Following on from Taine Randell's article last week regarding Canterbury & its over abundance of player resources this week we see a prime example in the announcement that Colin Slade is the preferred 1st five for Canterbury this NPC season.
 
The obvious question is where does this leave Stephen Brett given that SBW & Ryan Crotty are both being lined up for 2nd five?  Riding the pine obviously or "in the mix" as they now call it!  Yet he was recently called into the All Black squad as back up vs Ireland?  This sort of thing will just push a guy overseas (similar to the Tamati Ellison situation in Wellington).
 
To have one of the supposed top 4 or 5 1st fives in the country not starting during the NPC is ridiculous & something must be addressed in the structure of NZ rugby to sort this kind of thing out.