There was a certain amount of pearl-clutching horror here after the edgy wins against England, and the inevitable, tedious gloating in Britain about “lost All Blacks aura”.
The start of the test programme Scott Robertson’s side faced this year certainly had a dangerous look about it. Two tests with a match-hardened, resurgent England, and then flying to San Diego to face the daring, running and gunning Fijian team.
We know now that the 2024 New Zealand side can grind their way to a win, as they did twice against England, and, after the 47-5, seven-try victory over Fiji, that they have a second wave of players capable of exciting, attacking rugby.
Basically, the All Blacks converted what looked like high hurdles facing them into springboards for the next section of the season: tests in Wellington and Auckland against the Pumas.
The timing is as near to perfect as you’d get. Two genuinely challenging clashes against Argentina, which will also allow the All Blacks the gift of time together, before they head to South Africa for what matters the most this year, tests against the Springboks at the start of September in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Does this all mean the All Blacks are guaranteed to sweep through the rest of this season the way the great unbeaten 2013 team did? Of course not.
But with Robertson’s ability to develop self belief in players, and what should be a lift in interest and enthusiasm amongst the public, the future looks way brighter than it seemed just a week ago.
Man of the match
There were plenty of contenders, but Anton Lienert-Brown was a revelation in the midfield.
He set the tone of the All Blacks approach from the start, breaking tackle after tackle and choosing perfectly when to set up a maul or when to offload.
His partnership with centre Billy Proctor was as smooth-running as a showroom-new Rolls Royce, and there are suddenly real options available for the All Blacks backline.
Rookies of the match
I can’t separate centre Proctor and halfback Cortez Ratima.
Proctor made the step up from Super Rugby Pacific to a test look effortless. There is now genuine competition for the No 13 jersey, which you’d imagine would involve not only incumbent Rieko Ioane but also Proctor getting game time against the Pumas.
Ratima, until the scary moment in the 35th minute when his head slammed into the turf in a tackle and he had to leave the field, fired fast, laser-beam-accurate passes to his first five Damian McKenzie and, in general, looked ready to make the international arena his natural habitat.
A flying missile squad
The Springboks have had huge success with what they call “the bomb squad”, six giant forwards on their bench, really to waddle on in the second half and smash whatever’s in front of them.
It’s not a fantasy now to wonder if the All Blacks might develop a supersonic missile squad in their reserves, primed to hit the field with explosive athleticism as well as size and strength.
We’ve now seen five All Blacks props who can all set a hugely impressive scrum and then offer real line speed on attack and defence. At 140kg, Tamaiti Williams is as big as the Boks’ bomb squadders, but is also fast, which makes him terrific with the ball in hand. And newcomer Pasilio Tosi might also weigh in at 140kg, but he’s a prop who runs like a loose forward.
Then there’s 21-year-old No 8, Wallace Sititi, who in the last 25 minutes in San Diego showed why he’s such an exciting prospect. There’s no real substitute for speed, and Sititi has pace to burn.
Keep smiling
In the furore over the refusal to allow McKenzie his last kick of the English test in Dunedin because time had run out, it’s easy to let the remarkable success he’s having with the boot to go almost unnoticed. He kicked six out of seven conversions against Fiji, in a display great kickers of the past like Dan Carter or Grant Fox would have been happy to own.
Welcome back
Nothing’s been easy for Ethan Blackadder since his impressive debut season for the All Blacks in 2021.
It’s a measure of his grit that he’s kept fighting back from a string of injuries and played out the full 80 minutes against Fiji. Robertson and his forwards coach Jason Ryan know from their time at the Crusaders with Blackadder what a machine the man is when he’s fully fit, and if there’s any fairness and good luck in the world, this should be the season when Blackadder locks himself back into the black jersey.
What problems?
With the massive caveat that Fiji didn’t have a lineout savant like England’s Maro Itoje to mess with the minds of the throwers and jumpers, there wasn’t a sign in San Diego of the jitteriness that plagued the All Blacks’ lineout against England.
Against the English, some of the damage to the New Zealand lineout was self-inflicted.
Thankfully there wasn’t even a whiff of nervous tension in Saturday’s test.
