All Blacks coach Ian Foster has named the squad to take on Uruguay with regular captain Sam Cane and tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax also set to return to the starting side. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION
Gregor Paul in Lyon
In the original Star Wars movie, the central character, Luke Skywalker, finds himself as the last hope to complete the Rebels’ mission of destroying the Empire’s Death Star.
As he closes in on the target he must hit against almost impossible odds, he hears thevoice of his Jedi mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, telling him to turn off the computer in his fighter craft and to use the force instead.
It’s obviously mad for Skywalker to do this – to trust his instincts instead of the precise and highly calibrated mathematics of the computer, but of course he takes Kenobi’s advice, and he makes the shot, destroys the Death Star and saves the day.
It is more than 45 years since Star Wars was made, but that scene remains pop culture’s most powerful advocate for people to back their own judgment and skillset when they find themselves in the most pressurised situations.
And in picking his All Blacks team to play Uruguay, head coach Ian Foster has had his Luke Skywalker moment, because, he has, to some extent, switched off the computer and trusted his instincts.
There were several, difficult decisions for Foster and his selection team to make in regard to how they tackled the Uruguay encounter.
The All Blacks need to win the game, but given the gap in their respective world rankings, the coaching team have to realistically assume that will happen and so their selection has had to include an element of planning for the quarterfinal too.
Given what will be at stake next week, there is a need for the All Blacks to be thinking hard about continuity.
It’s a critical commodity at this juncture of the tournament: the All Blacks have built a rhythm and cohesion since they lost to France and having destroyed Italy with such a flowing performance, there is a school of thought that it would be best to stick much the same team out against Uruguay and just let them keep building that trust, understanding and momentum.
That would be the computer’s analysis. But as valuable as continuity is, so too does there need to be a wariness about individual workloads, and this is where Foster has trusted his instincts.
He’s had to determine which of his first-choice players would benefit from not playing in this final pool encounter, and which of them need the game time ahead of what will be, easily, the biggest test in the past four years.
Some players don’t tend to do well if they are rested one week, asked to play the next, while others have the ability to explode back into action if they are given a week off.
Sam Cane returns to the starting side to face Uruguay in the All Blacks final pool game. Photo / Photosport
Some decisions would have been relatively easy to make. Sam Cane, for instance, having managed about a half hour against Italy as his only World Cup appearance, needs to start.
Tyrel Lomax, the All Blacks’ number one tight-head prop, has also only had 30 minutes at this tournament, while Shannon Frizell played 60 against Italy, but that is his only rugby since the Melbourne Bledisloe test in July.
And Jordie Barrett, while he got through 80 minutes against Italy, needs another run having missed the tests against France and Namibia.
But Foster has turned off the computer and relied on his instincts to conclude that the likes of Dane Coles, Brodie Retallick, Ardie Savea, Aaron Smith and Rieko Ioane will be best to prepare for the quarterfinal by not playing this week.
And how did he decide this? “A lot of history,” he says. “Looking at how we believe guys perform in consecutive weeks, in consecutive tests.
“The load they have been carrying. The pleasing thing is that we had a two-week break, and we delivered the performance against Italy, so we believe there are some players that respond to that and clearly you are making decisions now to make sure we are building the continuity and not taking a step back in the areas where we feel we need to grow.
“But we have also got to make some smart decisions because we want to do well on Thursday and then we want three more games and so we know we want to make sure we have the energy in the tank, so it is getting that balancing act.”
Cam Roigard of the All Blacks runs through drills during a New Zealand All Blacks training session at LOU rugby club. Photo / Getty
To Foster’s point about not taking a step back, relevant combinations are being used against Uruguay.
The front row may be the one that starts next week depending on what the thinking is around the suspended Ethan de Groot.
Cam Roigard and Richie Mo’unga will be the decision-making pairing later in the quarterfinal, and it is likely too that Jordie Barrett and Anton Lienert-Brown could be the midfield combination later in the quarterfinal.
The one exception is Leicester Fainga’anuku, who is starting against Uruguay because he may yet force his way on to the bench for the quarterfinal.
Whether these decisions prove to be the right ones or not, won’t be known until next week, but the fact the computer has been switched off and instinct switched on, carries a certain excitement about it if nothing else.
