Gregor Paul: 'Isolated' All Blacks have evolved into an entirely new rugby species

Beauden Barrett runs in for a try after an intercept against Wales. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

Scientists believe that about two million years ago an early human species walked from one Indonesian island to another known as Flores and were then cut off when sea levels rose.

Stranded on Flores, with limited resources, those who were smaller and needed less to eat, survived and the species evolved by shrinking.

Homo floresiensis became a dwarf species, no taller than one metre or heavier than 25kg and an excellent illustration of how humans instinctively adapt to their environment to survive.

In a rugby sense, the arrival of Covid had much the same effect as rising sea levels two million years ago. It cut nations off from one another, everyone becoming their own Flores, forced to evolve when cross-border club competitions were no longer feasible.

New Zealand had to rebuild with the resources it had and just as the humans on Flores became smaller, Super Rugby Aotearoa saw everything become faster.

The speed of the game increased in 2020 and got faster again in 2021. That was the nature of evolution – the New Zealand sides, living entirely in their own ecosystem, played faster and slicker rugby.

Super Rugby Aotearoa was played at an incredible speed. It was aerobic, high-tempo, high-skilled rugby, the intensity of which has never been seen before.

George Bridge of the Crusaders and Anton Lienert-Brown of the Chiefs during the 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa Final. Photo / Photosport

Australia's Super Rugby sides evolved in a similar way, reverting to playing faster and wider, although not with the same degree of skill or intensity.

The South Africans leant yet more heavily into a low-risk, muscular approach where they wanted to play without the ball, an evolutionary path similar to the one seen in the Northern Hemisphere.

The impact of isolation has perhaps been predictable in the direction in which various countries have moved, but not in the distances they have travelled along their respective routes.

What's interesting now that the metaphoric sea level has dropped allowing tests between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere to resume for the first time since November 2018 – excluding the World Cup which has its own unique ecosystem – is that the evolutionary journeys of the last 18 months or so will have more overt means to be measured.

On the evidence so far, it appears as if the All Blacks have evolved into something that could potentially be branded an entirely new species such was their superiority in the speed of their movement and skill execution compared with Wales.

The Welsh, or at least the UK-based media, built this idea that the test in Cardiff was a cynical, commercial exercise where Wales were being set up to fail because they were being denied access to most of their best players.

When the predicted hiding duly came, the reasons for it had already been laid bare.

Beauden Barrett runs in for a try after an intercept against Wales. Photo / Photosport

But, and the next few weeks will provide the definitive basis from which to determine whether this is true, Wales were blown away at their beloved Principality Stadium not by a cruel regulatory regime that prevented them picking their English-based players, but by an All Blacks side that played at such a rapid pace and with such honed skills as to expose the Welsh as being light years behind.

A better argument to explain the 54-16 scoreline in Cardiff is that isolation proved to be splendid for New Zealand, but not so Wales.

Being a veritable Flores has enabled New Zealand's best players to effortlessly play at a frightening pace. It has demanded that their micro-skills be super sharp and able to be produced under the most intense pressure.

Almost half of the All Blacks test itinerary since the last World Cup has been against the Wallabies and it has been hard, given the similarities in their respective isolation-forced evolutionary paths, for everyone to see that recent Bledisloe Cup tests have been played at an even more frantic pace than usual.

On the face of it the rugby has looked much the same, but it hasn't been. The running metres were higher, the aerobic content greater and anyone who doesn't believe that should ask how it was that the Wallabies were able to run South Africa off their feet and win back-to-back tests against the Springboks this year.

Having only really played tests against Australia, Argentina and similarly-minded Pacific Island nations since 2019, the evolutionary impact of New Zealand's isolation period hasn't yet been fully realised.

It will be shortly, though, with games to come against Italy, Ireland and France while the test in Cardiff has already demonstrated that Wales, who are one of the more adventurous and ambitious sides North of the Equator, have fallen a long way behind the All Blacks in the speed at which they can play.

Speed alone won't be the basis on which the All Blacks re-conquer the rugby world but it's a strong foundation, especially as it would seem highly probable that the North have been pedestrianised during their period of isolation.