LONG READ All Blacks can mount World Cup tilt, if they can keep Jordie Barrett and Cam Roigard fit

After 12 minutes of the opening Bledisloe Test, no one could be sure what to expect from the All Blacks. They were 7-0 down having been sliced open by sharp back play by the Wallabies and really, the home side hadn’t touched the ball with a quarter of the first half gone.

And then it all changed. With not much happening at a ruck midway between their 22 and 10-metre line, Cam Roigard decided to hoist what would be the first of many perfectly judged and weighted contestable box kicks.

It was high and hanging and came down just before the Wallabies’ 10-metre line. It gave Jordie Barrett ample time to get underneath it and outjump Australian wing Joseph-Aukuso Suallii to make a clean catch and bash forward another handful of metres before the ball was recycled to Damian McKenzie who scorched through a retreating defence and threw a perfect pass to the supporting Peter Lakai who scored.

McKenzie played his part but the impetus came from Roigard and Barrett, both of whom would deliver performances that confirmed their respective world class status.

Roigard was cast in the style of a French No 9, entrusted with the majority of the kicking and effectively the man who determined the All Blacks’ attacking tempo and direction.

It suited him perfectly. The kicking role is his bag as he has a booming left boot that twice managed to exit the All Blacks from their own 22 to 10 metres inside Wallabies territory, and launched 16 other contestable kicks, almost all of which were either recovered or saw the opposition catcher receive ball and tackler at almost the same time.
It was a masterclass in tactical execution and how to create and then exploit momentum. But Roigard also delayed his passing and varied his body shape from the base of the ruck to leave the Wallaby defence constantly uncertain about where the next wave of All Blacks runners would hit.

Wallabies coach Les Kiss would lament the lack of linespeed his side produced and possibly it was the threat of Roigard exploiting them round the ruck that was at the core of the passivity.

As for Barrett, that try-creating high kick retrieval was just one of the assorted acts of brilliance he produced in a performance that had coach Dave Rennie telling Sky Sport that he felt the 29-year-old, “is the best midfielder in the world by a long shot”.

“He could probably have a 6, 7 or 8 on his back and he wouldn’t look out of place,”

Codie Taylor on Jordie Barrett

“He’s been phenomenal all year,” Rennie would later repeat. “He was outstanding in South Africa, I just think he’s taken his game to another level.

“It’s not just the skill set but he’s got a massive engine. His physicality, his defence, I thought he was excellent again.”

The range of Barrett’s involvement was what made his performance so remarkable. He ran straight and hard and operated as the first receiver most of the game with No 10 Damian McKenzie looping in behind.

Then there was Barrett’s defence – his head on bone-jarring hits (he made 16 tackles, three of which were dominant), and his incredible ability to scramble all over the field.

He caught high balls, he made smart decisions, he organised others and he was everywhere all at once.

“He could probably have a 6, 7 or 8 on his back and he wouldn’t look out of place,” his captain Codie Taylor said.

“He’s definitely earned the right to be called one of the best 12s, if not the best 12 in the world at the moment and not only through his attack – it’s his brutality and everything he does which is what you want to see as a forward when your 12 is prepared to throw his body into everything.”

There were plenty of excellent performers for the All Blacks in Auckland – Damian McKenzie, Tupou Vaa’i, Scott Barrett – but what’s becoming apparent is that Roigard and Jordie Barrett can shift the dial a lot more than anyone else.

They are the two players with the capacity to lift the All Blacks’ performance to the next level and arguably, New Zealand are one team with them and an inferior version without them.

And this is a problem. Rennie and his coaching team are building genuine depth across the squad and look well catered for in most positions.

There is a major gap in ability between Roigard and alternative options Kyle Preston and Cortez Ratima.

There is a crew of props – both sides – that have experience and ability, and that will be yet more the case when Tamaiti Williams returns next year.

There are three genuine options at hooker and George Bell as the next man is highly capable. There is a coterie of locks, an abundance of loose forwards and four options at No 10 in Ruben Love, Richie Mo’unga, McKenzie and Beauden Barrett.

The search for at least one, if not two, aerially capable wings remains ongoing but there is at least a current pool of talent that is getting by.

The dark spots – the positions in which there is not necessarily adequate cover – are scrum-half and inside centre.

On the former, there is a major gap in ability between Roigard and alternative options Kyle Preston and Cortez Ratima.

Preston has a kicking game, but it’s not in the same class – it lacks the length and distance of Roigard. He’s not got the all-round decision-making to facilitate the gameplan in the same way as Roigard.

Ratima definitively hasn’t got the length or accuracy in his kicking to be effective. He can’t clear with the same prodigious distances as Roigard and so far in his career, he hasn’t been able to find the right combination of length and height to sustain a barrage of contestable box kicks.

And as Roigard demonstrated at Eden Park, that matters. When the All Blacks were stuck, without momentum, they were able to build it by Roigard launching contestable box kicks that were won back and enabled the next attack phase to be launched.

That ability to kick and retrieve has become such a big part of the current game – and it was something South Africa did superbly against the All Blacks, and one of the big lessons the latter took out of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

Preston seems the best equipped to be developed as a like-for-like replacement, but even if the All Blacks can find game time for him between now and the World Cup – the likelihood is they will end up in Australia with a sense of concern about what will happen if Roigard is injured.

Rieko gives you X factor. Doesn’t defend as well as Anton and probably doesn’t have the same level of work ethic, but an absolute freak when he’s got ball in hand.

In theory, the All Blacks do have a replacement for Jordie Barrett at No 12 – it is his centre partner Quinn Tupaea. It was as an inside centre that Tupaea made his mark for the Chiefs and first played for the All Blacks before he was shifted to outside centre last year in an injury crisis.

He’s a naturally direct and bruising runner at 12 with a nice set of soft skills as well as a clever short kicking game. But if the All Blacks shift him to 12, they still have a problem as there is no other truly convincing No 13 with which to replace Tupaea.

Rieko Ioane would be the first choice, but his game comes with limitations. As Rennie said when he was asked in South Africa why he had not elevated Anton Lienert-Brown and not Ioane to the bench for the third Test: “Rieko gives you X factor. Doesn’t defend as well as Anton and probably doesn’t have the same level of work ethic, but an absolute freak when he’s got ball in hand.”

Billy Proctor is due to return from a serious shoulder injury next year, but he’s another that hasn’t convinced as the sort of player who would be able to make a game-winning contribution in a World Cup quarter-final against the Boks.

There is an alternative to shifting Tupaea to 12, which is to pick Timoci Tavatavanawai there. The Fijian-born midfielder has his admirers, but Rennie’s concern is that Tavatavanawai is simply a highlights reel – a player capable of the odd spectacular act but not someone who is fit enough to contribute for 80 minutes.

He was taken to South Africa mostly to work him under the auspices of All Blacks conditioning coach Phil Healey and to get him more attuned to the sort of effort required to play Test rugby.

“So Big Jim’s fantastic when he’s close to the ball; his carry, tackle, and post-tackle are excellent,” Rennie told Newstalk ZB.

“His work rate has got better, and so that’s a continued focus for him. The type of game that we play, we need our midfielders doing a hell of a lot of work off the ball and that sort of thing, and so we feel the guys that we’ve picked are better in that area.

“But he’s gone well. It was the reason we took him to South Africa: we wanted him to make shifts in that area. We felt if we didn’t take him there and didn’t get him moving, he’s probably unlikely to be an option at the World Cup.”