British critics hails ‘revolutionary’ Retallick
All Blacks star Brodie Retallick has been credited with ‘‘changing the shape of attacking rugby’’.
In looking at the developments in rugby over the last decade, astute Times writer Stuart Barnes lauded the efforts of the New Zealand lock who was World Rugby’s player of the year in 2014.
In a period dominated by fellow All Blacks such as Dan Carter and Richie McCaw, Barnes felt Retallick’s contribution to New Zealand’s success and the game’s progression shouldn’t be understated, saying Retallick had ‘‘played the revolutionary role in the expansion of a second row’s repertoire of skills’’.
‘‘In the era of Dan Carter, it was the lanky lock forward who changed the shape of attacking rugby,’’ Barnes wrote in The Times.
‘‘Standing at either first or second receiver, he has the skill to time a pass to put a team-mate through the gap, or pull back a pass to a second-wave running into space from deep.
‘‘The three-man pod and the secondary surge of backs is the shape of 21st century attacking rugby. Outside New Zealand it was mainly imitation. None could do it like Retallick, the man who changed offensive rugby as much, if not more, than other player.’’
Other teams had tried to replicate Retallick and all had looked at ways to counter a huge player with rare skills, demonstrated by him winning the try of the year in 2018 at the World Rugby awards.
Barnes noted that Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones had changed his style to add the offload pass to his standard skills of of jumping, pushing, carrying and tackling.
Fijian Leone Nakarawa was another with rare skills that were now taking second row play to another level on the back of Retallick’s examples.
‘‘Soon there will be locks found to add this extra dimension to a team. A conveyor belt of Nakarawas would be the quantum leap of locks from the second to third decade of this century,’’ Barnes predicted, though they would struggle to make as many improvements as Retallick had managed in such a short time.