Will Jordan will start at fullback for the All Blacks this weekend. Photo / Photosport
Will Jordan will start at fullback for the All Blacks this weekend. Photo / Photosport
Phil Gifford lists the five big talking points heading into the All Blacks’ test with the Wallabies in Dunedin.
Knowing when to roll ‘em
Making 12 changes, and one positional switch, between test matches, as All Black coach Ian Foster has for the Dunedin clash, is a gamble.
But it’snowhere near as big a punt as it might seem at first glance.
The Wallabies will spring no surprises. Fast Eddie Jones has stuck with the team that lost 38-7 in Melbourne because to do otherwise would be an admission he got it grievously wrong last weekend.
Foster, on the other hand, has the luxury, if things start to go awry, of a bench loaded with veterans.
And he has the comfort of knowing that test newcomers in the 21st century aren’t really rookies.
In the weirdness of the amateur days, test debutantes had one training run with the team before their international debuts. Now players like the dynamic flanker Samipeni Finau have been in the All Blacks squad since the middle of June. Of course, the actual experience of starting a test will be different, but Finau, for example, will be among men he now knows, with a comfortable knowledge of the team’s calls.
Talking of rolling the dice
The TAB has edged the odds on an Australian win out to $6 from the $5.75 they were offering for the Melbourne test. Only a good return if a near miracle occurs.
Eddie Jones found some positives to build on after last weekend's loss. Photo / Photosport
A change in direction?
Just when I was ready to sadly close down my Will Jordan For Fullback fan club as a lost cause, the Burnside Flier will wear the 15 jersey in Dunedin.
After Beauden Barrett was gutsy, daring, and efficient in Melbourne, moving Jordan from the wing is a small surprise. At the MCG Jordan was in imperious form, and it’ll be fascinating in Dunedin to see how he connects with, in particular, his brilliant Crusaders’ team-mate, Leicester Fainga’unuku, who, because he’s been out with injury, has fallen off the media radar in recent weeks.
Haka ructions
Peter FitzSimons is a top man, a good friend since the 1990s, and a brilliant writer.
He’s also, very genuinely, someone who respects others’ cultures and rights. So when he was online this week suggesting that the “throat-slitting gesture” at the end of the All Black haka, Kapa o Pango, goes too far, his opinion deserves serious consideration.
Over the years various British rugby writers have sneered at Ka Mate, but their ignorance and barely concealed racism deserved contempt.
The FitzSimmons comment is different.
But while I respect Peter’s opinion, I’m in the Herald’s Liam Napier school over Kapa o Pango. Like Liam, I believe knowledge of what’s been portrayed can change attitudes. Explaining that the gesture is meant to be about breathing life, not slitting throats, can’t be done too often.
It’s not just about selection
Eddie Jones pulled out the oldest cliché in the coach under pressure book when an Aussie journalist questioned Jones’ selection of Carter Gordon at first-five for the Dunedin test.
“Anyone who asks that question doesn’t know anything about rugby,” said Eddie.
Let me quickly say that countless hours of my life talking to great coaches, from Sir Fred Allen to Bob Dwyer to Wayne Smith, have made it clear to me that compared to international coaches, the average journo doesn’t have the same level of rugby knowledge.
But I’ll happily stand by my suggestion last week that Eddie piled foolish pressure on Gordon by comparing him to great Wallaby first-five Stephen Larkham and Springbok tackling machine Butch James, before the test in Melbourne.
You didn’t need a lifetime of coaching at a high level to see that was dumb, just common sense.
