This hardest assignment of the 2024 season is why TJ Perenara and Sam Cane are in the playing 23 – experience and test match nous, even though both are gone from New Zealand rugby at the end of this season – and begging the question of whether players available for 2025-2027 should be preferred.
However, this All Blacks squad will be fizzing at the bung to revenge the narrow loss in the last World Cup final. Cane was also among the 15 players in this squad who were in the match-day 23 when the All Blacks pulled off that famous upset victory at Ellis Park in 2022, when a loss seemed inevitable. Perenara had a cracking match in the second test against the Pumas after a dismal showing in the first – but the balance between youth and experience is forever tricky and you wonder if Robertson may lean too far towards experience.
The All Blacks will be significant underdogs; they are still finding themselves while the Springboks have, if you listen to Wallabies great Tim Horan, grown another leg. They’ve always had size, brute strength, defence that is actually a form of attack, astute game management and kicking skills, plus a knack for doing the right thing at the right time. Now they have a bloke called Tony Brown as attack coach and, against the Wallabies, the Boks passed, ran and made line breaks to a much greater extent.
Horan’s view was that they have added expansiveness and innovation to the physical grind that won them back-to-back World Cups. In the first test, they scored from a unique double lineout. The lineout split into two, a jumper thrown up in both. The ball was thrown to the rear jumper, who passed it to the front jumper while both were still in the air; rugby’s version of basketball’s “alley oop” move.
The point of attack cleverly shifted, they mauled over for a try to skipper Siya Kolisi. It wasn’t the only innovation that had Brown’s initials on it. In the first scrum of the first test, winger Cheslin Kolbe put the ball into a scrum while halfback Cobus Reinach joined the centres. It didn’t pay off – but the potential for an extra man and confusing the defence was there.
The Boks have stuck mostly with their World Cup winners, but played two young loose forwards, flanker Ben-Jason Dixon, a huge man and part of the “alley oop” lineout, and No 8 Elrigh Louw, successor to Duane Vermeulen. They fielded their new first five-eighths, Sachs Feinberg-Mngomezulu (try saying that with a mouthful of marshmallows) who looks a rare talent but will likely give way to Handre Pollard against the All Blacks.
Meanwhile, the All Blacks haven’t quite found their sea legs yet. That first half of the second test against the Pumas was valuable – a foundation for the forward and physical effort needed against the Boks. However, they haven’t yet totally convinced, and Robertson’s largely conservative selections thus far may suggest to some more care in building his record than building the future.
Bearing in mind what happened to his predecessor, that is a legitimate concern – but the right injection of youth at the right time, even against daunting opponents, can be uplifting. Conversely, leaving young talent too long on the bench can stifle not only ambition but the spark of that talent.
Yes, Boks coach Rassie Erasmus has stuck with the tried and true but they have two World Cups to keep them warm and Brown to re-model their thinking. Their conservatism looks sensible. The All Blacks’ seems a little more as if they’re not yet quite sure what else to do; their game plan for the Boks will be intriguing.
Prop Tamaiti Williams is one who seems ready for the leap – power scrummaging and well-propelled bulk make him seem tailor-made for the Boks, even if he has just turned 24. Another example: Tupou Vaa’i. Against the Pumas, he had his best game for the All Blacks in terms of physicality and effectiveness. He has sometimes looked, well, a bit nice to be a gnarly lock – but he played with a bit of snarl; his quick thinking the genesis of Caleb Clarke’s try. It’s taken 29 tests to get him there though he only started in nine, meaning the last All Blacks coaching team and this one have mostly seen him as bench material. His locking partner, Sam Darry, wasn’t even in the original squad before the locking crisis – and look what he’s done in a short time.
Skipper Scott Barrett will be back against the Boks, so one of those two will probably be benched again. The Bok locks will likely be two horrible critters called Eben Etzebeth and R.G. Snyman; it would only do Vaa’i and Darry good to take them on.
Cortez Ratima admittedly had an average game when he came on against Argentina. However, youth needs opportunity, not prolonged time in the shadows and, forgive the cynicism, losing when building for the future is one thing; losing when fielding your most experienced side another.
