All Blacks biding their time with Josh Ioane
There are many parallels between Josh Ioane and Lima Sopoaga.
Both played their provincial rugby outside of Dunedin but were lured south to join the Highlanders in Super Rugby. Both initially struggled at the provincial level but looked significantly more accomplished once they had on the blue and gold jersey. Both were also called into the All Blacks squad for the first time in the year of a Rugby World Cup.
Four years ago, to the day, the All Blacks travelled to Ellis Park to take on South Africa for the 2nd round of the Rugby Championship.
As far as test matches go, you’d be hard pressed to find a more challenging game than the Springboks in Johannesburg – it was the perfect build-up for the Rugby World Cup.
Despite that being one of the toughest matches in the calendar, however, Steve Hansen and his fellow selectors weren’t afraid to throw out a couple of debutants.
Sopoaga and Hurricanes lock James Broadhurst played their first matches for the All Blacks in that game, and both emerged relatively unscathed.
Sopoaga, in particular, put in a performance that far defied his lack of international experience – he looked like he belonged in the All Blacks 10 jersey.
This weekend, New Zealand will once again be facing off against their old foes but this time they get to play their World Cup warm-up match in front of a sold-out Westpac Stadium in Wellington. It’s a tough challenge, there’s no doubt about it, but perhaps it’s not quite as scary a prospect as the Springboks at Ellis Park.
Once again, New Zealand have an uncapped first five in their squad in the form of Ioane, but this time Hansen won’t be blooding any newbies.
Instead, the selectors have opted to play Richie Mo’unga in the 10 jersey for what will be just his third start, with Beauden Barrett shifting back to fullback.
Some punters may be asking why Hansen isn’t willing to give Ioane a shot, like he did with Sopoaga four years earlier.
Ioane is clearly the third-ranked first five in New Zealand at the moment. Damian McKenzie held that mantle until he was cut down by injury during Super Rugby whilst others who started the season with more experience than Ioane failed to assert themselves.
Should Beauden Barrett or Richie Mo’unga go down then it will be Ioane who is called onto the reserves bench in what could be a World Cup knockout match.
Still, Hansen and co have resisted throwing Ioane into the deep end, and the short of it is that he’s simply not ready.
“We all know if Damien McKenzie were here, Josh wouldn’t be,” Hansen said of Ioane this week.
“We’re now having to take a different path with Josh and make sure we take our time with him. If you rush somebody that’s not quite ready, you take the risk of destroying their confidence.
“We’ve just got to get him ready and spend lots of time with him, and him with us.”
The biggest difference between the Sopoaga and Ioane situations is that Sopoaga had been knocking on the All Blacks door for some time before he was finally selected.
When Sopoaga made the All Blacks for the first time, he was included in the squad alongside Barrett, Dan Carter and Colin Slade – who had all spent plenty of time in the All Blacks already. Aaron Cruden would have also been in the equation were he not injured. New Zealand evidently weren’t short of first fives.
Sopoaga was already into his fifth season of Super Rugby in 2015 and had just guided the Highlanders to a championship title, so it was really a case of giving some game time to a guy who had been doing everything right at the level below.
Things are completely different in Ioane’s case. 2019 marked the young Aucklander’s second season of Super Rugby and although it would be unfair to say he’s not talented, he’s made it into the squad on the back of a lack of any other options.
Whilst Sopoaga was banging on the door back in 2015, the door has been blown off its hinges by natural forces in 2019 and Ioane has been able to walk on in without any obstacles.
Still, as the third choice first five, Ioane is going to need to get some match experience at some point.
“Every day that he’s in our environment is a learning day for him,” said Hansen.
“If the opportunity comes about that we need him, if we want to take three first fives to the World Cup, he’s going to be comfortable in his own skin and comfortable enough in the environment to be able to at some point bring him on the park.”
The All Blacks may be running out of time to get Josh Ioane up to speed for the World Cup, but there’s no point in throwing the man to the sharks. Many a talented player has had his international prospects ruined by being elevated too early and losing confidence.
The more time Ioane spends in the All Blacks environment, the more confident he’ll be when he first takes the field in the silver fern. Perhaps, then, we will see Ioane retained in the squad for the upcoming Bledisloe series against Australia.
As is Hansen’s way, he turned to his favourite racehorse metaphor to summarise where Ioane is at right now: “He’s a two-year-old and he’s not ready to race against four-year-olds.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments