Justin Marshall on the ABs’ midfield and what’s needed to beat Springboks

Former All Black halfback Justin Marshall has pinpointed one of the biggest positives from Dave Rennie’s side’s victory over Ireland at Eden Park on Saturday evening

The All Blacks started strongly in Auckland, for the first time in this Nations Championship campaign, after going behind in both of their Tests against France and Italy, respectively.

The All Blacks opened the scoring in the 14th minute through hometown hero Patrick Tuipulotu, before Ardie Savea powered his way off the back of the scrum to dot down close to the posts.

Marshall, who played 81 Tests for the All Blacks, said that Rennie has now found his centre for the Greatest Rivalry Tour for South Africa, after their 40-21 triumph over Ireland.

Chiefs midfielder Quinn Tupaea started in both the France and Ireland Tests, while Hurricanes centre Billy Proctor was given the nod for the Italy encounter in Wellington.

Debating who they thought stood out in the 19-point victory over Ireland, the Sky Sport Breakdown panel settled on Quinn Tupaea, Patrick Tuipulotu, and Asafo Aumua.

Marshall started the conversation by praising the All Blacks’ performance before moving onto Tupaea’s evening.

“Oh, look! First of all, what a great performance from the All Blacks.” Marshall said on The Breakdown.

“I think we all agree on that. And just very quickly, look, our role and our job, and what we do, is to ask the questions. What the teams that we are talking about, their role is to provide the answers.

“And I thought that the All Blacks did a really good job of providing some answers at the weekend, and one of them was at centre with Quinn Tupaea.”

“What we’ve all been wondering is when the aggressive UK-style blitz defence comes at you and South Africa, have we got a player that can handle that, not get spooked, distribute pre-contact, and free the space to our weapons that we’ve got out wide?

”And I think Tupaea provided that answer not only with his distribution, but his carries were strong. I just thought that his performance was what we want from an All Black centre and what we will need going to South Africa.”

The former All Black turned Sky Sport commentator said that his interaction with the Chiefs midfielder prior to the contest explained the team’s mindset heading into the Test match.

“I actually chatted to him, and I came out to see Goldie, I chatted to Quinn. He was our player interview off the bus, and Quinn’s a really good talker, but he didn’t say much to me.

“We got nothing. I don’t know how much he likes me, but anyway, he didn’t say a great deal. But the reason I think for that, there was a real focus about him, and I think he probably took whatever came out of that Test [against France] and whatever they said to him in terms of work ons.

“And there was just this real resolve about him. His mentality was there, and his performance backed that up. And I think there was a resolve about all of those players, though, and I think about the rivalry with Ireland.”