All Blacks: Dagg under pressure to perform

All Blacks fullback/outside back Israel Dagg. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

Whether it is by luck or good management won't matter to Israel Dagg, who will settle for a good performance against Argentina any way it comes.

He needs a big game. He needs to put something on the table that says he can still do the business at the highest level.

No one within the All Blacks has written him off, but they do need him to deliver something compelling this week. They do need him to put a marker down to say he's got something the All Blacks would be silly not to use.

It's not that the selectors don't think he can't still do it, but they have a long queue of back three players with form on the board and that gives them the luxury of being picky.

The congestion means those who want to make the World Cup squad have to provide reasons to survive the cull. Past form isn't irrelevant, but it's not enough in itself to justify selection.

And because of injury this season and a five-out-of-10 sort of performance in Apia, Dagg doesn't have anything other than past form to offer.

That doesn't get him to England. Not when Ben Smith and Waisake Naholo have been outstanding all year for the Highlanders. Not when Nehe Milner-Skudder has been a revelation with his elusive running. Not when Julian Savea at full flight is still the best sight in world rugby. And not when both Colin Slade and Beauden Barrett can be so effective at fullback while being capable No 10s.

Dagg didn't necessarily go backwards, but nor did he go forwards and the upshot is that one of five pre-World Cup tests has gone and the picture with Dagg didn't change. And he can't afford for it to not change. There are more players with more reasons to be picked. He has to move himself up the rankings which is why this coming test is critical to his All Black future.

He'll likely be given another start as Ben Smith and Savea have had heavy workloads and Cory Jane is expected to make his comeback via club football.

But the selectors want to give everyone a fair crack so Dagg can't be sure he'll be afforded many opportunities after this week. There will have been some leniency in Apia as he hadn't played for nearly 12 weeks. The nature of the game didn't help either: the ball didn't come his way much and the game didn't flow enough for him to do what he used to do best and prowl the backfield waiting for the right time to hit the line, find a mis-match on defence and canter into space.

But although the rugby was scrappy, Charles Piutau managed to have a reasonable influence on limited rations. The Blues utility came into the Apia test in a similar boat to Dagg, having missed much of Super Rugby due to a knee injury. Opportunities were just as scarce for Piutau on the left wing yet it felt like he worked harder to get into the game and was more accurate and effective when his chances came.

Head coach Steve Hansen didn't want to be specific when he gave his views of the Apia test, but did say: "I thought the Samoans played pretty well so from that perspective we had a lot of guys put under pressure; some guys coped with it and others didn't. We got answers there."

Dagg knows he's most likely to have been grouped in the didn't cope set. The selectors didn't expect him to set the world on fire after such a long lay off but they would have wanted more accuracy with his pass and catch and work under the high ball. They would have liked to have seen him be a more penetrative and direct when he came on to the ball as well.

There's time yet for Dagg. Just not much and he can't afford another quiet day at the office.