Beauden Barrett and Dan Carter during a Blues Super Rugby training session. Photo / Photosport
Beauden Barrett and Dan Carter during a Blues Super Rugby training session. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
As much as it provides a licence to reminisce, Daniel Carter's retirement also places a spotlight on New Zealand's current crop of first-fives and some uncertainty as to whether there is a next-generation superstar amongst them.
For the last 15 years, New Zealand has had an enviable pipeline ofworld-class talent at No 10. Carter picked up three World Player of the Year titles between 2005 and 2015 and the year after he retired, Beauden Barrett took his crown and won it again in 2017.
Since 2019, Barrett has had to vacate his No 10 shirt for Richie Mo'unga who, given he's only 26, could push on to be an equally phenomenal player.
But the question that is increasingly hard to ignore, or indeed answer, a week out from the 2021 season kicking off, is whether the next Carter lurks amongst the Super Rugby ranks.
It's a question that has short and longer-term implications. New Zealand needs depth No 10 now, more than ever. The All Blacks are scheduled to play 15 tests this year and either Barrett and/or Mo'unga are going to need time off. That means the team needs at least one other test-capable playmaker waiting in the wings.
Richie Mo'unga and Beauden Barrett have formed a powerful combination for the All Blacks. Photo / Photosport
Longer-term, Barrett may not be in New Zealand post 2023 and so there is a need - arguably a pressing one - to nudge one of the many first-five hopefuls hard and fast along their development timeline this year.
It's a position which requires game-time and experience in greater quantities than most. Colin Slade, Tom Taylor and Lima Sopoaga were all deemed so-so No 10s after snatching sporadic minutes in their first few years, only to all become international playmakers in their own right once they had a full season of Super Rugby behind them.
Time is the great developer when it comes to a No 10 and so a picture that is currently a touch bleak and uninspiring could be entirely different in six months, after another tough Super Rugby season.
But time alone isn't enough. Barrett, Carter and Mo'unga don't owe their reputation to longevity. Experience shaped them – it gave them ways to build and learn - but at the core of their success is their natural talent, hard work and ability to see the rugby field in the sort of dimensions those with ambitions to be tactical generals need.
And this is why optimism does not abound at the moment. A playmaking cupboard that looks worryingly bare at the moment may still be worryingly bare in six months. The simple truth is that none of the players vying to push through have set the pulse racing or even hinted at being probable test options.
Otere Black will likely have an extended period in the Blues No 10 jersey this year given Barrett's sabbatical and, while he's a neat and organised player, there's not enough spark or dynamism about his game to see that it would work in test rugby.
Two contenders: Josh Ioane (L) and Otere Black. Photo / Photosport
Bryn Gatland and Jackson Garden-Bachop are good, quality Super Rugby players. However, it's hard to believe that either are equipped to be anything more than that.
Stephen Perofeta, Zarn Sullivan, Kaleb Trask and Mitch Hunt, who also have ambitions to be first-fives, all come with varying degrees of natural talent but all seem destined to spend more game time at fullback than they will at first-five. There might be a test fullback in that lot, but probably not a first-five.
When we get down to it, there are two players who excite as possibilities as future test No 10s. First, there's Josh Ioane who has played 40 minutes of test rugby already.
He's the full package and definitely the sort of player who could blossom in 2021 if he's able to stay fit and play at No 10 for most of the campaign for the Highlanders.
His challenges, it would seem, are not about finding the talent, but applying himself. New Highlanders coach Tony Brown pointedly stated late last year that he expected Ioane to turn up in January wearing the same size shorts he had been in 2020.
The best bet of all, though, would be Damian McKenzie, who could be about to stun everyone in 2021 by playing for the Chiefs at No 10 rather than his regular home at fullback.
Damien McKenzie looks determined to put his hand up and stake a claim for a role at first-five eighth for the All Blacks. Photo / Photosport
If that is indeed his plan, it is smart because it recognises that the All Blacks are wedded to the idea of their fullback being a second-receiver, decision-maker.
They want that to be a priority skill set and what better way for McKenzie to develop that part of his game, than by playing for the Chiefs as a first-five?
McKenzie might not be the next Dan Carter, but he is most likely to be the most impressive emerging playmaker in 2021.
