Gregor Paul: The end is close for All Blacks playmaker

OPINION:

At some stage this year All Blacks coach Ian Foster is going to have to make a choice between Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo'unga.

These two can't continue, not consistently or indefinitely, as a playmaking partnership where the latter plays at first-five and the former at fullback.

Barrett and Mo'unga were thrown together out of necessity in 2019. The All Blacks needed a means to break the defensive strangleholds they knew they would face at the World Cup and with Damian McKenzie injured and none of their second-fives fitting the mould of a second playmaker, there was no choice but to take Barrett out of his beloved No 10 jersey and reposition him in the backfield.

It was never intended as a long-term initiative, though. It was a moment-in-time plan – the best, or maybe the only, way the All Blacks could set themselves up to win the World Cup.

Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo'unga's combination at the 2019 Rugby World Cup was a successful one. Photo / Photosport

If the international programme hadn't been truncated to six tests, Foster would most likely have made a decision about his preferred No 10 at some point last year.

He came into the All Blacks head coaching role believing that the dual playmaking concept was a keeper, but the personnel would need to be reconsidered.

By the end of last year, certain facts became impossible to ignore, most pertinently that Barrett's influence has been greatly reduced by wearing the No 15 jersey.

He is such a prodigious talent and consummate professional that he came home from Japan in 2019 with mostly everyone rating him the best fullback in the world. And yet by the end of last year, it was equally apparent that fullback is not his natural home.

Barrett is a player who thrives on being involved. The more the ball is in his hands, the better he plays and the responsibility of running the game sits lightly upon his shoulders.

That fact tends to get missed, or mangled by some, who query his tactical kicking and game management.

But the negativity that has slipped into the narrative about Barrett as an erratic and at times flustered playmaker is simply a result of him being unorthodox, or not quite fitting the traditional blueprint for a No 10.

In 2016 the All Blacks averaged 43 points and almost six tries a game all because Barrett brought such a devastating running game. Shredding defences with his pace is his preferred means of game management and, while his natural inclination is to run, there was increasing evidence in the last tests of 2018, when he was regularly starting at first-five, that his tactical kicking and appreciation of how to hurt teams with it, is all there.

Most importantly, Barrett has indicated to Foster that he wants to be back at No 10 and while his individual wants can't trump the team's needs, there's a reality to be acknowledged that an engaged, content athlete is going to deliver more than one who feels slighted and disillusioned.

Damien McKenzie is fit and healthy for the Chiefs in 2021. Photo / Photosport

The other fact which can't be ignored is that, unlike in 2019, the All Blacks now have other fullbacks who fit the playmaking bill.

McKenzie is back and likely to be spending increased time at No 10 for the Chiefs this year. Jordie Barrett, too, is more composed and decisive than he was in 2019 and, to a large degree - albeit in a non-conformist style - meets the criteria of a second playmaker.

But perhaps the fact hardest of all to ignore is that Mo'unga has not developed into an international No 10 as fast, or as far, as everyone hoped.

He's been consistently brilliant for the Crusaders but his body of work for the All Blacks has been patchy.

There have been world-class moments but arguably only one world-class 80-minute performance, which came against the Wallabies last year in Sydney.

Richie Mo'unga. Photo / Getty Images.

Mo'unga, in his 22 tests, hasn't mounted a compelling case to start ahead of Barrett and if time hasn't run out for him yet, the end is surely close.

If the July test programme goes ahead, the theme will shift from Barrett and Mo'unga, to Foster trying to answer the much harder question of Barrett or Mo'unga.

It is a question that was always going to have to be answered and unless there is a dramatic or unexpected twist, Barrett is going to be restored to his favoured position.

It may be, depending on who and where the All Blacks end up playing this year, that the Mo'unga-Barrett partnership is wheeled out on a horses-for-courses basis.

But it won't be the default selection. Judgement day is coming and Barrett will, presumably, once again be the All Blacks' first choice No 10.