At the 2011 World Cup the All Blacks
THE ALL BLACKS SPENT NEARLY A DECADE ONLY HAVING ONE GENUINE TEST QUALITY FIRSTFIVE AND IT NEARLY COST THEM THE 2011 WORLD CUP. NOW THEY HAVE AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES. GREGOR PAUL CHRONICLES THIS RAGS TO RICHES STORY.
had a national disaster when Dan Carter injured himself. Now they have an abundance of riches at first-five.
Asomewhat ashen-faced, grim-looking Darren Shand is at the door of the Intercontinental Hotel in Wellington on the morning of October 1, 2011.
The long-serving All Blacks manager tried to make light of the situation by asking a few journalists if they have their boots and can they play first-five.
Shand’s attempts at black humour can’t hide his real mood which is reflective of the wider All Blacks camp.
He’s shaken, struggling for confidence because the worst thing has happened to their World Cup campaign. The one player they couldn’t afford to be injured is injured.
That’s why the journalists are funneling into the hotel where the All Blacks are staying. They have been summoned to an emergency press conference on the morning of the All Blacks final pool match against Canada.
Everyone kind of knows what has happened but official confirmation that Daniel Carter has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament is yet to be made.
When coach Graham Henry reveals that Carter has indeed been ruled out for months due to a ripped groin, there isn’t a human to be found who doesn’t think the All Blacks have become unbelievably vulnerable.
From looking like the favourites-elect two weeks earlier when they had destroyed France at Eden Park with Carter majestically pulling all the strings, it was suddenly hard to conceive of the All Blacks still being the same team.
One injury changed everything as the All Blacks didn’t have another first-five remotely like Carter in their midst.
As much as they had tried over the last eight years to build depth in the No 10 jersey, it hadn’t happened. New Zealand was a nation with brilliant rugby players and in Carter, they had one of the best on the planet and one of the best in history.
But while they had an abundance of world class outside backs, loose forwards and front-rowers they really didn’t have another first-five of any particular note to support Carter.
It had been like that almost from the moment he slipped into the role in late 2004. He replaced two veterans – Carlos Spencer and Andrew Mehrtens – and made such an astonishing start to his career that the All Blacks never really had it as a priority to build their depth at No 10.
It was also a different time in that back then the mind-set was about a starting team and a group of replacements. The thinking wasn’t so strategical or tactical and in New Zealand, there was this unwritten code that injury would be the only reason to make a change at first-five.
So for most of the time between 2004 and 2011 Carter was the only test quality first-five in New Zealand.
Nick Evans developed a little between 2005 and 2007, but could see that he was only ever going to have limited opportunities to start so headed to the UK.
Stephen Donald, Luke McAlister, Colin Slade and Aaron Cruden all had the occasional game at No 10 in that period on the few occasions Carter was injured or the coaches chose to give him a rest.
Each showed glimpses in their limited game time but none convinced as a compelling option and heading into 2011, the All Blacks had no idea who would end up in their World Cup squad alongside Carter.
The back-up job went to Slade in the end but not because he screamed out as ready, but more because he looked less of a liability than the others.
He had five caps to his credit when the World Cup started and no one was particularly confident he had either the skill-set, experience or mental resolve to consistently deliver quality performances.
The All Blacks with Carter were a totally different threat to the All Blacks without Carter and his injury highlighted the precarious state of affairs.
As everyone presumably knows both Cruden and Donald ended up being drafted as well and the scale of the drama around the No 10s turned out to be a blessing as it forced in-coming head coach Steve Hansen to confront the inescapable truth that New Zealand needed to reduce its reliance on Carter.
When Hansen graduated to the top job after the 2011 World Cup there were two obvious positions that needed a long term plan.
The All Blacks needed to identify successors to openside Richie McCaw and Carter. Both veterans had extended their respective contracts through to 2015 but they were also at an age where they were more vulnerable to injury.
Especially Carter. He was famously branded by Hansen as a red flag athlete and by 2012 it was clear that test rugby had changed from the good old days when first-fives barely had to make a tackle.
