All Blacks coach Ian Foster on eve of USA departure. Video / allblakcs.com
OPINION:
If only Ma'a Nonu were 10 years younger. Even if he was five years younger, he'd be a serious contender to make it to the 2023 World Cup with the All Blacks.
Those who have been playing alongside him these last few years have been amazed at his professionalism,his dedication, attention to detail and ability to keep adding to his skill-set.
At 39 Nonu is demonstrating that he's still adding to his skills portfolio, refining his art as a second-five and were it not for the fact that his legs, despite his best efforts, can't defy the ageing process, he'd still be playing test football.
The inadvertent impact of Nonu providing such a strong reminder that he's a uniquely gifted figure, is that it has cast some shade on the current cohort of midfielders in this country.
New Zealand is rugby's equivalent of Willie Wonka's chocolate factory, a magical operation constantly pumping out imaginative products everyone wants to sample.
But for all the productivity, the system hasn't managed to spit out another Nonu. It has been six years since he retired from test football and New Zealand hasn't yet been able to nurture a midfield player with his all-round game.
There are several who would be deemed a "work in progress" which has left the All Blacks coaching team reminding themselves to stay patient by remembering that Nonu himself didn't fall into professional rugby as the finished article.
He too, for the first five years of his professional life, was a work in progress. He didn't arrive in the top-flight as a natural distributor, kicker or decision-maker and in those early years, he wasn't a great communicator or guiding voice for those around him.
Those skills took time to develop and it wasn't until he was in his late 20s that Nonu became a towering presence in test football.
But having stuck a handful of midfield irons in the fire as it were, the All Blacks haven't yet seen anyone take definitive strides towards becoming the sort of Nonu-esque force they are looking for.
As much as head coach Ian Foster is willing to give his various protegees time to build and learn their craft, he'd like to have seen more obvious progress by now and at least one candidate to have produced a more compelling body of work than any have.
All the players who have played in the No 12 jersey these past few seasons – David Havili, Jack Goodhue, Anton Lienert-Brown and Quinn Tupaea – have grown and advanced. None of them, however, have necessarily done so emphatically or with enough consistency to be considered the long-term solution in a position where the All Blacks continue to feel they could be getting more.
Almost two years into the role and Foster will still have an open mind about who will end up as his preferred No 12 by the time the World Cup swings around in 2023.
David Havili of the New Zealand All Blacks is tackled during The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the All Blacks and Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.
His mind remains open because it has to: the evidence hasn't yet been delivered to make him confident that anyone is absolutely on track to blossom into a world-class No 12.
For now, David Havili is the lead contender and best bet to go the distance, having swapped his preferred fullback role this year.
Havili was tracking well throughout the year, delivered some strong performances against Fiji, Australia and Argentina, but hit something of a roadblock when he played South Africa.
Until then, he'd been quite the bag of tricks – mixing his game up well, consistently accurate and often imaginative. Then he played the Boks, the biggest challenge of his career to date, and he was hurried and inaccurate in both tests and unable to find ways to adapt. Instead of using his wider skill-set – his distribution, nuanced angles of running and subtle touches – to stress the Boks defence, he reverted to crashing into contact and making himself a battering ram.
It was a sharp reminder that he's inexperienced in both the role and test football and the next five weeks loom as particularly significant for him.
Wales, Ireland and France will pose many of the same questions the Springboks did and the All Blacks coaches will be looking for Havili to bounce back and show that against big, physical sides who come with a major defensive presence, he can produce the sophistication and subtlety that has marked him as a special talent.
Havili has the diversity of skills the All Blacks want in their No 12, but he hasn't yet shown he can piece them all together or work out which ones to best use when space is tight and that is what this tour will be all about for him.
He'll need to show he can adapt his game to remain influential in tests where space is limited and defences give nothing away, if he is to head into 2022 with the All Blacks coaching staff a little more confident they are getting closer to finding their new Nonu.
