Okay, so that was a serious exaggeration and hardly believable, as All Blacks fans are far too savvy for such stupidity. However, what all true believers should be reading as gospel is that we at BackingBlack are doing all we can to provide a little blackness to brighten your world!

Therefore, to give you black that loving feeling, over the next period of posting, iamjonnyking, with a heap of help from you my friends, will dissect and analyse the players who stood tallest in the International Domestic Season 2010.

In this post, we will look at a number of forwards who will be nominated for their service and valor.

We will ask you to choose your top 2 from this list of our choosing.  Next, we will do the same with the backs, which will give us the Final 4, where iamjonnyking will do his best to present a case for each one of these players being given the Highest Honour awarded, The BackingBlack All Black Player of the International Domestic Season… You Never Know, We May Even Be Able to Rummage Up a Prize!

The Contenders

Kevin Mealamu – Scud/ Nugget – All Blacks Hooker – Mealamu could indeed be up for several awards, as the nuggety Auckland Hooker found the form that made him the number one number two, some seasons back.  While 2009 seemed to signal a continuing decline in Kevvy’s form, as time on the bench reduced his All Black impact to bit-part-player, the injury to Andrew Hore has provided Scud with the opportunity that he has grabbed with all 8 fingers and two thumbs!

This season, Mealamu’s continual work-rate on the ball, his ability to not only pick and go, but to do so with metronomic regularity that is coupled with an ability to make yards under fire, has reminded all of what one can get from this number 2! Given his athletic ability, which is not surprising, given his history as a loose-forward in an earlier rugby life, it is little wonder that Mealamu can lay down the hurt on defence, can anticipate the turn-over with effect, and can provide the link to set the back-line world on fire.  In 2010, he has been an All Blacks Nugget, worth his weight in gold! Kevin Mealamu – Hooker on Fire!

Brad Thorn – The Godfather – All Blacks Lock – What more can you say about Brad Thorn Sports-man?  At a time in a sporting career when we are trained by experience to perceive the worst, Brad Thorn is proving again and again that he is the exception in exceptional, giving us his best.  If Thorn was a liquid refreshment, he would surely be a full bodied Red, who is becoming richer and more readied, the longer he ages and goes under the time-tested reality of International Rugby, with more pleasurable the experience of all who taste and see that the Thorn is good.

Over the past couple of seasons, it has become apparent that Brad is becoming more comfortable in his Union skin.  This is clear in his ability with ball-in-hand.  Historically, it was as if Thorn was a little unsure and uncertain, feeling like a League Boy in a Union world, which impacted on his sense of play and action.  This season we have watched Thorn carry the ball over the advantage line, and many times, through it, as he feels comfortable to play with abandon!

Time is against us to blog about his defence, the number of rucks he hits… and opponents… and even his leadership, evident through confessions of Henry and McCaw, and validated in practice, both on and off the field. It is enough to affirm that Thorn’s perpetual wonder keeps getting better and better! Brad Thorn – Man of War!

Richie McCaw – McCawesome… ness – All Blacks Captain and Flanker – Volumes have been written about this rugby leader’s greatness, and surely Tomes will follow forthwith, which is why this blogger will seek to let brevity be his calling card in regard to the McCawesome phenomenon!

McCaw is the best player in the world, in my mind, without doubt.  His ability to make the play that counts was plain this Season once again, particularly memorable in a Soweto and Sydney Skyline, but these two visible reminders are but shadows to the substance of his all-round play.  While McCaw the player has never been in doubt, McCaw the Captain has been questioned by some… until 2010, when there has been silence on his reign, as his Captaincy has married nicely with his play.  This has developed and grown under the new law interpretations, even to the point that one may not have perceived this was even possible to that rugby-man who seemed to solely scavenge for ball. Words fail me… and that is saying something! Richie McCaw – Putting the ‘McCaw’ into ‘Awesome-ness’… McCawesome-ness!

Jerome Kaino – T KainO/ The Hammer – All Blacks Flanker – Potential has never been a foreign description of the Kaino player project. Blessed with attributes that a loose forward can only dream of, Jerome’s name was up in lights as he entered the world of rugby in a Barbarian jersey on a Twickenham night.  This festival match many moons ago is remembered for two acts of beauty, one hammertime of defence on the New Zealand line, and one piece of open field attack as Kaino ran around Matt Rogers who stood motionless with shock at this boy’s upside!

However, while the potential has never been in question, the application was called out by many, King Henry included!  Time has passed since the darkest days of doubt in Kaino’s application. As for the past few seasons, he has proven his vital position in the All Blacks cog.  This was shown in stark clarity in Sydney, where his introduction proved catalytic for an All Blacks team in deficit, where he both plugged the gaps in close that also allowed Richie and Kieran to move into space, with devastating consequences in the end.  One could say this 30 minute period was a metaphoric encapsulation of the Jerome Kaino All Blacks impact.  What a difference this man can make! Jerome Kaino – Here Comes the Hammer!

Kieran Read – Sauce/ Justin – All Blacks No. 8 – There has been much talk about this individual over the past number of seasons, and there is no doubt that his play for the ‘Saders at 6 was noteworthy.  However, world leading he was not!  But what was not, now is, as Kieran Read has made us all a Belieber!  Since Read’s move from the flank to the back of the scrum, he has literally been a revelation for an All Blacks unit that has searched for a banker in the boot, providing the loose-forward trio with a balance of variables that come together as one.

Did you think Read had that running game in him?  Of all the statements this year in his play, it is his ability to break the game line, to carry into and through contact, and to promote the ball to another phase of living that has screamed loudest that this Boy is worthy in All Black.  His motor is huge, his defence sound, his mind alert, and his sense of self secure, so much so that the man who speaks with eyes wide like saucers, is now being spoken of as a future All Blacks Captain.  This has been a break-out-stand-out season for all to Read-About-It, with the promise of more to come! Kieran Read – The All Blacks Boot is Back!

There we have it, and these are your options!

Please pick your top two and comment on why you believe each of these forwards is worthy!

Just so you know, we will also be blogging about the Most Improved Player, the Comeback Player, and Moment of Magic in the Interntional Domestic Season of 2010… Not to forget that a nicknames post is also on the way… and this is just for starters!

I know, So Much to Fill Your All Blacks Vacuum!… After all, iamjonnyking is theBackingBlack Blog Behemoth.  If the boys can do it out on the field, we gotta do our best to match them with our support on the blog!

We Want to ‘Read’ From You!

Until Next Time

iamjonnyking