World Cup auditions continue for All Blacks - Rugby Championship preview
After a dominant June series win against France, the All Blacks will be hoping to keep the Rugby Championship trophy and Bledisloe Cup locked up for another year as the 2019 World Cup edges closer.
The All Blacks outscored their French mid-season opponents 127-38 over three tests and will be hoping for more of the same when they meet with Australia, South Africa and Argentina over the next few weeks.
Steve Hansen’s men will open their Rugby Championship campaign on a high, with the Christchurch-based Crusaders having secured another Super Rugby title and four of the five New Zealand franchises reaching the knockout stages of the competition.
The All Blacks’ first fixture of the Championship – against Australia in Sydney – will be where they make their mark and set the tone for the rest of the competition. Despite Australia emerging victorious in Brisbane the last time the two teams met, the last time they met in Sydney, the All Blacks romped to a 54-34 win. If the New Zealand side can find that second gear early on, they may end Australia’s Championship aspirations before they have a chance to get off the ground.
The schedule of the tournament serves to benefit the All Blacks, as – aside from their early visit to Sydney – they will spend the first half of the tournament at home. Their final fixture – the third Bledisloe Cup test – in Yokohama could prove decisive if Australia can defend their home turf in the opener. Outside of World Cup fixtures, the All Blacks have suffered two consecutive losses at a neutral venue. They lost to Ireland for the first time in their history at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 2016, and in 2010 they lost to Australia in Hong Kong.
With an Australian resurgence on the cards after a strong series against world number two Ireland and South Africa coming off a series victory against world number four England, performing on the road, especially towards the tail end of the competition, will be key for the All Blacks as they fight to retain their place atop rugby’s pecking order.
What has separated the All Blacks from the rest of the teams in the competition is their difference in problems. While the Wallabies and Springboks have concerns surrounding depth in key positions, one of the All Blacks’ biggest problems is that you can only have 15 men on the field at the same time. With the Rugby World Cup just over one year away, each minute on the field serves as an audition to get on the plane to Japan next year – especially for those on the fringes.
Rookie Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus recently acknowledged his side don’t currently have the ideal level of depth that he would like, while it’s no secret that Australia’s lack of depth in the halves and midfield injury crisis has hamstrung their chances of success in the upcoming tournament. Argentina will also be going through an adjustment period of sorts as they move forward with new head coach Mario Ledesma.
For Steve Hansen’s All Blacks, the surplus of talent at a number of positions gives selectors a problem most wish they had.
At first five-eighth, Richie Mo’unga is nipping at the heels of the incumbent Beauden Barrett. The scintillating form of the Crusaders playmaker has fans and pundits calling for the 24-year-old to assume the All Blacks’ No. 10 jersey sooner rather than later, while the electrifying Damian McKenzie – recently named by SANZAAR as Super Rugby’s Player of the Season for the third successive year – continues to push his own case for the spot.
In the midfield, the All Blacks still pose a major threat despite missing the oft-injured Sonny Bill Williams for at least the first part of the campaign. Williams’ injury woes open the door for Crusaders centre Jack Goodhue – who led all Super Rugby backs in made tackles this year – to resume his formidable partnership with the rock-solid Ryan Crotty and potentially shore up a permanent spot in the national side. Hurricanes form midfielder Ngani Laumape, included as injury cover for Williams, will also be focused on building his portfolio in the black jersey as he pushes for World Cup selection.
In the forward pack, the return of Kieran Read will serve as a huge boost as the captain grew from strength to strength at the tail end of the Crusaders’ Super Rugby season. Read will marshal many of the same troops from that title-winning group, with seven Crusaders forwards picked in the All Blacks squad, including five front rowers.
The area of most concern for the All Blacks from a selection standpoint is the back row. This stems from the omission of Vaea Fifita and inclusion of Jackson Hemopo. Fifita seems to have fallen out of favour after a drop in form and being used primarily as a lock by Chris Boyd at the Hurricanes. Hemopo – also used mainly at lock during the Super Rugby season – received the nod and will be used exclusively as a blindside flanker. After the departure of longtime workhorse Jerome Kaino, the No. 6 jersey is fairly open, though Liam Squire seems to have the tightest grip of any recent comer.
This tournament should clear things up for Hansen moving forward as he refines his World Cup group and tries to secure his sixth Rugby Championship title since the competition’s remodeling in 2012.
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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