Rookies entrusted with starting roles
Step up Jordie Barrett. Step up Ngani Laumape. This is the moment you have been waiting all your young lives for.
The rookie Hurricanes duo, with just two test appearances off the bench between them, are the notable selections in the All Blacks starting XV named for Saturday’s monumental series decider against the British and Irish Lions at Eden Park. Throw in the recall of Julian Savea on the left wing, and it’s a lineup few were predicting beforehand.
The All Blacks are seeking to avoid becoming just the second New Zealand side in history to lose a series to the Lions, and Steve Hansen has not been afraid to throw a couple of inexperienced campaigners into the heat of battle.
It’s a bold selection by the All Blacks coach as he gives the 20-year-old Barrett his first test start at fullback in a match that all and sundry are saying has all the weight of a World Cup final. And you could say the same about his decision to start Laumape at second five-eighth to replace the suspended Sonny Bill Williams.
It’s also a risky call by the experienced coach as he rolls the dice on the talent and skill of the in-form duo holding steady on the big occasion. The Lions will be licking their lips at the prospect of putting both under as much pressure as they can.
Barrett, younger brother of first-five Beauden, comes in to a reshuffled back three, with Israel Dagg pushed back on to the right wing after starting at No 15 in Wellington and the experienced Savea
recalled to the left wing for his 54th test.
That sees both last week’s starting wings, Rieko Ioane and Waisake Naholo, miss out on the match 23 altogether. Naholo had been in head knock protocol, but an All Blacks spokesman confirmed they had not missed selection because of injury.
Laumape, who played 56 minutes off the bench in Wellington after Williams’ red card, gets the nod to partner Anton Lienertbrown in midfield, with the recalled Malakai Fekitoa also promoted on to the bench, as outside backs cover.
The 24-year-old Hurricanes second five-eighth, in just his second year back in the Xv-a-side code after a stint with the Warriors in the NRL, had a defensive lapse or two in Wellington, but the coaches liked what they saw of him in his test debut.
‘‘What a tough way to start your test career,’’ said All Blacks assistant coach Foster of Laumape’s trial by fire last week in Wellington. ‘‘To come in and really have to do your role and a little bit of someone else’s, I think in those circumstances he did really well.
‘‘I would like to think whilst he’ll be disappointed with the result, he should be pretty proud of what he did out there. He was still able to express himself and do what he likes doing.’’
Jordie Barrett will get the chance to show, on the back of his sensational debut season with the Hurricanes, he has the temperament to cope with test rugby at the highest level.
So far he has given every indication he has the skillset to cope with whatever might come his way on the rugby field. But, after playing just 17 minutes of test rugby off the bench against Samoa, the Lions will probably want to test that for themselves.
‘‘This final match in the series is going to be a cracker,’’ Hansen said.
‘‘It’s the series we expected it to be. It now comes down to this Saturday – winner takes all – and that’ll create its own unique pressures. It’s going to be interesting to see how both sides cope with it.
‘‘We’ve had a good week of preparation and are very excited by the opportunity that’s ahead of us. We know it’ll be a physical and intense match, but just as importantly, it’ll be a game where both teams will have moments of momentum, and the ability of everyone to adapt and adjust throughout the 80 minutes will be crucial.’’
The rest of the All Blacks team is unchanged, which means Saturday night will have a second significance about it, with All Blacks skipper Kieran Read earning his 100th test cap.
Read made his All Blacks debut against Scotland at Murrayfield on the November tour of 2008, and has been, when fit, an automatic selection ever since. The 31-year-old becomes New Zealand rugby’s seventh test centurion, joining former team-mates Richie Mccaw (148), Keven Mealamu (132), Tony Woodcock (118), Dan Carter (112), Ma’a Nonu (103) and Mils Muliaina (100) in the special club.
The New Zealanders have not lost at Eden Park since being rolled by France in 1994.