All Blacks lineup for the national anthem. Photo / Getty Images.
All Blacks lineup for the national anthem. Photo / Getty Images.
OPINION
Sport is such a strange and unpredictable beast it is entirely possible that it could be about to make the triumvirate of Nepo Laulala, Scott Barrett and David Havili the unlikeliest of All Blacks saviours.
Having bounced around in form since September last year, the All Blacks have beensearching for some kind of missing piece that isn't inherently in their setup.
No one has known for sure quite what is preventing them from delivering not only more wins, but greater performance consistency and certainty about how they are trying to play.
The team needs a jolt. The All Blacks have been struggling with the same issues for too long. Something needs to give them a foundation – a solidity that has been missing.
There's been too much volatility and vulnerability and while the movies would build the revival on the return of a fallen superstar, and many of the New Zealand public would opt for the arrival of a whacky young breakdancing coach, the reality is likely to be somewhat more prosaic as the glamour and wow factor attached to Laulala, Barrett and Havili is not high.
But the truth about these three is that however much they may not present as characters capable of instigating radical transformation, they do have that potential.
Quinn Tupaea (L) and David Havili look on during a New Zealand All Blacks training session at Hutt Recreation Ground. Photo / Getty Images.
The team for the third test is the team head coach Ian Foster wanted to pick for the first test but was denied the chance due to illness and injury.
Laulala is the scrummaging force the All Blacks need at tighthead. No one should be labouring under any misapprehensions that he's a natural athlete or ball player. He's not, but he doesn't have to be, either.
Now that he's recovered from a tender neck, he's the anchor on which the scrum can be set. Ireland squeezed some give out of Ofa Tuungafasi last week, but they won't get anything out of Laulala and that brings both practical and psychological benefits.
The practical being that with Laulala at tighthead, the All Blacks scrum becomes destructive – blessed with enough power to not only disrupt Ireland's possession, but to win penalties.
And when a scrum starts winning regular winning penalties, it eats into the soul of the weaker pack. It strikes at the heart of who they are and if the All Blacks are to reposition themselves in the world game, they need a few tests between now and the World Cup when their collective power is so fearsome as to destroy not only their opposition but the narrative of New Zealand being a touch soft and cuddly when it comes to the darker arts.
Barrett may yet, after the World Cup, go on to establish himself as one the country's great locks. But for the next year, he's now the answer at No 6.
It is not his natural berth, or even true that he will become a world-class blindside. But he offers a short-term solution of sorts that is more compelling than any of the specialists tried there to date.
Scott Barrett in action during a New Zealand All Blacks training session at Hutt Recreation Ground. Photo / Getty Images.
What Barrett at six does is give the All Blacks a strategic imperative around the set piece - the confidence to believe they should target every lineout they encounter.
He's quick for a lock but not for a six and having him there gives the All Blacks greater reason to play more directly and confrontationally, without by any means giving up their ambition to generate pace and width to their attack.
And Havili may be the unlikeliest hero of all. He's been around for a while without yet having found his test groove.
But he's not alone in that regard and not many, other than All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, saw Ben Smith as having the potential to be an international superstar after his first 10 caps.
Havili, if he can find the confidence to trust himself, is a potential superstar. He's gifted to an extraordinary degree and his presence in the No 12 jersey greatly enhances the tactical options available to the All Blacks.
Havili can kick cleverly. He can also, as he showed throughout Super Rugby, work players around him with the subtlety and deftness of his footwork and offloading, while he can also be an exceptional long passer.
There is a belief that if the All Blacks are going to find the consistency and variety of attack that they need, they can only do so with a playmaking No 12.
Havili, Laulala and Barrett doesn't have a ring to it or set the heart racing. But test football at the moment is so tight and swings on seemingly so little that these could add just enough to be the jolt this All Blacks side needs to redirect and repurpose itself.
