Scott Robertson’s All Blacks showed improvement against the Wallabies but still lack a clear identity.
The team have a younger squad, with 17 new players in the past two seasons.
Upcoming tests will focus on style and combinations, with limited room for new players.
There’s an old dad joke involving two caterpillars watching a butterfly flying overhead. One says to the other: “You’ll never get me up there in one of those.”
Scott Robertson’s All Blacks are, so far, a bit like that caterpillar – they haven’t yet morphed into their bestselves; not quite aware of what they could be, not yet sure if they are a butterfly or a moth.
That was the inescapable conclusion after the first leg of the All Blacks’ “away” phase, with an improved performance against the Wallabies in Perth – forerunner to tests against Ireland (Chicago), Scotland (Edinburgh), England (Twickenham) and Wales (Cardiff).
Played nine, won seven, reads the scorecard after the French tour and the Rugby Championship. It’s a win record of 77%, right on par with the All Blacks’ all-time achievements. The Perth test saw an end, for now anyway, of the win-loss inconsistency that has been a troubling component of this team’s DNA.
Building depth has gone passably well, but this team still lack a discernible identity: a style, a flavour. There’s a sense they are yet to reveal their true shape; they’re still in pupal transition before emerging as an entirely different beast. Though they levelled one test each with the Springboks, the South Africans often outplayed them at scrum, breakdown and, in the second-test hiding in Wellington, at the All Blacks’ own running game. They were beaten at the breakdowns by Argentina and the Wallabies once each – losing to the Pumas and getting a scare from the Australians.
In the Perth test, the Wallabies’ first 20 minutes were all-out attack, with ball handling at a level the All Blacks have only sporadically achieved so far this season. Part of that is due to the ongoing rebuild after the loss of so many senior players – and the consequent effect on combinations and efficiency, with 17 new players selected in the past two seasons. On the other hand … it’s been nine tests.
Quinn Tupaea and teammates celebrate scoring against the Wallabies, in Perth. Photo / Photosport
The All Blacks have a much younger squad than the Boks, for example. Of the 26 players in the wider squad (including three who would have played in Perth had they been fit: Beauden Barrett, Tyrel Lomax and Tupou Vaa’i), 19 are under 30, 11 are 25 or under, with seven 30 or over.
Of the 23 Boks who beat Argentina last weekend, only seven were under 30; only three were under 25. One of those, however, was sensational first five-eighths Sacha-Feinberg Mngomezulu, who sliced and diced Argentina with a world-class performance in both tests – he is the glue in Rassie Erasmus’ bonding of veterans with emerging players.
Already, the Boks have shown they can switch at will between the grindy-grindy stuff and the flashy-dashy game. They remain clearly the best team in the world, with a playmaker in Mngomezulu who wins games. Just watch the video of him outpacing the Pumas to score off his own tactical kick – electric stuff.
It’s important because the All Blacks’ go-wide attack has often stuttered when faced with dominant defence. The next four tests on the end-of-year tour will be a great time to work on style and combinations, and you suspect little room will be made for new players, even with the injury loss of Tyrel Lomax, Tupou Vaa’i, Emoni Narawa and Noah Hotham, with emphasis likely to be on execution rather than selection.
The 17 new All Blacks include a few standouts from this year: Fabian Holland at lock (22); Leroy Carter (26 and now the No 1 winger); Quinn Tupaea (not a new player but a new position; on the evidence of Perth, he may be the answer at centre). Qualified successes: Peter Lakai (also 22, with the brilliant Wallace Sititi suffering from second-season syndrome), Simon Parker (25) and, even though he has been dogged by injury, I’d include halfback Noah Hotham (22) in this particular category.
The returning Leicester Fainga’anuku looked good, but you wonder how many of the following will make the northern tour because they have either been little used, hit by injury, or have been given opportunity without cementing a spot: Brodie McAlister, George Bell, Pasilio Tosi, Ollie Norris, Sam Darry, Samipeni Finau, Du’Plessis Kirifi, Christian Lio-Willie, Kyle Preston, Timoci Tavatavanawai, Anton Lienert-Brown, Billy Proctor, Emoni Narawa and Ruben Love.
Lienert-Brown, Finau, McAlister and Tosi are among the seven players released by the All Blacks for the NPC playoffs (along with Luke Jacobson, Josh Lord and yet-to-be-All-Blacks prop Tevita Mafileo).
Two of the next four “away” tests should give some of the above a chance. However, 2026 looms with three tests – and possibly four – on the eight-match tour of South Africa and up to seven tests in the inaugural Nations Championship.
There’s still room for development among all that, though the South African tour, billed as “the Greatest Rivalry”, will be a take-no-prisoners affair. The All Blacks are a way behind the Boks right now – and need to shed their caterpillar skins soon.
Paul Lewis writes about rugby, cricket, league, football, yachting, golf, the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
