All Blacks Anton Lienert-Brown walks us through the big road trip ahead. Video / All Blacks
OPINION:
The plaudits rained down on Akira Ioane after his last performance at Eden Park. His back presumably hurt the day after, so hard was it being slapped, literally by his teammates and coaches and metaphorically by just about everyone who has followed his career to date.
It was dubbedhis coming of age performance, the moment when he showed that he can channel his athleticism in a dual capacity – operating effectively in the core business of knocking people off their feet while showcasing his unique party trick of running like an outside back.
Ioane brought the brute force the All Blacks always want in their blindside flanker. He had a strong work-rate, a desire to be involved and a lower body position that saw him skittle Wallaby defenders and crunch their ball carriers.
It was rightly heralded as the breakthrough moment in a career that has taken a long time to come to the boil after flattering to deceive since his arrival in the professional ranks in 2015.
But for all that he impressed, answered plenty of questions about his desire and ability, the declarations of arrival as a genuine force in the test arena were not so much premature as slightly over-egged.
The goalposts need to shift to some extent when it comes to the definition of a breakthrough performance.
The rainbows can go in the quiver but they shouldn't all be shot the first time a player delivers the sort of commanding and dominant 80-minute effort that confirms they have the mental and physical goods to thrive in test rugby.
Judgement should be reserved until they have done it in consecutive tests – followed one great performance with another. It's the equivalent of breaking serve in tennis – it's not actually a break until it is consolidated by then holding serve.
Assuming he is picked to start in Perth this Sunday, Ioane, in tennis parlance, needs to hold serve.
He took a giant leap forward in Auckland but the real challenge in elite sport is to not just have a solitary great game.
Great careers are built over time and on the back of consistently good tests. Those who have truly impressed in test rugby have done so by building a portfolio of great performances and more importantly, by establishing a high baseline under which they never dip.
Ioane played the best game of his career on his home ground as part of a dominant team performance. He's an Auckland boy, loves Eden Park and with his brother in the backline and his mum and dad in the crowd, circumstances were ideal for him.
All Blacks flanker Akira Ioane is tackled by Wallabies prop James Slipper in the New Zealand and Australia rugby test match at Eden Park. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
This Sunday in Perth looms as an entirely different and more demanding test.
The Wallabies have had three weeks together in Western Australia's unrestricted protocols.
They have had extended time to dissect where they went wrong in Auckland and have been handed an additional element of motivation by their perception that they were shafted by the All Blacks' decision to not travel to play on the scheduled date last Saturday.
Not only will the Wallabies be highly motivated and supremely well prepared, they'll be playing in front of 60,000 Australians who have twice had the date of this game changed on them and will turn up with a desire to make their presence felt and get behind their team.
In contrast, the All Blacks arrived in Perth in the midst of a level four lockdown in New Zealand, which compromised the ability of their players to train as they normally would.
Since they arrived in Western Australia late last week, the All Blacks have been playing catch-up in their individual strength and conditioning, but more importantly, they have had to spend much of their time there so far fast-tracking the speed and accuracy of their micro skills.
It's not as if the All Blacks face insurmountable odds in preparing for this test, but the difficulty factor of beating the Wallabies this week in Perth is higher than it was in their previous test and hence the game will provide a truer test of what Ioane is really all about.
There's no doubt the Wallabies will try to up the niggle that they bring and try to unsettle the All Blacks by adopting a more physical approach than they managed in either of the two tests in Auckland.
That will most likely see them try to get under Ioane's skin by playing him off the ball as hard as they do on it and how he copes this week will be a much better guide as to whether he truly has established himself in the All Blacks No 6 jersey.
