The locks and loose forwards are as good as New Zealand has had

The All Blacks have done all right.

Yes, two games into their tour to South Africa, the performances have been pretty good. I’m not sure they’ve been pushed too hard by their opponents or we’ve learnt much that we didn’t already know, but there’s definitely not a lot to complain about.

Before a ball was kicked, I’d have happily taken a 38-21 win over the Stormers and then a 54-0 rout of the Sharks. It’s just that both matches felt slightly underwhelming after all the expectation leading into them.

The kicking of the South Africans has been interesting. The All Blacks were an absolute liability under the high ball on their Northern Hemisphere tour of 2025 and I was surprised opponents didn’t pepper them in their first three Tests of this season.

The Stormers and Sharks definitely have done and the jury’s still out on whether the All Blacks have made marked improvement in that area. I guess the Tests against the Springboks will tell us.

But it’s been striking, almost jarring, to see the Sharks and Stormers hoist good ball rather than pass or carry it.

I was a little disappointed with the outing against the Stormers. I thought the All Blacks played too laterally and showed no respect for the football.

It’s nice to play at a quick tempo and use the ball at every opportunity, but I’m not sure it’s a winning strategy in Test rugby.

I kind of blame Beauden Barrett in that instance and that would be among the things I’ve taken from these two games.

To my eye, the All Blacks looked far better with Ruben Love at 10 against the Sharks and that’s reassuring. We all see the promise he has and his ability was kind of confirmed by how Barrett played in comparison.

I’ve always liked Kyle Preston and thought his performance against the Sharks more than justified his selection on this tour. It didn’t seem like everyone was enthusiastic about him being picked, but I think he’ll prove a better back-up halfback than Cortez Ratima in time.

I like Asafo Aumua’s physicality on both attack and defence, but continue to worry about his lineout throwing. For all he adds around the park, it’s hard to feel confident the throwing won’t let the All Blacks down when it counts.

Rieko Ioane tried too hard against the Stormers, Billy Proctor and Quinn Tupaea are both excellent options at centre and Caleb Clarke looks lively on the wing whenever he can catch the ball cleanly.

But it’s the quality and depth of the forwards that’s going to make the All Blacks competitive against the Springboks.

The locks and loose forwards, particularly, are as good as New Zealand’s ever had. That doesn’t mean that, individually, they’re all-time greats, but the collective strength and quality are outstanding.

You could pick any combination of them with confidence and that’s a great luxury for the selectors.

I look at someone such as Ethan Blackadder, who’s been an afterthought in recent times.

Yet his workrate and accuracy off the bench against the Sharks was eye-catching for a guy who’s relatively far down the pecking order.

It just shows how many good loose forwards New Zealand has.

On a more general note, it’s just nice to have a mid-week game to watch again and to see guys getting a chance to represent their country. As I’ve written before, this is a fact-finding mission and by casting the net wide the All Blacks are going to develop more players of genuine Test standard.

I’d offer Josh Jacomb as a prime example of a bloke who didn’t look out of place in the jersey and who will grow from being on this tour.

No, it’s a pass mark from me so far, with better to hopefully come when the Test matches roll around.