All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson. Photo / Photosport
Paul Lewis is a veteran sports journalist who has written four books and covered Rugby World Cups, America’s Cups, Olympic & Commonwealth Games and more.
OPINION
All Blacks selectors love local derbies – rugby’s petri dish where the chemical reaction of talent mixed with speed of play and intense pressure mimics test rugby and is studied carefully.
If the quarter-finals go as expected, the Hurricanes and Chiefs will meet in the semifinals, as will the Blues and the Brumbies – although the Highlanders have a surprisingly good record in Canberra, with a 4-4 record there over the last eight matches, and a win for the southern side would mean four New Zealand teams in the semis and another three derbies for the selectors to assess.
The derbies already played offer good clues to Scott Robertson’s first 32-man squad named next month; many are expecting a small boatload of fresh faces to be groomed towards the next World Cup in 2027.
But will that be the case? England are a stern test and the vast majority of the squad will likely be seasoned All Blacks.
A few positions might accommodate newcomers – depending on factors like injuries, identified selection gaps for a certain style of play, and easing younger players in, a la the modern fashion of bringing them into camp in a wider training group or as injury cover to assess and upskill them.
Take Billy Proctor, for example. The Hurricanes centre is everyone’s choice for a black jersey this year – but will he oust one from an All Blacks midfield previously populated by David Havili, Jordie Barrett, Quinn Tupaea, Rieko Ioane and Anton Lienert-Brown?
A wider training group would be one way, for instance, of involving Hurricanes loose forward Peter Lakai. While he may not make Robertson’s 32-man squad in what will be a crowded loose forward complement, his form warrants it, his all-action game positioning him clearly as President-elect of the Ardie Savea Impersonators’ Club.
The three positions most likely to see new All Blacks are lock, halfback and maybe hooker.
Lock is the most threadbare in terms of depth and young Blues lock Sam Darry (23) could find himself elevated a level. He played well against the Chiefs before going off with a head knock last weekend.
Darry’s progress had seen him sharpen his already efficient lineout skills and display more mobility and involvement, including more post-contact metres. He and impressive skipper Patrick Tuipulotu have been in the thick of the Blues’ forward renaissance this season.
However, he was upstaged by a bravura derby performance from Quinten Strange when the Crusaders upset the Blues in round 14 – he dominated the lineout and made 19 tackles at the heart of a spirited Crusaders pack.
Strange, still only 27, was selected for the 2020 All Blacks squad but his season ended with injury before he could get on the field. He offers less as a carrying lock and committed the sin which cost the Crusaders the key game against the Brumbies recently – but atoned emphatically against the Blues.
Scott Barrett, an in-form Tupou Vaa’i and Tuipulotu will be the main thrust in the boiler room but question marks over Barrett’s back (and the loss of Josh Lord to injury again) mean recruitment is required. There are other young locks – Naitoa Ah Kuoi and Jamie Hannah, for example, while the Hurricanes’ Justin Sangster (27) has come on – but Darry may have the inside running.
However, Robertson could opt for a fill-the-gap second-rower hard-nosed enough to make the step up to an international rugby squad – as when Mitch Dunshea (now with the Highlanders) became an injury cover/travelling player for the All Blacks during 2020 or Jackson Hemopo, played five tests from 2018.
Strange comes into that category and, if this was the first half of the Super Rugby Pacific season, the Chiefs’ Manaaki Selby-Rickit would also come into calculations.
A 2m lock like Darry, he has helped make Brodie Retallick’s absence seem less of an issue for the Chiefs, is also only 27 and has shown good set piece form and athletic support play. However, he was much less in evidence in the grunt work against the Rebels and the Hurricanes, subbed off after 52 minutes in the derby.
At halfback, the picture is maybe clearer after Cam Roigard’s injury. T.J. Perenara (32) and Cortez Ratima ended with honours even in their latest derby clash and, while many will expect 21-test Finlay Christie to be named as the third halfback, 20-year-old Crusader Noah Hotham could win that third spot. On his latest displays, he not only has a searching pass but genuine speed of foot; he’s raw – but the raw material looks very good.
The third hooker may not be a problem after all, with Asafo Aumua making an impressive return from injury last weekend after some prime earlier form for the Hurricanes. Codie Taylor (36 next World Cup) and Samisoni Taukei’aho will be the other first-choice hookers, though if injury again intervenes or an injection of youth is desired, many will point to George Bell, the Crusaders hooker currently playing behind Taylor, as next up, maybe in a wider training group.
He was called into the All Blacks as injury cover for last year’s World Cup squad. Bell (22) has startling speed for a hooker but hasn’t always come on this season, with one or two throwing problems at the lineout.
For a real dark horse, if youth is the call, back-up Chiefs hooker Tyrone Thompson (23) has been little seen in Super Rugby thus far but is a physical hooker, previously selected for the Māori All Blacks and the 2022 All Blacks XV, along with Bell, Aumua and the Blues’ Ricky Riccitelli, another candidate.
Paul Lewis has been a journalist since the last Ice Age. Sport has been a lifetime pleasure and part of a professional career during which he has written four books, and covered Rugby World Cups, America’s Cups, Olympic & Commonwealth Games and more.
The All Blacks star made a brief appearance at his new club.