What to make of All Blacks test squad named to face England. Video / Sky Sport
By Gregor Paul in London
A year in which the All Blacks have slid down as many snakes as they have climbed ladders, they have reached their final game of the season with clarity about their best team and an understanding of how they want to play, which midway throughthe year looked beyond them.
But here we are now, at the end of the year from hell, and while the All Blacks have certainly been on the banks of the river Styx at various points in 2022, they appear to have emerged out of Hades.
Where exactly they sit will become apparent on Sunday when they face an England team that have also bounced around in the underworld at times this year but can play effective and confrontational rugby when they turn up in the right mood.
Many questions will be answered at Twickenham, but so too have several been answered already by the team the All Blacks have picked.
Looking back to the team selected for first test of the year against Ireland to the one picked for the last, the All Blacks have been on a journey of discovery in 2022.
The All Blacks have grown since July. Physically, that is, and the backline must be one of the largest selected. Aaron Smith and Richie Mo’unga will feel like they’re in the land of giants, as the rest of their fellow backs are all 100kg-plus.
In any other era Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane would be wearing jerseys six and seven rather than 12 and 13.
They bring a range of qualities to the midfield — speed, soft hands, kicking variety — but their core offering is their size and power, something that will be imperative as they try to contain and challenge England’s Manu Tuilagi who is prone to finding his most destructive form against the All Blacks.
Caleb Clarke is among the largest wings in the world game, while Mark Telea may not look it, but he’s 100kg and deceptively powerful in his ability to fend off the first tackler as he showed on his debut when he sent Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg sprawling.
What the team to play England alludes to, then, is that head coach Ian Foster has subscribed to the view that if its physicality he wants at the core of the All Blacks, then he needs to pick the most physical players at his disposal.
Barrett finds himself at 12 because regardless of whether he brings more subtlety and creative touches to the role than David Havili, he certainly delivers more crunch.
It’s the same on the right wing. Sevu Reece is all about fast feet and innate timing, while Telea is bigger, more powerful, more direct and runs over as opposed to around defenders, and confrontation has been put at the heart of the All Blacks in this six-test unbeaten run they have embarked upon.
And the fact Foster has placed such a heavy emphasis on size and power and has been willing to evolve his selections as the year has played through, suggests that he has found the flexibility of thinking the All Blacks will require in the next 10 months.
Ian Foster. Photo / Photosport
However it has happened, the All Blacks have made significant selection shifts since beating Ireland at Eden Park in early July.
Ethan de Groot and Tyrel Lomax weren’t even in the wider squad for the Irish series and yet they both start at Twickenham, recognised as the two best props in the country now.
Richie Mo’unga has usurped Beauden Barrett as the side’s preferred No 10, Jordie Barrett has become the favoured No 12, Beauden Barrett has become the first-choice fullback and Telea has come from nowhere to pick up a spot on the right wing while Will Jordan remains at home.
These are big shifts in selection, but they are shifts that have left the All Blacks in a better place and that’s the point that can’t be missed.
The team to play England has more ball-carrying grunt, which has come without any need to compromise the power of the set piece.
The backline has more ability to play directly and yet so too does it have enough trickery and instinctive ball-players to capitalise on counter-attack opportunities and any half chances that come their way.
The journey to this selection point has been bumpy, but the All Blacks have arrived at the right destination, and they have done so long before the World Cup begins.
