Ross Karl

And we've seen some beauties and that was one of them.

I mean, gosh, I don't know whether he even got a hand laid on him.

Spoken like a true back, eh?

One of the things that the Blues had been doing really well this season was using the front of the line out, just securing the ball.

And this is where Anton Segner showed that another string to his bow, that front of the line, that explosive jump that he's got at the front of the line out.

They were disputing a lot of line out ball at the front and if not the front, the middle, obviously where Sam Darry or Paddy Toi-Pulotu.

And they hadn't been using the back ball, which for a while in New Zealand rugby was almost an obsession.

It was almost as if we can't attack on anything else other than back of the line out ball.

And we used to get ourselves into so much trouble.

You think back to the days of the early 2000s when we'd be up against the Wallabies and then the line out would implode and things would start going wrong.

And then for some reason in the game against the Hurricanes, they went away from it.

So, yeah, look, line-out, it's such an important part.

I mean, as I mentioned, the Blues, I think half of their tries originated at line-out time.

It's such an important part of the game.

And with perhaps reducing the number of reasons to have scrums in the game, which I'm not sure how much in favour of that I am, but the line-out just becomes paramount as a launching pad.

But I think we've seen this year that you don't actually have to chuck the ball down the back for it to be a good attacking ball.

If you've got those sort of variations in your game and surely the most important thing is securing it.

Coming to you from rugby's greatest fortress, New Zealand's national stadium, Eden Park, is the Aotearoa Rugby Park.

Kia ora and welcome to another episode of Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

So much to talk about this week.