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'He's fast now': The reason behind Rieko Ioane's All Blacks re-birth
By the end of the 2016 international rugby calendar, the All Blacks had handed a teenaged Rieko Ioane his first two test caps.
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At that point in his career, the then-19-year-old had only two provincial campaigns with Auckland, a one-off Super Rugby spell with the Blues and two World Sevens Series circuits, including an Olympics campaign, with the All Blacks Sevens under his belt.
Young, incredibly quick and a renowned try-scoring machine, it was clear to see the youngster’s potential was vast but still largely untapped as an international prospect after only a couple of cameo appearances against Italy and France in Europe.
It wasn’t until midway through the following year where he fully introduced himself as a standout in the black jersey in the opening test against the British and Irish Lions at Eden Park.
His two-try showing backed up a formidable outing against the same opponents at the same venue while playing for the Blues a few weeks beforehand, and it proved Ioane as a very capable player against some of the world’s elite players.
That form was replicated throughout the course of 2017 and 2018, and was reflected by his strong strike rate of 22 tries in his first 24 tests.
That was enough to crown him 2017 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year and earned him back-to-back World Rugby Player of the Year nominations in 2017 and 2018.
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Then, however, the 2019 international season arrived, and with it came a downward spiral in Ioane’s All Blacks form.
The seemingly impenetrable confidence with which Ioane played at in the dawn of career looked to be a thing of the past two years ago, and his slump in form couldn’t have come at a worse time given it coincided with a World Cup year.
As a result, Ioane made just five test appearances that season as he was one of a few players dropped from Sir Steve Hansen’s first-choice team following the All Blacks’ record-breaking defeat at the hands of the Wallabies in Perth.
His demotion came after he struggled to impress on the wing against the Springboks in Wellington in the match beforehand, and his fall down the pecking order was reflected by his three World Cup outings against Canada, Namibia and Wales in the bronze final.
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A positional shift from the wing to the midfield at the Blues last year helped Ioane rekindle some of the form he has become renowned for, but some patchy displays for the All Blacks in 2020 did little to convince he was back at his pre-2019 best.
“You assume Argentina and South Africa will provide more difficult Rugby Championship assignments.”
– Hamish Bidwell on the All Blacks after they completed a 3-0 sweep of the Wallabies. https://t.co/lFJczL0Eyy— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 6, 2021
That has changed this year, though, as the 24-year-old, now a veteran of 40 tests, has taken international rugby by storm so far in 2021.
Thriving both in the midfield and on the wing, Ioane looks at his scintillating best, playing with full confidence and speed and power and attacking guile that leaves opposition defences on edge before they even take to the field.
Tonga, Fiji and the Wallabies have all felt the wrath of Ioane’s exploits this season, but the speedster reached new heights this year when the All Blacks secured a Bledisloe Cup clean sweep with a 38-21 victory over the Wallabies in Perth over the weekend.
Named to start on the left wing, Ioane played like a demon at Optus Stadium, the same venue where his fate in 2019 was sealed, with his efforts on either side of the ball best exemplified by two separate plays.
The first of which came in the first half, when he went on a searing run up through the middle of the park while returning the ball from halfway following a clearing kick made by the Wallabies from well inside their own territory.
The vision, pace and acceleration that Ioane showed to tear through the heart of the Australian defence was enough to make your jaw drop, and he could well have scored from that single piece of play had it not been for James Slipper’s desperate ankle tap.
Even more impressive, though, was the backing he had of himself to take the Wallabies on and put the All Blacks in a dangerous attacking position.
Then, in the second half, as the Wallabies threatened to score on a counter-attack instigated by Semu Kerevi and supported by Andrew Kellaway, Ioane was on hand to mow down Tom Banks and drag him into touch with the tryline begging.
Forced to defend a two-on-one situation, Ioane’s good defensive read enabled him to bounce from Kellaway to Banks, who had a decent head start on the All Black on his own 10 metre line, only to be hauled down at the opposite 22 metre mark.
It was a sensational burst of speed from Ioane that showed not only how vital his out-and-out pace is for the All Blacks, but it illustrated his defensive maturity that has perhaps grown thanks to his prolonged spells at centre.
Former All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams says he is “baffled” that veteran Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper wasn’t selected for Sunday’s Bledisloe Cup clash in Perth. #AllBlacks #Wallabies #BledisloeCup #RugbyChampionship #AUSvNZL https://t.co/MUNklnutxU
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 6, 2021
Those two moments encapsulated what was a firepower performance from Ioane, with only his brother Akira able to claim a better outing in Western Australia on Sunday.
The conclusion from that individual display is that the Rieko Ioane we are seeing this season is a vastly-improved player than the one on show in 2019, which is the player we had become accustomed to in recent seasons.
It’s possible that might come as a surprise to some, the naysayers who doubted Ioane’s rise back to the top, but it hasn’t been a shock to All Blacks head coach Ian Foster, who offered some insight behind his star man’s renaissance after the weekend’s test.
“It’s easy to forget in 2019 that he had a calf injury that kept him out of the early part of the international, and by the time he was coming right, it was right at the end of the World Cup,” Foster said.
“He just wasn’t fast in 2019. He’s fast now. He’s got his speed back. He’s got that little swagger that he’s pretty proud of. He’s at his best when he dances around, and he’s feeling good, he’s feeling comfortable in the environment.
“I think, too, he’s embracing a little bit more of a leadership role. He’s embracing the dual task of wing and centre. He’s just getting frustrated there’s always a wing on the other side that’s scoring the tries,” he joked, making reference to Will Jordan.
Given the All Blacks aren’t even halfway through their test schedule for 2021, it may only be a matter of time before Ioane starts bagging his fair share of tries again as he continues to reap the rewards of his All Blacks re-birth.
Comments on RugbyPass
We will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
2 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
2 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
14 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
14 Go to comments