Ardie Savea: Where does the All Blacks loosie rank among the great All Blacks? – Gregor Paul

Seeing Richie McCaw in camp with the All Blacks this week, the cameras catching him deep in conversation with Ardie Savea, and hearing that Sir Michael Jones had spoken to the team the week before in Auckland, served as a reminder that New Zealand does quite a spectacular line in opensides.

Jones, McCaw and Savea – three men from three different eras; three different athletes from different parts of the country, but all united in the way they redefined the openside position.

United in their brilliance, commitment and continuous ability to push their own boundaries, bonded in history as All Blacks greats.

But Savea’s story is of course still being written. The weight of his historical footprint is not yet known and his specific seat in the Pantheon has not yet been prescribed.

All anyone can be sure of is that he’s already put himself in the hall of fame. Savea has a collection of incredible games and match-winning moments – his latest coming last week in his 100th test where he capped an outstanding performance with a late turnover to thwart what was a menacing attack.

It was classic Savea in the way he hovered, bided his time and then pounced when he saw a sliver of daylight between the Springboks’ ball carrier and cleaners to get over the tackled player and persuade the referee he’d got his hands on possession legally.

Ardie Savea wins a decisive penalty in the final stages of last weekend's match against the Springboks at Eden Park. Photo / Photosport

It was such a big moment in the game and when it happened in real time it wasn’t possible to tell which All Black would emerge from the pile as the hero – but everyone knew that when the bodies cleared out of the way, it would be the No 7 jersey holding the ball.

Savea has reached that point where he carries an air of presumption in the public consciousness – that he’ll be the player everyone will assume has pulled off the unbelievable.

He’s built quite the portfolio, but with two and a half years of his existing contract still to run, just what he may achieve and how he’ll be remembered could be dramatically reshaped.

It’s difficult to imagine Savea will end his career as a higher-ranked contributor to All Blacks folklore than McCaw, but the gap between them could be significantly less by 2027.

And in trying to determine how Savea should be perceived in comparison with his two illustrious peers, there are three defining characteristics that he shares with McCaw and Jones: longevity of career, ability to evolve and redefine his game, and consistency of impact.

Savea won his first cap in 2016, but his first taste of the All Blacks came in 2013 when he travelled with the squad to Japan and Europe as an apprentice.

He was 20 at the time, barely 95kg and hadn’t yet played Super Rugby, but All Blacks coach Steve Hansen knew there was something special about Savea.

More than 12 years later, Hansen has been proven undeniably right in his assessment of Savea. He’s been a first-choice pick since late 2018, won 100 caps, carried the highest workload of any All Black in 2024 and leads the minutes played in 2025.

No question – Savea is durable and has persuaded three different All Blacks head coaches that he’s world-class.

How adaptable he’s been is perhaps under-appreciated. He started his test career as an out-and-out openside – reliant entirely on his speed and athleticism, which enabled him to score a memorable try in his second test when he ran 40m to support a breakout play and then another 40 after he’d taken an inside pass and stepped the last defender.

But as much as he impressed the fanbase with his running game, it didn’t obscure from Hansen that Savea had limitations in his core job of winning turnover ball and having a presence at the breakdown.

Through 2017 and the first half of 2018, Savea dropped behind Sam Cane and Matt Todd in the pecking order, because, according to Hansen: “He has got a skill-set that can be challenging with the ball in hand.

“We just want him to be stronger over the ball and he will look to do that, I think.”

Again, Hansen was right. Savea built himself to 103kg – a compromise weight where he had enough presence to be more effective over the ball and yet retain his natural speed and athleticism.

The transformation was dramatic, and his dual attributes of speed and power enabled him to switch to No 8 between 2020 and 2024 and just as easily return to the openside this year.

As for impact, he’s been able to win key moments at breakdowns, deliver inspirational ball carries with his post-contact leg drive and score spectacular solo tries – he beat four Irishmen and ran 40m at Eden Park in 2022.

It’s perhaps, though, this comparative assessment of Savea and McCaw by former All Blacks coach Ian Foster that gives the greatest insight into the mindset and determination of the current vice-captain.

In his biography, Leading Under Pressure, Foster said: “After the game against South Africa at Twickenham [before the 2023 World Cup] Ardie came to me and said, ‘Foz, when we do this particular move if I kick the ball over the defence, I think there will be space there’.

“It was a lineout strike move that he was talking about, and we played around with it and then I said to him, ‘What if the lineout is on the other side of the field, then you will have to kick with your left foot’.

Ian Foster and Ardie Savea celebrate after the All Blacks' victory over the Springboks at Ellis Park in 2022. Photo / Photosport

“I joked with him that he couldn’t kick off his left foot. He took that as a challenge and great players love a challenge when they feel there is something they can’t do.

“It is probably one of the things I respected most about Richie McCaw – his desire to grow parts of his game that he was not naturally good at.

“Early in the second half of the opening World game, we got a lineout on the ‘wrong’ side of the field. But Ardie still pulled the trigger on it and kicked off his left foot, and we scored a try from it.”

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.