It's almost midseason in the 2015 Super Rugby competition, and the All Blacks first-five battle is a tight race.
Colin Slade, Aaron Cruden and Beauden Barrett have all been showing fine form in the 10 jersey this season, while Dan Carter is also showing touches of his old self in his limited time at first-five.
Both Slade and Barrett scored season-best 1st5R scores in week eight of Super Rugby, playing for the Crusaders and Hurricanes respectively.
The 1st5R formula, created by Stephen Ryan, factors in linebreaks made and assisted, tries scored and assisted, defenders beaten, running metres per carry, tackling success, turnovers and goal kicking, while also taking into account minutes played and number of touches.
A rating of 50 is a par performance, with the scale running from 0 to 100.
Slade was particularly impressive in helping dismantle the Sharks in Durban on Sunday morning.
Amid the card carnage at Kings Park Stadium, Slade set up one try and scored another to score a 79.28 1st5R in only 56 minutes on the park.
There was a great moment before Slade set Kieron Fonotia up for his try which showed Slade's vision.
Slade was screaming for the ball when one of his forwards instead decided to have a snipe for the line, and it looked like Slade was about to throw his toys.
Next phase, however, Slade was tossed the ball, flung the pass to Fonotia which put him into a gap and across the line.
Barrett had a similarly influential performance for the Hurricanes in Wellington, scoring a 75.28 1st5R as they defeated the Stormers.
His support running saw Barrett finish off the try of the season as the Hurricanes went the length of the field to score in the first half, while a chip into the Stormers 22m saw Barrett set another try up.
Barrett was also strong defensively, making 10 of his 11 tackles, and he kicked at 80 per cent accuracy.
Aaron Cruden and Dan Bowden were the other Kiwi first fives playing in week eight, going head to head for the Chiefs and Blues respectively.
The Chiefs were able to grind out a victory, but the first-five play played second fiddle.
Cruden scored a 39.22 1st5R for the Chiefs, while Bowden registered 44.19 for the Blues.
Slade, Barrett and Cruden are all scoring in the 60s for the season after eight rounds, showing New Zealand has three elite first-fives.
Leading the way is Slade (65.09 1st5R), followed by Barrett (61.34 1st5R) and Cruden (60.69 1st5R), which would seem to show how hard it will be to pick the All Blacks pivot this year.
Lima Sopoaga still leads the way with a 69.86 1st5R on the season after eight rounds, although he just had a second bye week and heads away from the safety of his home ground for seven of the next 10 matches.
Blues first-fives Bowden and Ihaia West are well down the competition pecking order.
- Stuff
