Beauden Barrett in action. Photo / Photosport
No prizes for guessing who All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor described as a "wrecking ball" a day after his side's improved performance in beating the Wallabies at Eden Park.
But while Caleb Clarke's destructive power on the left wing received most of the attention during and immediately after the 27-7 Bledisloe Cup victory, and fair enough, a more slender but no less influential Beauden Barrett presumably showed the doubters that he is the best fullback in the country by some distance.
Barrett's effort a week after he withdrew from the 16-16 draw against Australia in Wellington due to an Achilles issue was a timely reminder of his class as a broken-field runner – although he went straight through a few would-be defenders too – and how much better first-five Richie Mo'unga looks with Barrett on the field as a different play-making option.
If Clarke, a 21-year-old starting in his first test, was the mallet which tenderised the Wallabies, Barrett, a veteran by comparison at the age of 29, was the knife which sliced and diced them.
After the miserable driving rain in Wellington seven days earlier, the warm and sunny conditions in Auckland plus a far more direct and muscular performance from the pack helped the All Blacks backline rediscover their mojo – and Mo'unga in particular – but Barrett's relentlessly threatening presence at the back helped considerably too.
He had a relatively quiet Super Rugby campaign but the Blues looked a far better team with him on the field this season and so did the All Blacks, although in the case of Saturday's test he was more of a threat with the ball than he has been in a long time.
"I was impressed," confirmed All Blacks head coach Ian Foster today. "From being out for a while and coming back … But when I say impressed, that's what I expect out of him. He's a quality person with a massive influence on this team and the way that we like to play him at 15 I think suits him.
"I know there's a lot of noise about 'he's not a 15 and all that' but we've got a game that we think we can involve him heavily in and I thought you saw that yesterday."
Foster will always leave the door open for Barrett to play first-five but, after becoming the incumbent No 10 last year, Mo'unga is set to stay there for the big tests for the foreseeable future providing he remains healthy.
After an uncertain start and a major surprise in the form of Rieko Ioane in the midfield in Wellington, the backline which did the job at Eden Park appears Foster's best and that continuity will likely continue, albeit with changes likely for the upcoming Argentina tests in Australia.
"For some reason we've been historically quite slow to start [a test series] but I'm kind of pleased that the team didn't panic as much as other people panicked after the first draw," Foster said. "There's a lot of belief in what we're doing."
This team appears to thrive on certainty – although there will be a sense of the unknown on Sunday morning when they leave the relative safety of a nearly covid-free New Zealand for Sydney and a four-test series against Australia and Pumas starting with the Wallabies in Brisbane on October 31. Foster will name his travelling squad later in the week and prop Joe Moody, lock Sam Whitelock and midfielder Peter Umaga-Jensen, who have suffered head injuries recently, are likely to be available.
But the Wallabies operate a little differently, as Foster adroitly pointed out. Dave Rennie's reign almost began in the perfect way – certainly his Wallabies have a harder edge to them – but that has often been the case over the ditch.
"They've got a new coach and the last three new coaches they had beat us in their first game," Foster said. "If you go back and look at [Robbie] Deans and [Michael] Cheika and [Ewen] McKenzie, they won their first games against us so clearly it's a team that responds to a bit of change. We expect them when they play in front of their home crowd to be very animated and aggressive in what they do and we just have to make sure we are."
As for hooker Taylor, he's just glad the man of the moment Clarke is on his side.
Asked about other players who have made such an immediate impact in the black jersey, Taylor said: "Jonah Lomu? Julian Savea? We've been lucky with some pretty beasty wingers in the past and he's another one who's come in and taken his opportunity."