Evolution in the All Blacks has moved gradually since Scott Robertson took the coaching role. The tight five, the heart of any team, would now be fully settled if it weren’t for the standing down of Ethan de Groot for “not meeting internal standards”, which you’d hope is a minor timekeeping issue, not something more serious.
Even without de Groot, the front row has a good touch of Mt Rushmore rock-like solidity, backed up by locks Scott Barrett, Tupou Vaa’i and Patrick Tuipulotu, who as a trio cover experience, determination and wide-ranging skill sets.
Where the selection changes get more interesting is in the backline, as the All Blacks face the four games that will decide if 2024 has been a success or not.
TJ Perenara has exceeded many expectations this year, but he’s not the future at halfback. The players who are, Cortez Ratima and Cam Roigard, if provided fast ball by their forwards, could be key men in the match in London. As well as quick service to the backline, both can keep a defence jittery with confident, aggressive running.
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Hopefully, Twickenham will also be the start of the Will Jordan era at fullback. Jordan’s so talented he’s a world-class wing, but he’s an even better fullback.
Rattling the rush defence
The forecast for game day in London is for a cloudy day with no rain and a pleasant high of 15C. All of which will give the All Blacks a chance to move the ball wide at speed, one way to shake the rush defence that caused headaches for them in the July tests here with England. There’s also the threat flanker Wallace Sititi presents with his broken-field running. The best-organised defences in the world start to look nervy when the tackle line isn’t moving forward with military precision, but instead has been turned by the sort of rampaging power Sititi offers.
Marcus Smith – enigma or energiser?
Former England first five Stuart Barnes is an avowed Marcus Smith fan. He’d pick Smith “10 times out of 10” ahead of his first five opponent on Sunday morning our time, Beauden Barrett. On the other hand, former All Blacks halfback Justin Marshall sees Smith as an enigma. The risk is, as Marshall has pointed out, you never quite know which Marcus Smith you’re getting.
What’s fascinating about Smith in the England team is that coach Steve Borthwick, a man for who the phrase “conservative selector” could have been invented, seems to have settled on Smith as his No 10. On his day Smith can be brilliant. But if he’s having one of his off days he can be flustered and ineffective. Whichever Smith turns up at Twickenham might decide England’s fate.
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Wrong mast to nail a flag to
As night follows day, there’s been traditional media whining in Britain about the haka. The mohawked English prop Joe Marler has been supported in his call to drop the haka by the usual suspects.
The Sunday Times’ Stephen Jones wrote that “it was delightful to have such company now for those of us who have been denouncing the old Māori prancing for decades”.
Really Stephen? Delightful to join Marler in a campaign against the haka? Marler’s the man to change hearts and minds?
This is the same Marler who in 2016 was fined £20,000 and banned for two tests for calling a Welsh opponent “gypsy boy” in a test. This is the same Marler who in 2023 was banned for two weeks from his Harlequins team after saying to an opponent in an English club game that the Bristol player’s mother was a “f***ing whore”.
Marler himself has revealed how his wife summed him up after that debacle. She said, “You’re an idiot, aren’t you? You’re just a moron.”
When it comes to assessing someone I think I’ll take a wife’s view ahead of a British media man.
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Let’s hear it for the fans
In New Zealand several rugby grounds are dear to my heart, ranging from Rugby Park in Waihī to Eden Park. But in the rest of the world for me, Twickenham ranks No 1.
Why? For a start, there’s a majesty about the ground. Pack 82,000 people into a stadium designed specifically for rugby with a history dating back 117 years, and if you love the sport, how could you not be impressed?
I’d also applaud the often-maligned English rugby fans. Yes, England’s white isn’t a flattering colour for a fan’s souvenir jersey stretched to ripping point over a larger, enlarged wobbly male body. Some of the supporters do look and sound like the cliched caricature of public school Hooray Henrys who first embraced the game of rugby.
But as noisy as they get, I’ve never seen threatening behaviour at Twickenham. Returning to the centre of London by rail after the All Blacks had beaten England 18-12 in the opening game of the 1991 World Cup, I found myself the lone Kiwi in a carriage full of English fans. It was England, so of course the train broke down. Instead of any sort of challenge, by the time we finally chugged into Waterloo, there were invitations to join the locals for a quick drink.
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