Gregor Paul: Watch out world - All Blacks have awoken from their slumber

Damian McKenzie runs with the ball. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

All Blacks 41

Argentina 12

OPINION:

It has taken the better part of three years, but the All Blacks have seemingly awoken from their prolonged slumber, and in their first outing of 2023 delivered a compelling reason to see them in a different light.

If they were meandering to nowhere in particular between 2020 and 2022, they now appear to be heading towards France with a clear idea of who they are and how they want to play.

They turned up in Mendoza with no one quite sure what they were going to see, but 10 minutes after kick-off, the All Blacks had not only just about won the contest, they had also redefined who they are.

They were unrecognisable to the previous versions that have been on show on this World Cup cycle – and for periods there were hints of this team having the confidence of old, the pomp and swagger the rest of the world never likes seeing because it alludes to the beast being awake and hungry.

For the first time since 2019, the All Blacks played with such directness and simplicity as to suggest they have found clarity about their vision and purpose.

There was none of the wishy-washy, side-to-side stuff – the keep flinging it wide and hope that something happens approach.

This was a performance that was all about doing the basics at speed and with intensity: a conviction that the broth didn’t need much other than good stock for the flavour to take care of itself.

Like the best All Blacks teams of old, it was possible to use just a few words to describe to get across the essence of this style of rugby.

It was tough, direct, accurate, rugby built on the foundation of neat execution of the basics.

Beauden Barrett of New Zealand celebrates with teammates after scoring a try during a Rugby Championship match between Argentina Pumas and New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.

At the heart of it all was a dominant scrum that was capable of extracting penalties almost at will, but what hurt Argentina more was the way the All Blacks carried the ball across the park.

The Pumas have weaponised their defence and have been able to use it so effectively in recent times against the All Blacks.

But not in Mendoza, where the All Blacks showed that no defensive system can work the way it wants to if it is tasked with halting the momentum of dynamic ball carriers hitting contact at the right body height.

Shannon Frizell, Scott Barrett, Dane Coles, Jordie Barrett, everyone really, took the fight to the Pumas on terms that suited them.

There was a sense that the All Blacks carriers wanted to run through tackles, and in Sam Cane, there was an equal desire to ensure that Pumas weren’t just stopped when they had the ball, but driven backwards and hurt in the collision.

This is modern rugby – an endless series of collisions that need to be won on multiple fronts.

The first contact needs to be a victory for the ball carrier and those tasked with cleaning the human debris that forms around the tackled ball, have to be ruthless and clinical – taking the right people out in the right way.

This was the part of the game the All Blacks mostly got right, and they will fly back to New Zealand happy with the speed of their ruck ball, happy with the straight lines of their runners and happy with the variety they showed in deciding when to play the ball out of contact and when to pass it before it.

So too will they be exceptionally happy with the impact of Damian McKenzie, who was able to play so close to the traffic as to be almost in it.

Rieko Ioane of New Zealand handles the ball. Photo / Getty Images

But that’s where he’s so good because he can move laterally so quickly that defences can’t get to him, and the little loop move that was fashioned to set up a second half try for Beauden Barrett was quite brilliantly done.

What that try also showed was the depth of thought that had gone into the performance. For most of the first 55 minutes, the All Blacks had used Jordie Barrett to bash them over the gainline and then, with the defence lulled into thinking they knew what was coming, the big No 12 popped the ball out the back and McKenzie was cruising through a huge hole.

The element of surprise undid the Pumas but it took patience and planning to create that trap.

Gauging just where Argentina are and how tough a challenge they presented is hard to tell, and so some caution needs to be applied for now in terms of getting overly excited by this opening season win.

But, still, there was an undeniable body of evidence to be thinking that the All Blacks have swung round the last bend of 2022 and into the home straight of 2023 with a surprising amount left in the tank.