Phil Gifford: A vital task for the All Blacks against Ireland

Jamison Gibson-Park of Ireland gets to the ball ahead of Sevu Reece of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty

Three talking points as Super Rugby makes way for the Irish tour.

HIGHER OCTANE

The player who most epitomises the changes coach Andy Farrell has brought to the Irish team is a New Zealander, halfback Jamison Gibson-Park.

Gibson-Park didn't wear the Irish jersey until he was 28, late in 2020, but he's dramatically lifted the tempo of the Irish attack. His speed to breakdowns, and his willingness to attack the line himself, makes them a more challenging side.

Their veteran halfback, Conor Murray, could win gold for Ireland if kicking up and unders was an Olympic sport, but it's Gibson-Park who sets the Irish alight. A vital task for the All Blacks will be matching the tough, highly experienced Irish pack, because given front-foot ball Gibson-Park and the Irish backline can be lethal.

TALENT SCOUTS

Spotting talent is as much a gift as it is a skill.

Given that he picked two kids who became greats of the game, John Kirwan and Michael Jones, John Hart rates as a scouting exempla. He plucked an 18-year-old Kirwan from an age group team into an Auckland side, and campaigned for Jones to begin his glittering All Blacks career in the first World Cup winning squad.

In the game now, Scott Robertson is establishing the same reputation. The final say on new Crusaders rests with Robertson, whose criteria for selection always includes speed. "You can coach skills," he says, "but you can't coach speed."

Right now two Robertson signings on fire are local Crusader products, Will Jordan and Cullen Grace. In his second year as Crusaders coach in 2019 Robertson had Jordan, a former Christchurch Boys' High star in his squad. Grace, a standout player at Timaru Boys' High, was just 19 when he was named for the 2020 Crusaders squad.

All coaches promote their own players but Robertson's endorsements of Grace, which this year have included the mantra that "he's playing like an All Black" were surely proven last weekend at Eden Park as Grace was a dominant figure in the Super Rugby final.

The scramble to get him into the Māori All Blacks is surely a sign that a return to the All Blacks (after injury cut short his test career after just one match in 2020) is just a breath away.

THE MEDIA MAUL

Relations between New Zealand rugby officials and the media have often been fraught. There were times in the distant past when a standing joke was that the NZRU's official motto was "no comment."

There have been shafts of light in recent years. Steve Hansen, at the urging of NZRU chief executive Steve Tew, decided that his attempts to butt heads with some critics ended with "the media first, daylight second, and me third."

The ground has shifted again with social media, allowing the players who enjoy it to engage directly with fans online, but with live crowds at first division provincial rugby smaller than the audience once was for club games in Auckland, making damned sure every chance for publicity is taken should be a major part of NZR's strategies.