Gregor Paul: All Blacks need Kieran Read back

The one good thing about second test referee Angus Gardner being so matesy-matesy with the All Blacks is that he wheedled out Kieran Read's return to play plans.

The All Blacks skipper was acting as water boy in Wellington and when he ran the kicking tee on for Damian McKenzie to convert Ben Smith's try, Gardner sparked up a chat, inquired about a likely return date and was told that Read was hopeful he would be back for the last few games of Super Rugby.

Which would suggest, if all goes to plan, that Read could return to the test arena in time to start the Rugby Championship.

That's still a hope rather an expectation given the uncertain nature of nerve-related injuries but the cautious way he has been managed combined with his maturity to be patient and honest about his readiness, increases the likelihood that he will be at the helm come the first Bledisloe Cup clash in Sydney.

And how much the All Blacks need him back is hard to exaggerate. It's not the All Blacks way to publicly lament the absence of one individual as it tends to undermine the replacement – erode their confidence and make them doubt whether they are good enough to be there.

But they have missed Read more than they imagined they would and while Luke Whitelock has done in the last two weeks what he always does – play with everything he has – the harsh reality is that the All Blacks need more than all he has.

The All Blacks have missed Read's attacking portfolio most. He's one of the best in the world game at retrieving kickoffs.

They have missed his lineout ability – the certainty that when he goes up the ball comes back.

They have missed his readiness and availability to carry hard on the short ball and pump himself over the gainline.

And most of all they have missed his roaming presence in the wider parts of the field where his creativity makes all the difference.

Read is a masterful distributor – equipped with a range of offload abilities that allow him to play others into space from nearly impossibly bleak situations.

Think back to last year and there were several times when Read made the critical play to change the outcome. There was his flip pass to Aaron Smith in the first test against the Lions last year that created Rieko Ioane's killer try.

It was Read who won the kickoff in Dunedin to give the All Blacks the ball back in the last three minutes against the Wallabies and Read who made the line break and pass to set the try-scoring chain of events in motion to win the game.

The All Blacks just haven't been the same threat without Read and while they have missed him mostly as a No 8, his captaincy has been notably absent, too.

Sam Whitelock has done all that has been asked and will in time be a strong and skilled captain.

But he's inexperienced and no one has handle on the job after three tests.
Read is that bit further down the road in his international captaincy career and therefore been exposed to so much more than Whitelock.

A moot point maybe, but would the All Blacks have drifted into a mindset of complacency the way they did in Wellington after France had been shown a red card if Read had been at the helm?

Would the likes of Aaron Smith, TJ Perenara and Damian McKenzie taken it upon themselves to tap and run so many penalties as they did had Read been on the field?

The All Blacks looked to be a touch frantic, loose and impatient when they had a man advantage and as much as Whitelock may have been imploring his troops to stick to the original plan of playing direct and being accurate, the message didn't get through.

Read, had he been playing, may have had the wider range of strategies to ensure that those around him were brought back to task and focused less on outcome.

The All Blacks may be reluctant to publicly lament the loss of Read but privately they will know they need him back.

To get the day's top sports stories in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here