The All Blacks strongest midfield partnership for the next World Cup is already clear

We never really got an explanation as to why the the All Blacks midfield was broken up in 2025.

The three-year partnership between Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane came to an end with Ioane’s transition to wing and eventual “phasing out” of the starting side.

In his place came Billy Proctor, the form centre from Super Rugby Pacific, but troubles persisted with the All Blacks cohesion in the backline. The Hurricanes’ centre never stamped his mark with a signature showing, leading to the coaches to move Quinn Tupaea to centre in an experimental move.

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The Chiefs’ midfielder had the most assured performance of the year with a two-try effort in Perth against the Wallabies, leading many to believe he would lock down the role.

On the end of year tour he was moved back to 12 to start with Billy Proctor, and the lack of midfield defence was a key reason why England were able to climb back to take a 33-19 win at Twickenham.

In 2026, Tupaea has continued playing second five during Super Rugby to partner Daniel Rona at the Chiefs, leaving the new All Blacks coaching staff short on any tape to help select him again at 13 for the All Blacks.

Around the New Zealand Super Rugby teams, Billy Proctor is still probably the form centre despite having defensive lapses. The Blues AJ Lam is a powerful ball carrier with commitments overseas, the Highlanders have been trying winger Jonah Lowe and the Crusaders still prefer Braydon Ennor, another with a pending departure date.

That Proctor is the form 13 in Super Rugby yet discussions revolve around other players is a concern for the All Blacks. Many believe Tupaea should be tried there again, some calls have been for Jordie Barrett to move out one position.

However, as it stands, there is only one solid midfield partnership that should take the All Blacks too the next World Cup and it is the same as the last: Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane.

Sometimes the best solution is the most obvious.The Barrett-Ioane partnership shouldn’t be given up on so easily. The pair had taken hold of the midfield when Joe Schmidt joined the All Blacks as an assistant in 2022, with Ioane finding his best form as a 13 and Barrett making the move to 12 following his early career as a fullback.

When Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu took over the midfield in 2008, Smith was already 27-years-old, while Nonu was 26. The finest midfield partnership that New Zealand has had didn’t start until both players were late 20s.

Barrett and Ioane are both 29 right now, already with over three years experience starting at Test level and one World Cup campaign together there. Based on Nonu and Smith, they could potentially go another four years if given the opportunity.

The case for Ioane and Barrett is the strongest there is from the available options and it stems from Ioane’s defensive ability and Barrett’s playmaking ability.

While Ioane hadn’t been lighting the world on fire on attack during 2024-25, his resolve as a defensive centre is underrated and under appreciated. Only when the midfield falls apart, see the Twickenham Test, do you recognise the value of Ioane.

He produces great cover tackles time and time again, has enough speed left to cover outside channels and does not get exposed on inside channels the way that Proctor does. He might not have the top end speed like he used to, but he can be the glue to hold a back line together.

Barrett has returned from Leinster as the world best’s 12, transforming the Hurricanes’ attack into a points-scoring machine. The Hurricanes are blitzing teams at a record pace, setting themselves up to be one of the all-time attacking sides in Super Rugby.

Their entire system is anchored on Barrett at 12 as the hinge. He has short and long passing distribution that is deliberately weaved into the Canes’ plans, with Barrett now leading the competition in try assists with seven.

He’s come back from Ireland on another level and it would be folly to move him to 13 or 15 with the All Blacks based on his play right now. The All Blacks need to take a lot of what the Hurricanes are doing and replicate it with Jordie Barrett.

Ioane has already proven to be a perfect midfield partner for Barrett, one who will run the decoy lines without too much fuss and defend extremely well.

If it isn’t broke, why fix it? Can we even explain the reason why Ioane was removed from the midfield in the first place?

At the end of 2024 he was leading the Haka against the Irish and by July 2025 he was shifted to the wing. There wasn’t one poor performance by Ioane in the black 13 jersey to justify being dropped.

Now that Robertson’s crew have been turfed, it’s time to reinstate the best midfield combination the All Blacks have, the one that took them to the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.