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Cam Roigard pinpoints All Blacks’ biggest challenge ahead of Northern Tour

Cam Roigard takes the field for the All Blacks. Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

Halfback Cam Roigard has highlighted “back-to-back performances” as the All Blacks’ greatest challenge ahead of the team’s Northern Tour. After failing to win The Rugby Championship, the New Zealanders are preparing to face some of the world’s best in Europe.

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Eddie Jones’ Japan will be the first side to host the All Blacks during their-end-of-year tour, with the visitors currently in Tokyo preparing for that Test. New Zealand will then travel north where they’ll face England, Ireland, France and Italy.

The clash with England at London’s Allianz Stadium has the potential to be yet another classic Test between the two rival rugby nations, with New Zealand sneaking by Steve Borthwick’s men in two hotly contest matches during the July international window.

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Flyhalf Marcus Smith recently warned the English “owe New Zealand one” ahead of that clash in early November, and they won’t be the only side sharing that view. Ireland will also be out for revenge in the first meeting between the sides since last year’s World Cup quarter-final.

For the All Blacks, they’ll need to be at their very best across these five Tests, and consistency hasn’t quite been their friend so far in 2024. They lost a Test to Argentina in TRC before falling to South Africa twice, but they did end that campaign on a high against Australia.

“Back-to-back performances will be huge,” Roigard told reporters this week.

“Obviously, we’ve got Japan, and then we’ve got England, Ireland and France which are obviously great sides. It’ll take the whole squad to put some good performances through. Probably can’t rely on the same 23 because they are such physical games.

“Teams like Ireland will be trying to get one over us, and on the flip of that, we’ll be trying to get one over France. It’ll be hugely contested but it’ll take the whole squad to get the performances we’re after and consistency will be huge.”

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You could hear it in his voice, Roigard can’t wait for this tour abroad. The 23-year-old hasn’t played for the All Blacks since the pool stage of last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, with the highly-rated halfback suffering a devastating knee injury during Super Rugby Pacific.

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Roigard was earmarked as the potential successor to Aaron Smith in the All Blacks’ No. 9 jersey, with Smith retiring after the sport’s showpiece event. But, with Roigard on the sidelines, youngster Cortez Ratima has shone in the black jersey.

Whether it’s in the starting side or off the pine, Ratima has emerged as a potential candidate for Breakthrough Player of the Year honours – combining well with veteran halfback TJ Perenara as a skilful one-two punch regardless of who wears the No. 9.

But with Aaron Smith out of the picture, and Perenara will walk away from Test rugby at the end of the year after signing a multi-year deal in Japan, there’s an “opportunity” for Roigard, Ratima and one-Test All Black Noah Hotham to shine.

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“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty clear there is an opportunity there to cement a spot in the All Blacks. It’s no one’s to start with but I guess there is opportunity there, but not trying to look too far ahead,” Roigard explained.

“I’m sure when (Aaron Smith) was first in the team, he was never thinking he was going to have the career that he had – straight into starting and playing all those games consecutively.

“I’m focused on just trying to get back in the group and try and work as hard as I can to get an opportunity, and if that does come, then I can take it hopefully with both hands and see what happens from there.

“Really looking forward to working alongside Cortez and TJ for this next block.”

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

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1 Comment
D
DC000 20 days ago

It's Wayne Barnes not reffing. Because without him, Ireland is destroying them.

R
RedWarrior 22 days ago

The only glimmer of hope NZ have against Ireland (and maybe more so England) is that its these teams first match in a while. Ireland were clunky first match in the SA series. But i have a feeling that both teams will be up to speed for this one. Yes NZ must go back to back. But they must go back to back after 6 days versus Ireland. If England pull out a massive emotional performance then they will take a lot out of NZ even if they scrape by. We may witness one of Ireland's greatest ever test matches in terms of controlled fury and emotion and accuracy. Ireland want to win first and foremost, but they want to do damage also. The 'one' that Ireland want to get over NZ is not this one though. It's the next RWC. Ireland will be desperate to meet NZ and eliminate them. Things won't be settled until then.

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JW 1 hour ago
All Blacks player ratings vs Ireland | Autumn Nations Series

Nah, if you see some picture of a way to blame Dmac rather than the whole team who were slacking and just getting beat by an Argentina team that was up for it then you've got unconscious bias I'm afraid.


The coaching staff (and the team as they had done throughout Fosters era) did just not get them in the right frame of mind. They slackened off after two intense English tests and were slow to build back up into test match intensity after the San Diego run around. You can view that Wellington loss as akin to what went on in Chicago in 2016, it was just delayed a couple of weeks in this instance.


Good reminder of what game management is, unfortunately it doesn't cover all the bases and is missing pivotal parts of lethality.


I think you're misunderstanding the argument, this is about Dmac, not the team, and about his idea of game management, not his application. In none of the games this year, including this weekends one, has he done relentless execution of the basics. His conservative game was neither shrewd or accurate.


The difference here is perspective. You see a win and you want to apply credit, just as you saw a lose and want to apply blame. Dmac's game management in both circumstances was very similar, just in this game I felt that pressure to concentrate on it caused him a few more errors in that application for no real gain in that area, and a much more ineffective attack stop the team from making it a very comfortable game.


The other difference is you a way overplaying Irelands performance imo. They were pathetic. Even in the start of the 2nd when they were trying to get points with the card it felt comfortable they weren't going to have what it takes even if they fixed their error rate. That was the first Bled test where Dmac nearly singlehandedly took an unbeatable 50 lead, a great example of good game management that again just didn't come off. Those tests were not 12 tests ago. Twelve tests ago he was running England around like he'd been in the jersey his whole career. We didn't break any record, the streak is a figment of Irelands imagination to desperately show how good they are to the world. You've been caught hook line and sinker in all these topics sadly.

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