All Blacks Beauden Barrett and Aaron Smith weighed in ahead of their trip to South Africa.
Video / Carson Bluck
OPINION:
With his coaching career on the line, All Backs head coach Ian Foster has resisted the temptation have a mad old spin of the selection wheel, but he has made one small but significant change.
In what must rank as the biggest test of his tenure given the uncertaintyabout his future and obvious need to deliver a victory or at least the sort of performance in defeat that doesn't crush all hope of a revival, Foster has made his first hack into the old guard.
Codie Taylor, a long-server and for much of the last five years, the first-choice hooker, has been discarded from the match day 23.
A world class performer at his best, Taylor has paid the price for an underwhelming three weeks against Ireland.
He's gone because he didn't play well enough and in chopping Taylor, Foster has put the rest of his senior crew on notice that he's now willing to wield the selection axe and not spare reputations.
Codie Taylor has been dropped by the All Blacks. Photo / Photosport
So too has it now been signalled that the door is open to those who bang hard enough on it.
Samisoni Taukei'aho has been the best find of the Foster era. He plays with boundless energy and his low centre of gravity makes him a destructive ball carrier where his ability to drive out metres after contact is the best in the county.
He is also a brilliant turnover exponent and as much as Taylor played his way out, Taukei'aho forced his way in.
But the real questions here are whether Foster has waited too long before making his first transitional selection change and whether he's willing to keep making them.
It has felt since the tail end of last year, when the All Blacks lost to the Boks in early October and then to Ireland and France in November, that there hasn't been a willingness on the part of the coaching group to address performance shortcomings with selection changes.
Specifically, it has felt that while there was an injection of uncapped players into the squad in 2020, that there hasn't been enough opportunity handed to the next generation to put pressure on a core of veteran players that includes Taylor, Dane Coles, Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick, Sam Cane, Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett.
This group have been unquestionably superb performers for the All Blacks for many years, but all are at the stages of their careers where it can't be taken for granted that they will still be first choice players by this time next year.
Ian Foster has sent a message with one selection. Photo / Photosport
All of them have had good and not so good tests since 2020, but the next generation have been afforded limited opportunities to get on the field and up the pressure on the incumbents to prove their worth.
Dalton Papalii was the form openside in Super Rugby but he hasn't made the 23 to play South Africa.
Tupou Vaa'i was one of the best locks in Super Rugby, but he wasn't promoted to the starting team in Dunedin when Whitelock was unavailable and Fletcher Newell, who looked to be one of the best-equipped props in New Zealand throughout Super Rugby, has only just been called into the squad due to injury and hasn't been given a bench spot.
A great deal of the success the All Blacks enjoyed between 2012 and 2015 was a direct result of then head coach Steve Hansen using new, young players to put pressure on a large established core of veterans to keep raising their standards.
No one in the older group was ever allowed to feel comfortable and that need to earn selection was a major driver of standards.
It's never easy knowing when to drop an experienced and world class player. The signs are difficult to read and the coach has to be able to distinguish between a still great player having a bad game or even two bad games, against someone who has suddenly stopped being able to play at the level they previously had been.
There's an art to it and coaches have to be wary about pulling the trigger on an old war horse too soon against allowing them to hang on for too long.
The way to avoid getting it wrong is to build an evidential basis by allowing the incumbent and the aspiring newcomer adequate game time to state their case.
It doesn't need to be equal game time but enough to be able to differentiate when a veteran has reached the wall and also, whether the next in line is actually ready to take over.
The evidence has been clear about the Taylor versus Taukei'aho situation, but the pressure needs to be cranked up across the board.
