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Where the All Blacks' succession planning took a back seat in 2020
2020 was supposed to be a year of change and growth for the All Blacks.
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Steve Hansen’s incredibly successful tenure as head coach of the New Zealand national side came to an end last year following the Rugby World Cup while the All Blacks also farewelled Matt Todd, Ryan Crotty, Sonny Bill Williams, Ben Smith and captain Kieran Read.
Wales and Scotland were scheduled to travel to New Zealand in July, with the All Blacks set to play the same sides at the end of the year, along with World Cup finalists England.
With a new head coach in the form of Ian Foster, and a new four-year World Cup cycle set to begin, big things were expected for 2020.
The global pandemic changed things, however. The All Blacks played just six matches this year and opportunities for welcoming in a new generation of talent have been few and far between.
Foster fielded what was close to a first XV for the opening three fixtures of the calendar in order to secure the Bledisloe Cup. That was necessary, thanks to the opening draw in Wellington.
Alex Hodgman, Tupou Vaa’i, Hoskins Sotutu and Caleb Clarke were the only debutants used in those first three games, with Clarke netting two starts and Vaa’i and Sotutu playing one apiece.
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In the fourth and final test against the Wallabies, with the Bledisloe Cup locked up, Foster handed four more players their All Blacks debuts – Akira Ioane, Asafo Aumua, Cullen Grace and Will Jordan.
Ioane was the only starter and his night was cut short thanks to a red card to prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi. Grace had just a handful of minutes while Jordan was pulled when he suffered a head knock shortly after running onto the field.
Aumua, meanwhile, played just 10 minutes on his debut – the only minutes the young hooker accrued for the All Blacks throughout the year.
The two games against Argentina also failed to offer up too many opportunities for the team’s youngsters and all-in-all, it’s been a mixed year for the development of the future of the All Blacks.
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Clarke, Jordan, Sotutu and Vaa’i had the most chances to press their claims – but in positions where the All Blacks aren’t exactly short of talent.
As the All Blacks season comes to a close with the Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations title in tow, we look back on how members of Ian Foster's squad fared over the course of the year. #AllBlacks #TriNations https://t.co/QusV97DhZb
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 7, 2020
With Brodie Retallick set to return from his sabbatical next year, New Zealand’s locking stocks are looking incredibly healthy. Vaa’i and his fellow youthful second-rowers will struggle to crack the NZ team next season as they’ll have to usurp Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Scott Barrett or Patrick Tuipulotu for a spot.
In the outside backs, Jordan and Clarke have both made a case for more permanent positions in the team but the All Blacks are by no means short of talented players to inject on the wings and at fullback. Their performances and continued development in 2020 have been great to see – but adding two more outside backs into New Zealand’s national stocks, no matter how talented they are, isn’t a game-changer for last year’s World Cup semi-finalists.
Sotutu, on the other hand, could offer a point of difference at No 8, with no obvious heir-apparent to Kieran Read – but it’s still not the All Blacks’ biggest problem area.
Instead, that’s a two-way tie between hooker and halfback. That’s not because the incumbents aren’t special – Aaron Smith, Codie Taylor and Dane Coles would all have claims to being the best in their position across the globe – it’s because there’s no obvious back-up plan for when these ageing stars finally call it quits.
The trio of Smith, TJ Perenara and Brad Weber, who are all 28 or older, were selected as the All Blacks’ three halfbacks for last year’s World Cup and they were again summoned to the squad for 2020.
While all three could technically still be good enough to feature at the 2023 World Cup in France, it’s difficult to imagine that they’d have the speed to keep up with the pacey halfbacks that are popping up across the globe.
Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi and Mitch Drummond have earned call-ups to the side in recent times but neither has come on in leaps and bounds in the last two years.
Drummond job-shares with Bryn Hall at the Crusaders while Tahuriorangi is Weber’s back-up at the Chiefs and will face stiff competition from Waikato’s Xavier Roe next season.
All Black and Chiefs halfback Brad Weber has re-signed with New Zealand Rugby and the Chiefs for another year. #BradWeber #Chiefs #AllBlacks https://t.co/B4NFdf8XTs
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 29, 2020
Folau Fakatava was a stand-out for Hawke’s Bay during the Mitre 10 Cup and will again sit behind Smith at the Highlanders – but perhaps that’s the perfect training for a young man who could perform the same role at the international level.
Fakatava has the raw potential to play for the All Blacks and is perhaps a more abrasive character than Smith, but his core duties still require plenty of work-shopping.
The hooker situation is similar, with a rejuvenated Coles taking over the starting duties this year and Taylor being injected off the bench later in games.
Aumua, meanwhile, first played for the All Blacks in 2017 (two non-tests against the Barbarians and a French XV) and is still just 23 – but he desperately needs minutes under his belt. Even at Super Rugby level, he’s camped behind Coles at the Hurricanes and has sometimes struggled to make the match-day team.
It took Taylor four years of professional rugby before he cracked the All Blacks and started making a name for himself, so there’s still plenty of time for Aumua to assert himself – but 33-year-old old Coles may not have the legs to make another World Cup, which creates a bit of a problem for the All Blacks.
If Coles does retire before 2023, Foster will be forced to select two relatively inexperienced hookers in his squad, which emphasises the need for Aumua to get up to speed sooner rather than later.
Of course, the likes of Nathan Harris and Liam Coltman could play themselves back into contention for a national re-call next season, while you imagine that 32-year-old Ash Dixon could seamlessly slide into test football without needing too much time to acquaint himself with the rigours of the higher level.
Succession planning is well underway in the All Blacks camp, but the greatest success stories of 2020 weren’t in the positions that NZ are so desperate for talent to break through. With a full calendar planned for next year, Ian Foster will be hoping to integrate his youthful talent a bit more seamlessly than in this year’s disrupted season.
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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