The departure of Aaron Smith from the All Blacks will signal the end of an era for the whole backline. Photo / Photosport
The departure of Aaron Smith from the All Blacks will signal the end of an era for the whole backline. Photo / Photosport
If this is, as he seemed to suggest, Aaron Smith's last end of season tour, it's worth taking a little time to reflect on the impact he's had on the All Blacks, and indeed the international game, in the decade since he won his first cap.
This need to reflectis not about nostalgia, but to try to understand what the All Blacks will be losing if, and presumably when, Smith retires after the World Cup; and what the next halfback trend will be in terms of preferred body shape and skill-set once he moves on.
The prevailing view in New Zealand is that the first-five is the player around whom the game-plan will be built – that the No 10 will shape the strategic direction.
This is only true at a superficial level, however. The No 10 will implement a set of options that the coaching team has built, but the fundamental nature of how the All Blacks play will be determined by the capabilities of their halfback.
It's the halfbacks available that will determine at what speed a team likes to play, what width they want to generate in attack and what balance they strike between pass, kick and run.
For the last 10 years, the All Blacks have played - or at least had the intention of playing - a fast-paced style of rugby that uses the full width of the field.
They have conditioned their athletes accordingly, trying to build players with the necessary physicality to operate effectively in the collisions, but with not so much bulk as to prevent them from building the aerobic capacity to support the high-tempo aspirations.
The key to it all, however, has been Smith. Without him, this fast, wide game-plan would never have been hatched.
He didn't set out to be a revolutionary but it's exactly what he became because he happened to make his Super Rugby breakthrough at the Highlanders at precisely the time the All Blacks appointed Steve Hansen as head coach.
Hansen and his assistant Ian Foster came into their respective roles in early 2012 certain that the All Blacks needed a transformational player at halfback.
The All Blacks had won the 2011 World Cup, but strangely, their victory highlighted a weakness at halfback. It was not a position of strength, and Hansen wasn't sold on any of the three who had been involved in that tournament.
Piri Weepu (L) and a fresh-faced Aaron Smith on test debut in 2012. Photo / Photosport
He wanted to go down a different route in 2012, find a new type of player – someone whose game was built on the quality of their pass and their ability to get to every ruck.
The first decade of this millennium was the era of bruising number nines – a period in which coaches, Super Rugby and All Blacks – convinced themselves that they needed defensively powerful halfbacks; big, solid creatures such as Jimmy Cowan, Justin Marshall and Byron Kelleher to offer a tackling presence behind the ruck.
These bigger men were also useful at punching holes as ball carriers, and a lot of rugby was played in narrow channels in that era, but Hansen wanted to change that and turn his halfback into a facilitator – a pass and run player with the aerobic capacity to ensure the ball never sat for long at the back of a ruck.
Smith aligned perfectly with this vision and for the last 10 years, he's not only been the All Blacks' first choice number nine, he's changed the prevailing attitudes about what coaches want from their halfback and the sort of body shape required to fulfil the role.
Smith has ushered in the decade of smaller men – paved the way for the 80kg halfback to thrive in the test arena and this is why his pending retirement throws up intriguing questions.
Aaron Smith has been a dynamic contributor to the All Blacks backline for a decade. Photo / Photosport
Where to next for the All Blacks after Smith has gone? Will they persist with the smaller athlete, the Finlay Christie-types who have cloned their game on Smith's?
Or will there be another change of heart in 2024 and a re-think about preferred body shapes and the role of the halfback?
The Australians have a preference for similarly aerobic, fast, smaller number nines, but they encourage theirs to be more of a playmaker.
In New Zealand, the halfback's default play is to put hands on the ball and pass from the deck, but in Australia, they are encouraged to take a few steps and pull the defence to them.
All of these things will be under consideration when Smith is no longer around and why his pending retirement may well signal the end of an era.
