All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith opens up about returning home. Video / allblacks.com
OPINION:
There's every chance that this weekend will not be a great advert for flowing, high-skilled, high-tempo rugby.
The Pumas seem likely to start their second test against the All Blacks with all the cynicism and lack of ambition with which they finished the first and hope that by endlesslyinfringing they somehow find a way into the game and stay competitive.
The All Blacks have taken a highly strategic approach to their team selection, making a raft of personnel changes that reflect their need to give a number of key players recovery time ahead of facing the Springboks in consecutive weeks, but in doing so, they have increased the likelihood that their rugby will be a little clunky and disjointed at times.
The Springboks, as a side which notoriously reverts to type when under pressure to win, are going to kick the leather off the ball, drive every lineout, and pretty much sit on the Wallabies until they exert enough pressure to make them go pop.
Given these underlying circumstances, it's likely the rugby will be relying more on drama than spectacle to be memorable.
Damian McKenzie will start at first-five for the All Blacks this weekend. Photo / Photosport
Nothing involving the Boks is ever going to be beautiful, but even the All Blacks, determined as they will be to play at speed, are going to find it painfully hard to develop their flow against a team that will do what it can – legal or not – to stop it.
And yet while the portents for this weekend are not great from a rugby romantic's point of view, there has to be an appreciation and acknowledgement that All Blacks coach Ian Foster is piecing together a well-considered and well-managed Rugby Championship campaign in the face of an unprecedented challenge of having to play five tests in five consecutive weekends.
That's the critical difference between this year and every other. Never mind that the tournament is being played all in one country, that bit doesn't have much impact on the All Blacks' planning, preparation or selection.
What does, is the brutality of the schedule. Normally, the Rugby Championship is spread across two months where teams play twice in consecutive weeks with a week off in between each bloc.
This year, the All Blacks have been asked to play five times in five weeks and maybe Rieko Ioane will manage to start the lot, but he'll be the only one.
Every piece of data at Foster's disposal has told him that the heavy infantry in his squad simply can't endure five tests in five weeks. Not playing at the level they need to and with the final two of the five tests being against South Africa, Foster has always known that this third test of the sequence would be the one for which he would have to make the most significant selection changes.
Rieko Ioane could be the only player to feature in all of the All Blacks' Rugby Championship tests. Photo / Photosport
This was always going to be a hump game as it were - a test where the focus would be on picking a team good enough to win and keep the All Blacks in control of the competition, while providing a chance for the likes of Brodie Retallick, Akira Ioane and Dalton Papalii to recuperate before facing the Boks.
It is relatively simple to understand his thinking. Foster played, give or take the odd selection, his preferred starting team in consecutive weeks against the Wallabies and Pumas and now they need a week off before taking on the Boks in consecutive tests.
Where Foster has been particularly adroit is in the way he used the last half hour of the first test against the Pumas to not only give additional rest to his frontliners but to prepare their replacements for this week's clash.
Damian McKenzie and Quinn Tupaea were sent on last week after 50 minutes to give them exposure to the Pumas defence and time to build a combination knowing they would be starting at first-five and second-five this week.
He's also given Will Jordan and Sevu Reece equal opportunity to stake their claims to start against the Boks – with both men having played so well as to make right wing, arguably, the only contestable berth.
In an ideal world, he'd have preferred not to be starting Ioane this week, but Anton Lienert-Brown's hamstring hasn't come right and Braydon Ennor hasn't played for an age, so there was no choice.
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster has one eye on the back-to-back clashes with the world champion Springboks. Photo / Photosport
Likewise, Foster would rather that Scott Barrett wasn't on the bench this week, but instead in the stands, fully rejuvenating before facing the full might of the Boks.
Again, though, with Sam Whitelock at home, that option wasn't available and so the big hope is that Patrick Tuipulotu and Tupou Vaa'i can dig deep and go late into the game to reduce the need to send Barrett into action.
It's not shaping up as a vintage weekend of rugby, but Foster's smart strategic planning is setting up next weekend to be epic.
