Cam Roigard: 'Mike and Rens have opened my eyes to managing that'

Star All Blacks halfback Cam Roigard has had two weeks to reflect on the Greatest Rivalry tour and put the lessons learned from the series defeat into practice ahead of the Bledisloe Cup, which kicks off this weekend at Eden Park.

Rarely is more pride on the line for the All Blacks than when facing their trans-Tasman rivals at their historic stronghold, and with new Wallabies head coach Les Kiss inspiring his side to an unbeaten record through his first five games at the helm, there is plenty of pressure on the Kiwis to right the wrongs of the Springboks series.

The good news, in Roigard’s eyes, is that the two-Test series will see the All Blacks face a more like-minded opponent, with key similarities in their approach to pace of play and emphasis on attack rather than set-piece.

The All Blacks expect a high-tempo series, which suits their burgeoning style of play under Dave Rennie, even if the flaws in the gruelling Greatest Rivalry tour weren’t limited to set-piece.

As Roigard told Scotty Stevenson on Sport Nation this week: “The frustrating thing probably was, well, between the last three, the reasons we weren’t getting the results were probably similar; when it came down to the small margins, when we needed to be accurate, we weren’t, and things like discipline let us down in more than one game. Things like that sting a little bit more when you’re probably not learning or adapting as fast as you need to at that level, especially against a quality side like South Africa.

“It definitely still stings, and probably will for a while. But yeah, I’m sure we will learn from it all. And I think the exciting thing is that we don’t have a whole summer to wait before another opportunity. It’s an awesome opportunity ahead of us to add to the legacy of the Bledisloe Cup and Eden Park and everything this weekend, so it’s extremely motivating, and we’ll be hoping to take a step forward in how we’ve been playing to get better.”

The 25-year-old’s rise in the rugby world has come during a rare period of coaching instability in the All Blacks environment, beginning with Ian Foster, who made way for Scott Robertson before Rennie replaced him.

Three attack coaches have also been in charge during that time: Joe Schmidt, Scott Hansen and now Mike Blair, each imparting different lessons and instilling different attacking philosophies. Roigard said that Rennie and Blair, an 85-cap Scotland halfback, have put added emphasis on his game management from the No.9 position.

“I think that, especially at this level, there are different ways to play the game,” said the Hurricanes star. “We’ve got great things in place when the play is fast, when there’s fatigue in the game, how we can capitalise on that.

“But then also when the game gets tight, potentially slow, like it did in South Africa, how we can wrestle momentum back. I guess it sounds a little bit cliché, but you obviously have a plan A, but being able to swap into plan B and plan C on the fly, pretty quickly, is something that we’re trying to do and trying to get better at.

“I guess from a nine’s perspective, we’re a big part of that, being able to feel that and change how we need to play on the run.

“So yeah, I think Mike and Rens in particular have sort of opened my eyes to managing that a little bit, and just making sure that I’m still playing to my strengths, not getting too caught up in potentially the way that we want to play and going away from the things that I’m good at as well. So I feel like we’ve got that good balance, and yeah, hopefully we can see that on the weekend.”