New Zealand's Rugby Championship victory in Auckland, which went viral on social media in July.

That is just one part of his game, however, and an argument could be made that he saved coach Ian Foster's job with an extraordinary performance in New Zealand's win over the world champions at Ellis Park last year.

Savea was everywhere that day, carrying and tackling like a blindside flanker, jackaling with the timing of an openside, sprinting down the wing like an outside back, and offloading with the deftness of a centre.

The younger brother of prolific All Blacks winger Julian, Savea grew up in Wellington's southern suburbs where his childhood hero was All Blacks midfield back Ma'a Nonu.

Savea would follow Nonu to Rongotai College, where he also played in the