Beauden Barrett of the All Blacks makes a break. Photo / Getty
Beauden Barrett of the All Blacks makes a break. Photo / Getty
COMMENT:
The All Blacks will be tempted to persevere with their playmaking wild card of using Richie Mo'unga and Beauden Barrett in tandem, mostly because of what the latter brought at fullback.
The debate about whether fullback is Barrett's natural home in test rugby can wait, all that matters fornow is he has proven he can be spectacularly effective in the No 15 jersey and he gave the All Blacks the wider attacking threat they have been missing for some time.
Not that we didn't know it already but Barrett, in popping up almost everywhere, racing past defenders and pulling the attack into spaces no one else could see, confirmed he is a stunningly gifted footballer.
His pace was, for almost the entire first half, the only weapon the All Blacks had. Putting the ball in his hands was the only threat the All Blacks posed.
Barrett was, for much of the first 40 minutes, the only All Black seemingly in the right head space, the only man standing between the home side and a heavy first half deficit.
His was an inspirational performance as there were times when the All Blacks were all at sea, only for Barrett to swoop in from nowhere and save the day with a covering intervention.
But it would be selling the policy short to say Barrett's brilliance made the whole thing work.
Once the handling errors dried up and enabled the All Blacks to build some cohesion, the value of having twin decision-makers became more apparent.
When they strung together the phases, cleaned the bodies out better and recycled quicker, it became easier to see.
There was plenty of seamless role changing: moments where Mo'unga would be in the backfield and collect the high kick and Barrett would step in to be first receiver.
Richie Mo'unga of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty
The ability to have kickers either side of the ruck gave the Springboks reason to hold off rushing and slowly, slowly the space opened up for the All Blacks.
The longer the game wore on, and the more the All Blacks grew in confidence and settled, the balance felt better and the attacking threat greater.
For the first time in an age, the All Blacks looked more composed in the face of an aggressive defence. Some of their handling and timing was unexpectedly off given the lack of preparation ad game time they have had, but the intent was good.
The decision-making was accurate and composed and there was a pleasing lack of risk taking when there were 50:50 options to hurl the pass.
But what struck most was that the All Blacks had more weapons to take the defence on and the double presence of Barrett and Mo'unga gave South Africa more things to be wary of.
Too often last year it felt like Barrett was given the ball at 10 with defenders crawling all over him and expected to work miracles.
The All Blacks became stilted and predictable as a result and the frustration would often build.
There was none of that on view in Wellington. They had more ideas, more certainty about what they were trying to do and which part of the defence they were trying to attack.
It was by no means a roaring pass mark for the combination but there was easily enough good rugby generated on the back of it to believe this is the way the All Blacks will set themselves up come the World Cup.
It wasn't just on attack either that they looked better for the switch. Barrett brought a certainty and confidence under the high ball.
Worryingly, for much of the first half he was the only man in black capable of catching the blessed thing and for the second week in succession, the All Blacks were well beaten in the air for too much of that first period.
But again, Barrett's impeccable work in that area seemed to bring the necessary calm.
