Why does it always rain All Blacks test debuts when the Pumas are involved?
Blooding newcomers to the test rugby scene is not an easy task.
Although there are some players who take to international rugby like fish to water, most take a little bit of time to find their feet.
For every Rieko Ioane there’s a Francis Saili. For every Lima Sopoaga there’s an Aaron Cruden.
Since Steve Hansen ascended to head coach of the All Blacks, he’s almost rolled out almost 70 new caps. Brodie Retallick, Aaron Smith and Julian Savea all debuted together back in 2012, whilst Sevu Reece will become the latest when he runs out onto José Amalfitani Stadium this weekend.
Given that players aren’t always on the top of their game when they make their first appearances in black, it’s no surprise that Hansen and his fellow selectors have typically opted to blood newcomers against relatively weaker opposition.
New year, new blood
When Reece takes the field, he will become the 10th player to be capped by Steve Hansen’s All Blacks against Argentina.
Assuming that the bench quartet of Atu Moli, Luke Jacobson, Josh Ioane and Braydon Ennor all get to run on at some point, the total number of players capped against Argentina under Hansen’s reign will reach 14.
Until late last year, Argentina had been Hansen’s team of choice to give newbies their first test cap, but Japan then jumped to the top of the table when a hugely inexperienced All Blacks team was rolled out to deal to the Brave Blossoms.
Made famous in Japan
Japan are not a country that the All Blacks face often, but when the two sides do tee off it’s become common for New Zealand to run out a makeshift team full of debutants.
Last year, Mitchell Drummond, Dillon Hunt, Dalton Papalii, Matt Proctor, George Bridge, Gareth Evans, Tyrel Lomax and Brett Cameron all earned their first test cap against the Brave Blossoms. Back in 2013, it was Dominic Bird, Frank Halai, Luke Whitelock and Jeffery Toomaga-Allen that ran out against Japan for their test debuts.
Unless something especially unusual happens, the 12 players blooded against Japan will be surpassed on Sunday morning.
Keeping reading below…
Tellingly, however, very few of the players who do earn their stripes against Japan have gone on to forge great international careers.
The four who debuted in 2013 have amassed just 10 caps between them (with 7 of those being Whitelock’s). All four are signed with foreign sides for 2020 so won’t be eligible for the All Blacks.
It’s obviously too early to write off last year’s crop, but Hunt and Cameron seemed to fall down the pecking order at their Super Rugby franchises while Gareth Evans has a number of younger loose forward ahead of him around the country. Matt Proctor will be playing in England next year. There’s still plenty of time for the likes of Papalii, Bridge and Lomax to forge successful international careers.
Argentina debutants, on the other hand, have so far proven to be quite successful under Hansen’s current tenure.
Long-term success from Puma debuts
Charlie Faumuina, Nathan Harris and Waisake Naholo all featured at the last World Cup after debuting against the Pumas whilst Codie Taylor and Damian McKenzie have been regular selections since they earned their first caps. Angus Ta’avao has probably already exceeded many people’s expectations and will start another test this weekend and Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi could still see plenty of game time in the future.
David Havili was probably unlucky to miss out on selection in this year’s All Blacks squad, leaving just Francis Saili as the sole ‘disappointment’. Saili could well have spent a number of years in the team, however, if he didn’t decide to head overseas early in his career.
Argentina is evidently just the right level of difficulty to blood newcomers – not a walkover, but a frequent enough opponent that New Zealand has never really been too surprised by what the Argentinians have thrown out on the field.
Wales, Ireland and France, who have all toured New Zealand in the June tests since Hansen took over, have also faced a number of newcomers. France, in particular, have been on hand to blood 10 debutants, courtesy of two tours. Given that these European sides tend to be the first teams that New Zealand faces in a calendar year, it’s not a surprise at all.
It is a bit peculiar that so many players have debuted against Argentina given that the All Blacks don’t tend to face the Pumas until four matches into the year at the earliest. Obviously, the six potential debutants this year will contribute a significant amount to the figure, but this is the only team where the All Blacks have really let loose with the newbies in one fixture. Typically, just one or two players will get their first cap against the Pumas – though that seems to happen like clockwork. The fact that the two nations square off twice every year (World Cup years excluded) obviously plays a big role.
No lambs to the slaughter against Boks
Whilst Argentina help NZ blood the most players, it’s the All Blacks’ number one foes who rarely get to face newbies.
Only two players have made their debuts for the All Blacks against the Springboks in the last eight years: Lima Sopoaga and James Broadhurst. To make for an even tougher baptism, that 2015 match was played at Ellis Park, one of the toughest grounds to travel to.
South Africa have traditionally been one New Zealand’s toughest opponents, so it’s not unusual that few players have to find their feet against the Springboks. Games against South Africa also tend to come a bit later in the season, once the June tests and the first couple of Rugby Championship games are out of the way, so it would be unusual for many uncapped players to still be included in an All Blacks squad by that point in the year.
If the potential debutants all run out this weekend then every player in the current 39-man All Blacks squad will have at least one international match to their name. Whilst it’s not impossible, we’re unlikely to see any further uncapped players join up with the All Blacks this year, meaning this Argentina fixture will be the sole game in which new players are blooded.
Given that the World Cup is just two months away, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hansen has tried to get the test debuts out of the way early in the year. Some of these newbies are fighting it out for just a few spare spaces in the squad, so they don’t have the luxury of taking their time to find their feet on the international stage that other players have had in previous years.
Argentina may not be the toughest opponents in the world, but five new All Blacks look will find out this weekend that international rugby is a major step up from the matches they’ve become accustomed to.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments