All Blacks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock. Photo / Photosport
The All Blacks start their 2021 test campaign with a clash against Tonga at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday, and, looking ahead to the 2023 World Cup, Gregor Paul argues there is one key aspect of their game that needs improving.
OPINION:
The All Blacks forwards don't carry the sortof fear factor they did when they were beating everyone up between 2012 and 2015.
The names of today don't leave opponents gulping the way they did when the pack contained Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Jerome Kaino, Richie McCaw and Kieran Read.
That was a pack that had a bite to match its bark. That was a pack that was genuinely tough and able to batter down anything that got in its way.
It was impossible not to respect that pack: even be a little scared of it as there was colossal set-piece power contained within it, as well as collision presence, ball-carrying punch and plenty of defenders who could turn a rib cage from convex to concave.
The current squad doesn't have that same proven ability or reputation. The names don't make the opposition pause to consider what sort of Titanic battle looms when they next meet the All Blacks.
Whitelock and Retallick are still there – players who continue to demand respect and carry an aura – as do Ardie Savea, Dane Coles and Sam Cane when he returns.
But the likes of Nepo Laulala, Karl Tu'inukuafe, Codie Taylor, Patrick Tuipulotu, Scott Barrett, Shannon Frizell, Dalton Papalii, Akira Ioane, Hoskins Sotutu and Luke Jacobson are yet to prove they have that ferocity at their core.
All Blacks Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock. Photo / Photosport
They are yet to win global respect as test forwards: the sort of respect that can only be built after consistently delivering high intensity, powerful, abrasive, intimidating rugby.
The issue with the group of forwards is that they have been inconsistent in their application of the core skills and prone to costly acts of ill-discipline which, in a sense, is a frailty.
But the word frail was used to imply vulnerability – to suggest that there was something missing in the squad and unlikely to be found or developed.
A fairer assessment is that the bulk of the All Blacks forwards are simply young and inexperienced.
They were up and down last year not because they are inherently ill-equipped or under-powered, but because they don't yet have a true understanding or feel for what it takes to prepare to play test football each week.
Every one of this fledgling group picked by the All Blacks this year has shown a capacity to be what they need to be.
Laulala has sporadically delivered world class scrummaging; Tuipulotu can be a force of nature when he's in the mood and the likes of Jacobson, Papalii, Ioane and Frizell look the goods at times – driven, tough, fearless and immovable.
All of them have explosive power, presence, athleticism and technical expertise.
Patrick Tuipulotu on the charge for the All Blacks. Photo / Photosport
Some of them, in patches, have delivered gritty, dark football for the All Blacks. None, though, have yet made a definitive statement about who they really are and what they are all about.
The emphasis here is on the yet and to acknowledge that, in most cases, it takes time to learn the art of being scary in the test arena. Every now and again freak performers such as McCaw and Retallick come along and crunch established pros on debut and don't get what all the fuss is about.
But more typically, it's a longer journey to build that confidence, technique and mindset. That ability to dominate can take time to develop and even a world class enforcer such as Kaino took several years before he was consistently turning up with the right attitude to be sure he was going to hurt a few people.
And that's what the next two years are going to be about for these emerging All Blacks forwards - coming to grips with the realities of test rugby.
Starting this Saturday at Mt Smart Stadium, this next generation of players needs to learn their craft to earn respect.
Test football has always carried an edge that Super Rugby doesn't, but is in the midst of a particularly brutal cycle where collision work is the first priority.
It could be seen as an indictment of the way the game is set up that England and South Africa made it to the last World Cup final sending wave after wave of oversized men coming round the corner of rucks to crash into defenders and ultimately grind defences into submission.
That physicality is what the game demands, though, and it is the art which this All Blacks pack must master between now and the next World Cup.
