'He has that IQ': Ex-All Blacks debate whether Cam Roigard is world's best No.9

All Blacks halfback Cam Roigard produced another world class display with a man of the match performance over France in the 34-32 win in the opening round of the Nations Championship.

Over 60 per cent of fans polled on Sky Sport NZ’s The Breakdown believed that New Zealand have the world’s best No.9 with Roigard’s running game becoming central to the All Blacks’ game.

In his 18 Test matches to date Roigard has 14 tries and seven try assists for a total of 21 try involvements. His 0.78 try scoring strike rate is among some of the all-time greats with Doug Howlett (0.79), Christian Cullen (0.79) and Jeff Wilson (0.73).

One fan summed up Roigard as the “best ever” halfback that New Zealand has produced: “Cam Roigard is the best halfback New Zealand’s ever had. Everyone said Aaron Smith changed half backs with his passing game, Roigard has changed it with his running game.”

Ex-All Black first five Stephen Donald agreed that Roigard was number one in the world but that he hadn’t yet overtaken Aaron Smith in the all-time ranks.

“On voting him as the best halfback in the world? Absolutely. Is he Aaron Smith yet? I’d say he’d be the first in that he’s probably not, but he’s different to Aaron Smith,” Donald told The Breakdown panel.

“He is probably a mixture of the of the era before Aaron Smith, and then Aaron Smith.

“So look, he’s young, he’s only played about two-three years, he’s had injuries, by the time the next World Cup comes around, absolutely, he could be anything.”

Mils Muliaina explained that the ability Roigard brings to the All Blacks has fundamentally changed the way New Zealand play.

The All Blacks have historically built attack around the No.10 with the likes of Carlos Spencer, Dan Carter, and Beauden Barrett through the years, with the halfback’s core role to provide excellent service.

Against France the Roigard-Love combination found a balance with the No.9 taking over in the second half to make the big plays and drive the team around.

“Just consistently, every year gets better and better,” he said of Roigard.

“I think that’s what we’ve sort of seen, last night’s performance, particularly the things that when he’s been under pressure, like that box kicked off his own line, you know, to get us to the 40 metre mark.

“That’s the sort of stuff you think ‘far out, here’s a guy that’s got special things’.

“The thing that’s a little bit different, and we haven’t really seen over the past few years, is do we build a game around a nine, which we seldom ever do, right? It’s always around the 10. This nine here, you’d have to say yes.”

Donald agreed that Roigard has the temperament and control to run the game and adopt the approach France have when Antoine Dupont is playing.

“You could go that route particularly with Cam, in the sense that he has that IQ, he has that game management ability,” Donald said.

“There’s a calmness as a guy who’s taking control of the game as a 10 would, where usually nine would distribute to 10, and 10 would run the show, so very much so we could go down essentially a French route, as far as a nine being the big governor.”

On the Roigard-Dupont debate, Jeff Wilson said that the 25-year-old has put himself in the conversation with Dupont but was reluctant to say that he had surpassed him.

“His instinct for instincts for the game are getting better at the highest level, and so I thought we saw him execute his skills really well,” Wilson said of Roigard.

“And then the moment the opportunity came, and there was a gaping hole, and there was a few of them, he took those.

“I think one of his great assets is conditioning around the park, he’s second to none, and that to me makes him one of the great halfbacks, because he’s never late to things.

“His anticipation of where to be at the right time. The reason you score tries as a halfback is you anticipate breaks.

“He’s in the conversation for me, he’s in the conversation [for world’s best].”