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Retallicka Rocks: How Brodie Retallick Is The All Blacks' Secret Attacking Weapon

By Scotty Stevenson
Brodie Retallick

In a team filled with scintillating backline players, could a giant lock forward be the All Blacks greatest weapon? Brodie Retallick’s numbers suggest he could be just that, writes Scotty Stevenson.

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If you want to be the best team in the world, it helps if you have the best players in every position. It is easy to point to players like Ben Smith and Beauden Barrett when you search for names that have cemented themselves at the top of the global game’s honours list.

However, these are easy marks. First fives and fullbacks are made for running the game, and made for running, full stop. Locks (with some exquisite exceptions over the years) have been less about show and more about go. But through Brodie Retallick the All Blacks have elevated the lock position into a pivotal force in attack, and he has given every opposition team a major headache this year.

Retallick’s workrate is easy to calculate on minutes alone. Just three Rugby Championship locks played more minutes in the tournament than the man affectionately (and rather ominously) known as ‘the Guzzler’. Those three, South African Eben Etzebeth, Argentinean Matias Alemanno and Retallick’s record-setting All Blacks partner Sam Whitelock, are all rightfully regarded as three of the best power forwards in the game, but Retallick stands alone in what he does with his time on the park.

In his 420 minutes this year, Retallick has led all locks in carries, metres made, passes, defenders beaten, clean breaks and turnovers won. Moreover, he ranks fourth in tackles made during the six rounds of championship play, but third overall in tackle percentage. His defensive numbers look doubly impressive given his offensive output is so far ahead of the rest.

 
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In terms of carries, Retallick made 38 in the Rugby Championship, 8 more than both Sam Whitelock and Springbok Pieter-Steph du Toit. That number may not seem significant until you dig a little deeper into the production. Retallick made 129 metres off his ball carry work during the tournament, which is a full 47 metres more than du Toit, the next best, and 71 metres more than Whitelock.

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It gets better. Retallick’s 3.4 metres per carry is also more than any other lock with the exception of Patrick Tuipolotu, who featured in just one test, against Argentina, and carried four times for a combined 23 metres with an average gain of 5.7 metres. Retallick also beat 11 defenders on the run.

Eighteen other locks featured in the Rugby Championship and COMBINED those 18 players beat 22 defenders.

When you look at the way Retallick plays, it is clear no other lock assumes a more fundamental role in phase play attack. Retallick is the All Blacks’ go-to player in the midfield. His options are this: he can take on the line and re-set the ball. He can pop an inside pass to a fellow tight forward. He can pop an outside ball to a loose forward. He can turn at the line and throw a release ball out the back to a backline player – halfback or first five – or, and this has become a new option for the All Blacks over the course of the championship, a secondary short ball to a midfielder running between the support forward and Retallick’s shoulder.

A well-earned Man of the Match lager (Photo Getty Images)
A well-earned Man of the Match lager (Photo Getty Images)
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All told, that is five attacking options that hinge on Retallick every time he takes the ball in midfield. And he rarely makes a mistake. Just twice during the championship did he turn over the ball. For a man who had 74 possessions across the six games, that is a truly phenomenal statistic. To put it in perspective, Australian Dean Mumm had 32 possessions in six games and coughed up the ball 7 times.

There is something else in Retallick’s possession count that is worthy of a second look, if not a second take. The All Black made 31 passes and 4 offloads over the course of the rugby championship – that is a 47% pass rate on possession. Pieter-Steph du Toit, the next best in terms of passing ability threw just 16 passes and 1 offload, using the option just 33% of the time.

The All Blacks have been rightly lauded for their play during the season’s Rugby Championship, but as Retallick’s number show, perhaps their greatest weapon is not just having the best players in their positions, but changing the way those positions are played. At the moment there is no lock in the world with so much riding on their performance, and no lock in the world delivering a Retallick-level performance.

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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