Cheree Kinnear gives the highs and lows of the weekend's sport all in 90 seconds. Video / Sky Sport / Spark Sport
The All Blacks had a major problem heading into the 2022 test season, but after one test against Ireland they look to have already solved it, writes Gregor Paul.
If the World Cup semifinal highlighted the risks of picking Scott Barrett as a blindside flanker, then the first test of2022 has thrown light on the potential rewards of using him in the unfamiliar role on the side of the scrum.
Barrett will never rank as a blindside for the ages, but rather as a No 6 for this particular age of test rugby which has seen the world's best teams adopt a carnage-first philosophy to their game plans.
Since the last World Cup, the northern heavyweights of France, England and Ireland as well as South Africa have shifted the balance of their loose trios – favouring size and set-piece presence ahead of athleticism and mobility.
The All Blacks in the last two years have been trying to build a similar physical presence and destructive element in their loose trio, but they didn't find any player in possession of the right mix of set piece, breakdown and open play qualities they were looking for to offset the athleticism, speed and mobility brought by Ardie Savea and Sam Cane.
Unable to find this bruising, bear-like No 6 with the capacity to win lineout ball, add a bit of heft to the scrum and generally terrorise opponents in open play, the All Blacks, seemingly out of a mix of exasperation and desperation, picked Barrett in the unfamiliar blindside role for the first test of this year.
It was sold by All Blacks coach Ian Foster as a move borne mainly out of necessity given the paucity of other options - Akira Ioane was battling a sore foot and Dalton Papalii is still finding his way back from having his appendix removed a few weeks ago.
But Barrett's selection at blindside may not be as temporary or as experimental as was being assumed last week, but in fact the long-term preference for the All Blacks.
There was not one hint of physical frailty about the All Blacks in their Eden Park destruction of Ireland and they found just about the right balance of producing a powerful and mostly dominant set piece without sacrificing their ability to play at pace.
And this was the key finding from the first test. Barrett is not the mobility risk many felt he might be and the All Blacks will not be compromising their natural pass and catch, high-tempo game by starting him at blindside.
Barrett's physical presence gives the All Blacks another dimension. Photo / Getty
Rather than being a horse for a particular course, Barrett is the horse because the All Blacks are not aiming to be either a set-piece heavyweight or a counter-attacking champion.
They want to be both and they understand that they can't, in this age of brutality and collision warfare, expect to open teams up if they don't first break them down.
And so Barrett is not the champion of a more conservative, slower game plan, but the link between the two worlds the All Blacks want to straddle.
They want to be a multi-purpose team, but they have come to realise that the rest of the world has invested so much in building behemoth athletes and inflicting blunt force trauma, that their visions of creative grandeur will collapse without them making a similar commitment to indulge in trench warfare.
If rugby was once a game of contrasting styles it no longer is. Physicality has become the most valuable currency in the game and it's relatively easy to find and hence the global landscape has more genuine contenders than it ever has.
This new regime of smash and bash has forced the All Blacks to favour size and confrontation more than they would naturally prefer, but not at the cost of abandoning their more adventurous and creative vision.
There were periods at Eden Park when the All Blacks built their continuity and worked through their phases at a speed that greatly troubled Ireland.
We had snatched glimpses of what this team could be if they marry their ferocity with their accuracy and natural propensity to hunt and exploit space.
But the key to building that continuity and momentum lay in their physicality and set-piece grunt – and Barrett's presence at the tail of the lineout and the crunch of his ball carting and tackling all contributed to the overall victory the All Blacks secured in the contest to own the gainline.
And looking at what lies ahead for the All Blacks, the formula of what they need isn't going to change.
They need to hit Ireland just as hard next week in all the same places and when they head to South Africa, the intensity of the physical contest and importance of the set piece is only going to get greater.
Therefore, it's hard to see why the All Blacks won't keep starting with Barrett at six – he is the answer to their No 6 problem today, tomorrow and all the way through to the World Cup.
