A very obvious decision has been made by the All Blacks’ coaching group. They don’t want a single pebble, much less a rock,under their beach towels this summer.
In Turin on Sunday morning our time Italy will face an All Black team that wants to end the year with a flourish, to ease some of the pain of the test that slipped away in Paris.
Choosing an All Black squad where the only changes are driven by injury is also a reflection of a selection policy that’s been largely conservative all season.
Scott Robertson is an unconventional coach. But his differences at the Crusaders were largely in how he built team culture. Scour through his seven triumphant years coaching in Super rugby and you’ll struggle to find off-the-wall selections.
Encouraging a team brand? Yep. Breakdancing after winning a title? Sure. Plucking a kid straight out of school and dropping him into a key role? Not so much.
The team to face Italy feels like a group on a serious mission, and it’d be startling if the northern tour didn’t end with a flourish for the All Blacks.
A win against Italy would cap a solid first season for Robertson. Photo / Photosport
What exactly would be a good curtain call?
Everyone has their own criteria, but for me three elements are needed to make the Italian job a great way for the All Blacks to bow out of 2024.
One: a winning margin of at least 20 points. The weather will be very cold (under 6C) but no rain is forecast in Turin. A dry ball should suit our attackers.
Two: no drop in intensity when the second-half subs take the field. We floundered a little in Paris in the second spell, a reminder of mid-season issues in the last 40 minutes of tests. Against Italy the power needs to be there from the first whistle to the last.
Three: there are many brilliant strike weapons out wide for the All Blacks. If the likes of Will Jordan, Mark Tele’a and Caleb Clarke get quick, front-foot ball, there could be great memories of exciting tries to carry into 2025.
The grumpier, the better
Whatever the misdemeanour was that saw him dropped before the England test, the return to the front row of Ethan de Groot due to Tamaiti Williams’ injury is a chance for de Groot to prove several points.
He has, says coach Robertson, “trained the house down”, doing double sessions, so fitness shouldn’t be an issue, and motivation certainly won’t be either. Given the remarkable form of Williams, the All Blacks now find themselves in the fortunate position of having two world-class loosehead props.
Ethan de Groot has ample motivation in his return to the game-day side after a stand-down for an unspecified indiscretion. Photo / Photosport
A different future
The test in Turin will also be a farewell to Sam Cane.
Cane the man has always had a touch of Sir Brian Lochore about him. Approachable, considered and informed. If he chooses to be involved in rugby in the future, the sport would be mad not to grab him. If you were inventing a perfect mentor for young players you’d use Cane as your blueprint.
Talking of futures
Congratulations to Wallace Sititi for being a finalist in World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year award. And well done to Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan, who back in March, when Sititi was named for the first time in McMillan’s game-day squad noted that Sititi was “an exciting talent”. There’s no doubt the loose forward’s progress to international rugby owes a lot to the guiding hand McMillan (himself a gifted No 8 as a player) would have provided.
Wallace Sititi has been nominated for Breakout Player of the Year. Photo / Getty Images
Swallowing words across the Ditch
A fortnight ago, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt was rubbished by David Campese as having “no idea about Australian rugby”. It was a brutal sledge, especially coming as it did from a legend of the game in Australia.
Fair play to Campo, who has now admitted he was wrong, as Schmidt’s team beat Wales, 52-20, and England, 42-37. Scotland at Murrayfield on Monday morning our time will be a tough ask, but the revived Wallabies should make it a northern hat-trick.
Schmidt deserves all the credit he’s now getting.
Eddie Jones, a man who should have known a lot about Australian rugby, left his World Cup Wallaby squad an untrusting, insecure mess last year, when it became clear the Australian job was just a stepping stone to Jones coaching Japan.
In Schmidt the Wallabies have a man they can trust implicitly. The bonus is that he’s also a razor-sharp rugby thinker. As the northern unions are discovering, Australia are no longer remotely easybeats. That revival also means Bledisloe Cup tests are likely to be as challenging in 2025 as they were in the early 2000s when John Eales was leading the charge for the Aussies on the field.
All Blacks v Italy - Sunday, November 24, 9.10am
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