All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and Italy's Kieran Crowley clash over claims that the NZ side will 'intimidate' and 'bully' the Italians in the upcoming match. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION
Gregor Paul in Lyon
Right on cue, the All Blacks appear to have unearthed a potentially world-class midfield partnership that could have a profound influence at this World Cup and then go into make a deep footprint in rugby folklore.
It’s on cue, because recenthistory suggests that these partnerships come along about every 10 years, and it’s eight years now since the previous one, Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, played their last together.
And not only does the timing seem right for Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane to storm the world stage at this World Cup, so too do they have the other seemingly vital ingredients which have defined the great All Blacks midfield partnerships of the past.
There is an accidental element to Barrett and Ioane finding themselves where they both are – neither having necessarily set out to get there.
Neither has had it easy, certainly it didn’t appear that when they both first became All Blacks that they were pre-destined to play in the positions they currently are and the respective adversity they have endured fits with the journeys their predecessors took.
Nonu bounced in out of the squad after making his debut in 2003, and then missed selection for the 2007 World Cup, while Smith had to make it to the top via club rugby as he was never in any age-grade representative team and not in any development system.
Barrett and Ioane have already had the sort of resilience and hard edges they will need to achieve greatness and the previous World Cup is a good place to pick up their stories in trying to make sense of how much ground they have travelled to get to the All Blacks midfield.
In 2019, Barrett was slowly winning back the trust he had lost in 2018 after he had delivered one too many over-exuberant performances from fullback.
At that tournament, he started a test at first-five and played his way to a bench spot by the knock-out rounds, where he was used as a wing – the position that the selectors thought was the right one for him at that time.
Ioane, in contrast, was slowly losing the trust in 2019 that he had built through devastatingly good performances in 2017 and 2018 as arguably the world’s best wing.
By the World Cup, though, his form had waned, and he couldn’t win a starting or bench spot, and when he came home, he asked to be reconsidered by the Blues and All Blacks as a centre.
That Barrett and Ioane would end up as the first-choice midfield pairing at the 2023 World Cup didn’t seem remotely likely four years ago, and not even likely at the start of last year as the former was still being picked as an outside back and the latter still had some question marks over his all-round game.
These two have come together more through happenstance than anything else, but if it was a random series of events that threw them together, it’s their form and quite considerable ability that is keeping them together.
Four years ago no one would have predicted they would turn up in France 2023 as the All Blacks preferred midfield, but here they are, and they have a golden opportunity to stun the world in the next few weeks with their brute force, athleticism, speed and soft skills.
These two are the archetypal modern midfielders – being the size of loose forwards with the speed of wings, they could set this tournament alight and lay down their first real marker that says they are on their way to being one of the great partnerships in All Blacks history.
Malcolm Marx of South Africa (right) tackles Jordie Barrett of New Zealand. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Barrett and Ioane are starting to develop not only a degree of mastery within their individual positions, but a degree of cohesion and understanding about how to combine effectively with one another.
How good they are is maybe not appreciated in the current climate where there is so much smash and bash and only a light sprinkling of dash.
But this is the game that the All Blacks have to play to succeed at this tournament.
Modern rugby is played in sequence – where the space has to be physically created through a collision first, exploited second.
It takes a hybrid athlete to be effective at second-five these days, someone who can be direct and uncompromising and withstand the physical battering that comes with the territory, but also switch easily to a softer, creative mode and use the ball wisely.
Barrett may not yet be in the class of Ireland’s Bundee Aki who has set the standard for all No 12s so far, but he’s shown inordinate potential since he shifted to the midfield last year.
There’s just this sense building around Barrett now that he’s recovered from a knee complaint and will be let loose in the tournament for the first time, that he’s going to hit the ground running and give the All Blacks the presence, calm, and astute decision-making they missed against France in the opening game.
Having him back may be the key to fully unleashing Ioane, who was one of the few All Blacks to produce a solid 80 minutes against France.
But Ioane has shown he can be much more than solid, and in the last year he’s grown immeasurably as both a strike runner at centre, as a distributor and most importantly as a defender.
He doesn’t get lost in his positioning the way he used to, and he showed in the first minute of the opening game, when he carved through the French, that he’s developed the art of timing his run off his second-five.
Nonu and Smith were a critical element in two successful World Cup campaigns for the All Blacks. Barrett and Ioane have the potential to emulate that.
