Everything you need to know about this year's upcoming Rugby Championship. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
The 2015 World Cup final was barely five minutes old when it became apparent the All Blacks were going to win.
It was the body language. In fact, it wasn't even that: it was the sense of power, focus and controlled rage that emanated from the All Blacks lockingpair Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock which made it impossible to believe the Wallabies stood even a remote chance of victory that day.
It was Retallick who gave off a particularly intense vibe – all 2.04m and 123kg of him, snarling and frothing, crashing into things with elbows and knees, hurting and intimidating Wallabies forwards who knew, deep down, they weren't going to enjoy their afternoon's work against someone with such a pronounced and overt will to do whatever it took to win.
Test rugby can appear as many things to those watching from afar, but to those in the middle of the action, it is essentially a battle of attitudes and an 80-minute exploration to see who is as tough and unbreakable as they are trying to appear and who is bluffing.
Every opponent who is ever drilled into the core of Retallick has found he's granite hard. He doesn't posture or indulge in the push and shove bravado of the self-styled hard men who might be trying to hide their fear.
There is nothing contrived or forced about Retallick. He's from the same lineage as other notoriously tough New Zealanders such as Buck Shelford and Colin Meads, neither of whom tried to or affected any particular means to impose themselves as it just came naturally.
As Retallick said himself in a recent interview from Japan: "I think physicality is a mindset, more than physical strength or ability."
All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick in action during the 2019 Rugby World Cup bronze final. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Essentially, toughness of the kind possessed by Retallick, can't be coached or necessarily even defined. It's an art form that has no blueprint or manual and it seems to be nothing more than good luck that every now and again an athlete like Retallick comes along, with the size, mobility and skills to play at the highest level, yet also with this critical other, almost magical ingredient which could be best described as an intimidation factor.
This mindset, or attitude, can't be coached and it's not yet apparent whether it can be developed. It seems that a player either has a whole heap of nasty inside them or they don't and nurture can't conquer nature on this.
Given the special skills possessed by Retallick, it is hard to put into context just how much he has been missed in the last few years as a result of the constant injuries he suffered in 2018 and 2019, before taking the whole of last year off to play in Japan.
The only other player in New Zealand with a similar, intimidatory bent is Dane Coles and he too missed most of 2018 and 2019 with injury and it is no coincidence that the All Blacks have been searching for this deeper understanding of physicality as it applies to test rugby while these two have been mostly absent.
Retallick, who is currently holed up in managed quarantine after returning from Japan, has to be viewed as a potentially transformational player for the All Blacks this year.
He's returned at 117kg – 5kg lighter than when he left – but with his fitness levels through the roof, his body free of the aches and pains which had become standard fare in New Zealand and his mind clear, focused and determined to make a dramatic impact in what are likely to be his last three seasons of test football.
It's probable he'll be gently phased into action during the July tests and then fully unleashed at the Bledisloe Cup, where his presence will entirely reshape the All Blacks pack.
It's not just that he will give them a crunching ball carrier in the middle of the field to critically drive over the gainline in the most congested areas.
It's not just that he'll wipe out big bodies at breakdowns, cause problems for opposition on their lineout throw and add considerable grunt to the scrum.
What the return of Retallick will bring is the return of that simmering anger and fearlessness that defined the All Blacks at the 2015 World Cup final.
He'll inflict an element of doubt in the minds of the opposition this year – make them wary to indulge in some of the off the ball nonsense that was so present last year in the tests against the Australians.
Anyone who shoves Retallick off the ball, holds his jersey when he's trying to get somewhere or offers him a few choice words of invective-laden advice, will ultimately come to regret it.
Retallick, as will surely become evident next month, will stiffen the All Blacks, give them an aura almost that hasn't been present, not consistently at least, for a few years.
