Great Super-level player, with the potential to be an average-to-good test player in a few years. He's (rightly) known for his speed, but his best atributes are his defending at the end of the line, his awareness when it comes to dropping back to cover a kick, and his own kicking ability. He also has a nose for the line and is about as well-rounded as a traditional winger can be these days. With Speight gone and Taliauli seemingly out of favour, I would be picking Murihead as our starting winger.
I believe Lord Laurie when he says that we have the players we need. Let's retain and then take certain improvements, not chop and change.
I don't think this is the case. Assuming retention of players not confirmed to be leaving, this is the backline depth in the teams next year:
View attachment 10874
And yes, I know that Foketi has been playing at 12.
So our first-choice backline would likely be:
Powell-Kuenzle-Muirhead-Simone-Kuridrani-Pulu-Banks
Our second-choice would likely be:
Lucas-Pasitoa-Taliauli-Lolesio-Ikitau-Wright-Hansen
There is a gap in quality between the backlines overall, but the quality of the individuals is (with a few exceptions) about as good as it is for the starters. Basically, it is the same backline which scored the second-most tries in Super Rugby 2019.
Meanwhile, the best backlines of the other teams are:
Rebels:
Lomani-To'omua-Koroibete-Hodge-English-Maddocks-DHP
Reds:
McDermott-Stewart-Campbell-Lucas-Petaia-Speight-Hegarty
Waratahs:
Gordon-Mason-Clark-Hunt-Foketi-Newsome-Beale
How many of those backline are improvements on this year? You might think the Rebels looks particularly good, but it's strictly worse than the backline which managed to lose six of their last eight games of the season. The Reds backline is strictly worse than this year (no Kerevi). The Tahs backline is just... well, enjoy breaking tackles when you play against them.
While I agree that 13 is probably the only position where we have a player who is strictly better than their conference counterparts, our backline as a whole has more (and better) depth and is generally more well rounded.