Ethan Blackadder and Tupou Vaa'i talk about life in the All Blacks environment. Video / allblacks.com
OPINION:
In the two years since the All Blacks last played the Springboks, one team has resisted evolution and the other has embraced revolution.
That has been apparent, tactically, at least for most of this year. The Springboks returned to test action in 2021 with precisely no modifications to theirgame plan.
Whatever temptation there may have been to change, they have resisted it – almost belligerently telling the world that they don't care that no one outside of South Africa loves the way they play. It's not broken so they won't be fixing it.
Even now, as they stare at a five-win, three-loss record which has seen them dethroned as the world's No 1 ranked team, they remain wedded to their kick, maul, tackle plan as if relenting to any kind of amendment to that simple approach would be an act of betrayal.
The Springboks, at least, know what they are and their conviction that this brand of basic rugby works for them has an easy to respect defiance about it, much like the French refusing to accept a 40-hour work week or tolerating pre-packaged sandwiches.
The rest of the rugby world, including the All Blacks, is typically in a state of angst about how they can jazz themselves up every few months, try a bit of this, inject a bit of that, drop this guy, pick that guy and spin the wheel of mad ideas to see if anything sticks.
Not the Boks, though. They don't feel that same pressure to navel-gaze and obsessively pick at what they do. They are the rugby equivalent of that guy whose first beer was a Lion Red and he liked it so much, he's never felt the need to ever try anything else.
Springboks captain Siya Kolisi and teammates. Photo / Getty
Predictability is a label that would sit horribly on the All Blacks, but the Boks wear it like a badge of honour – reasoning it won't matter that everyone knows what is going to be coming at them, if it arrives with such destructive force that even the best-laid plans can't stop it.
And this is why the team selections for the 100th clash between New Zealand and South Africa, further illustrate the Boks' resistance to change.
Of the Springboks match-day 23 who played in the last clash at the World Cup, 18 are playing again in Townsville.
But for minor injuries – both back in 2019 and now – it would likely be 21 of the same 23, suggesting that the Boks really haven't changed in mindset, strategy or personnel.
The team they were in 2019 is the team they are now, something that isn't true about the All Blacks.
Only 10 of their 23 who played in Yokohama two years ago will be involved this weekend and, critically, they will line up differently at halfback and first-five.
By any definition, the All Blacks have reinvented themselves in the past two years. They have eight players in their 23 who weren't even at the World Cup.
They have a rejuvenated Brodie Retallick, who was there but didn't play against the Boks as he was recovering from injury and an almost new player in Rieko Ioane, who was in Japan but out of sorts.
All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
Beauden Barrett has been restored to his preferred No 10 role and inching closer to the sort of form he was in back in 2016 and 2017, and the presence of Akira Ioane gives the All Blacks the bruising blindside they didn't have at the last World Cup.
The All Blacks are not unrecognisable from the team they were two years ago, but they have unquestionably evolved through a combination of personnel and tactical changes to sit as a team with different capabilities to the one they were back in 2019.
Different doesn't necessarily mean better but in this particular case, it probably does. The 2021 team has more strike power and more effective ball carriers than the team that played in 2019.
Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Nepo Laulala and Scott Barrett all played in Yokohama, and all four have grown in influence since then. All four carry more often, with better technique and higher intensity.
David Havili has given the 2021 team a direct, bruising force they probably didn't have in the same No 12 role in 2019 and Jordie Barrett brings a combination of big frame, booming boot and proven aerial skills to the backfield.
South Africa should be applauded not derided for having the conviction to resist change and be the team they think they need to be. However, it certainly feels that by having changed as much as they have, the All Blacks have surged past a Springboks side that looks the same and plays the same as it did two years ago.
