Former All Blacks pick their right wing for second France Test

It only took less than a minute in the first Test against France in Dunedin for injuries to change the way the All Blacks lined up, with Sevu Reece going down with a category one HIA, meaning the 28-year-old All Blacks winger will miss this weekend’s second Test.

All Blacks playmaker Damian McKenzie came on to the field and played out the rest of the game at fullback, shifting Will Jordan to the right wing, which could be an option for Scott Robertson and co for the second Test against France in Wellington.

Jordan has played more than enough rugby on the right wing for the All Blacks and can be trusted there, but if they want to go down the specialist route, Chiefs winger Emoni Narawa is the obvious option.

Former All Black first-five Aaron Cruden is a firm believer of putting Narawa in his favoured right wing spot, after a superb year for the Chiefs in Super Rugby Pacific.

“Yeah, he was outstanding this year and I think out of all of the four guys there, he’s a traditional right winger as you’ve said, and whether you want to replace a right winger with a right winger, he certainly deserves an opportunity,” Cruden said on The Breakdown show on Sky Sports.

“I think he got a little crack last year against Fiji, and then was put on the outer, but I think his form has been outstanding and I wouldn’t be against it.”

Former All Black and Chiefs first-five Stephen Donald is keen to see Jordan stay on the right wing, which means that McKenzie would start at fullback.

“Yeah, I don’t think you can go wrong with any of those four options you’ve chucked up (Narawa, Jordan, Clarke, Tavatavanawai), but I’m keeping will Jordan there on the right, Damian McKenzie, to bank what they did last night and to go again.

“Is Jordan any different from 15 to Winger? He’s so busy, he gets so active, from a winger’s point of view as well as a 15, so for me it doesn’t really seem to matter when he’s on the field,” Donald said.

23-Test former All Blacks prop Angus Ta’avao agrees with Donald, saying that McKenzie’s impact on the weekend off the bench opened the game up for the home side.

“I think what we’ve talked about earlier, it’s not just who the right wing is that determines who the fullback is, and what DMAC brought into that Test match, getting it back to halfway, run first mentality, getting in behind the French defence.

“I thought he really helped change the game and spark some great moments throughout the 80 minutes,” Ta’avao said.

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Despite most of the discussion for this weekend’s second Test being about the right wing position, former All Black Jeff Wilson has posed the question about Rieko Ioane on the left wing, as he believes wingers must be able to beat the defenders in this day and age.

“Players must have the ability to beat men, because you need to have something special now on the wing because defences are so very solid,” Wilson said on The Breakdown.

“Where does that leave Rieko? How much longer do we look at him on the wing, and how much time do we give him to get back to what he was doing well when he was playing in the 11 jersey?”

Donald thinks Ioane will stay on the wing for the foreseeable future because he believes the All Blacks should continue the midfield experiment.

“I think he gets a massive pass, like a massive window in the jersey, I mean, we know that we could end up in Australia, and if we haven’t settled on our midfield, we know what we’re going to get with Rieko.

“We’ve got an experienced midfielder can go out there and start at 13, but I think with what we’ve got now in the midfield, it’s worth the experiment of him going back to the left wing and look this is first game starting on the left wing for probably four or five years, so I think he gets as much time as he needs.”