All Blacks vs Scotland: Tupaea and Fainga’anuku make their case for selection rethink – Phil Gifford

THE FACTS

• Quinn Tupaea and Leicester Fainga’anuku found themselves partnered in the New Zealand midfield for much of Sunday’s test against Ireland.
• Phil Gifford thinks coach Scott Robertson may reconsider the line-up, despite Jordie Barrett’s vice-captaincy.
• The All Blacks are favourites against Scotland, with historical matches adding intrigue to the upcoming test.

Unwittingly, Scotland played a major role in one of the greatest selection sensations in All Blacks history. It’s possible that the test at Murrayfield on Sunday morning may lead to another coaching rethink.

If Quinn Tupaea and Leicester Fainga’anuku get the chance to recapture the form against Scotland they showed against Ireland last weekend in Chicago, they could well get another run against England the following week. Then they’d have to be staking a claim to continue as the All Blacks midfield pairing next year. That would require a major change of heart from coach Scott Robertson and his assistants, given that injured first choice second five-eighths Jordie Barrett is one of the two vice-captains of the team, along with Ardie Savea.

As huge a decision as a midfield revamp would be, it would barely be a blip on the radar compared with what happened in 1990 when a Scottish team ran the All Blacks close, 21-18, in Auckland. It was decided by coach Alex Wyllie that to revitalise a jaded-looking All Blacks team, the best thing to do was to axe the undefeated, charismatic captain, Sir Wayne “Buck” Shelford.

“We knew one of the loose forwards was likely to be dropped,” openside flanker Mike Brewer would tell me five years later, when we worked on his biography. “A.J. Whetton [the blindside flanker] and I were sure it would be one of us. We were both astounded when we found out Buck had been dropped. The problem really was that the tight five, who had been fantastic for many years, were able to persuade Alex that they didn’t need to train as hard as they had been. Eventually we would be found out at the ′91 World Cup.”

Taking a chance on new midfielders next year would be a massive call, especially given there’s not even a hint that Jordie Barrett isn’t giving everything he can to the side. But a convincing win over Scotland and, even more importantly, victory against England, would make a powerful case that it’s time to give the Tupaea-Fainga’anuku combination the keys to the midfield.

Scotland’s strength

Another fascinating element for the match at Murrayfield will be how well the All Blacks defence copes with Scotland’s first five-eighths, Finn Russell. Russell is a dynamic runner, not something you would always associate with a Northern Hemisphere No 10.

If there’s going to be a stunning upset on this All Blacks tour, it could be provided by Scotland – but I doubt it’ll happen. In Australia this year, a British and Irish Lions side, with Russell directing play, eked out a 2-1 series win and lost the last test.

In the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks won two out of two against the Wallabies. The beauty of sport is that it’s not always logical, but I’d suggest the TAB has it about right with the All Blacks hot favourites (at time of writing) against Scotland, paying $1.27 to Scotland’s $3.50.

Weird days

Two of the weirdest tests the All Blacks have ever played involved Scotland. In 1975 at Eden Park, the game was almost called off after torrential downpours had flooded the ground.

All Blacks prop Billy Bush was marking the man they called Mighty Mouse, a small but incredibly strong Scotsman. “We’d be there eye-balling one another, smashing in, going straight down into the water then keeping each others’ faces out of it,” Bush said.

“There would have been two or three inches of water in some parts of the ground. You could have drowned in it, no trouble. So here we were, hitting in the scrums, going down, then life-saving one another.”

New Zealand won 24-0, with wing Sir Bryan Williams scoring a terrific try by virtually surfing his way to the line. But one of his greatest supporters wasn’t in the crowd to see it. “My father drove to the ground,” Williams recalled, “saw that the carparks were flooded, threw his tickets out the window and drove home to watch the game on television.”

On the 1978 Grand Slam tour, the test against Scotland was basically played in darkness. How dark was it? Williams, in what would be his last test, struggled. Late in the game, he and centre Bruce Robertson chased a kick downfield and Robertson scored a try that sealed the game, 18-9. Captain Graham Mourie came up to Williams and said, “BeeGee, all is forgiven. Great try.” Williams replied, “Goss, I didn’t score it, Bruce did.”

An even darker day

The lowest point for the All Blacks in the 32 tests played to date against Scotland came in 1967 when Sir Colin Meads was ordered off at Murrayfield by Irish referee Kevin Kelleher.

Three minutes from the end of the test, Kelleher thought that Meads had kicked the legs of Scottish first five-eighths Davie Chisholm out from under him. In fact, he’d been kicking at the ball and his boot did not touch Chisholm.

“I was shocked,” Meads would say later. “I thought, ‘He can’t mean it’.” But he did and Meads trudged off, being booed all the way.

In one of the oddest twists to the incident, Meads and Kelleher would later become friends, Kelleher staying with Meads on visits to New Zealand, giving Meads a truly weird gift: the whistle he blew when he ordered him off. It’s now in the Rugby Museum in Palmerston North.

Phil Gifford is a Contributing Sports Writer for NZME. He is one of the most-respected voices in New Zealand sports journalism.