I THINK WE ARE ALSO GETTING GUYS INTO SUPER RUGBY GENERALLY A COUPLE OF YEARS EARLIER THAN THEY USED TO. IT IS A DEMANDING CHAMPIONSHIP AND THEY HAVE GOT TO LEARN GAME MANAGEMENT AND TO A CERTAIN DEGREE WE ARE SEEING A LITTLE BIT OF REWARD FROM THAT.’ IAN FOSTER
The World Cup had shown that No 10 was a high contact position where predominantly smaller men were being asked to tackle hard-running loose forwards.
It was ridiculous for the All Blacks to imagine they could operate with just one test-ready first-five and so too was it true that most other sides were developing their options at No 10 not just to cover for injury.
It was becoming commonplace for the best international sides to set up their match day 23 with the ability to change things up at No 10 during the game.
Ireland, for example, were using Ronan O’Gara and Johnny Sexton as a combination with one starting and the other coming on for 30 minutes or so.
Wales, too, were typically working their 10s such as James Hook and Dan Biggar in tandem – willing to mix things up mid-game if they felt they needed to.
The problem for Hansen and his backs coach Foster was that as much as they wanted to build their depth at No 10, they were under intense pressure to continue winning as well.
They knew that Cruden and the 20-year-old Beauden Barrett were the two men they wanted to develop, but the harder part of the equation was working out when to play them as both of them were young, raw and almost certain to make a number of mistakes.
Whatever plan they had coming into 2012, fate intervened and made most of the choices for them as Carter proved to be more of a red flag than anyone anticipated.
He was injured on and off for much of 2012, half of 2013 all of 2014 and plenty of 2015. Cruden, seemingly in a flash, had 30 test caps and by the end of 2013 was genuinely putting pressure on Carter.
The gap closed and no longer was it such a panicky moment when Carter was injured. And not only did Cruden develop quicker than anyone expected, so too did Barrett, winning plenty of time off the bench and a few starts.
What surprised even the All Blacks coaches was that three men outside the identified group emerged in that same World Cup cycle as Slade, Lima Sopoaga and Tom Taylor ended up starting tests at No 10 as a result of injuries to Cruden and Barrett.
The All Blacks, having come into the last World Cup with only one option at No 10, started 2015 with five serious contenders to make the squad.
Not only that, but if any neutral judge
IT IS ABOUT LOOKING AT THE WAY THE MODERN GAME IS PLAYED AND ASKING WHAT EXACTLY IS IT WE WANT OUT OF A NO 10? YES WE WANT DECISIONMAKERS AND WE WANT THEM TO BE GOOD AT LISTENING TO VOICES OUTSIDE THEM AND TO BE ABLE TO DO BASIC THINGS SUCH AS RUN, PASS AND CATCH.’ IAN FOSTER
were to make a list of the world’s best first-fives in 2015, Carter, Cruden and probably Barrett would all have made the top five with the first two sitting one and two and Slade wouldn’t have been so far down the list either.
The story was classic rags to riches and even when Carter retired and Slade and Taylor headed offshore after the World Cup, the All Blacks didn’t go back to ground zero with their first-fives.
They came into 2016 with Cruden recognised as a world class player with almost 50 caps. Barrett had almost 40 caps and an incredible skill-set while Sopoaga had shown in steering the Highlanders to their maiden Super Rugby title in 2015 that he had developed astute game management to go with his obvious running abilities.
New Zealand was suddenly a land of plenty when it came to No 10s, a fact that became impossible to dispute when both Cruden and Sopoaga announced in 2017 they were heading offshore.
The All Blacks coaches didn’t blink. They were 18 months out from a World Cup with Barrett established as the world’s best first-five and no other player capped at No 10.
It was Carter in the 2008-2011 cycle all over except that this time the coaches knew who was next in line and while the clock was ticking, they had every confidence they would have the back-up they needed by the time the squad headed to Japan next year.
Damian McKenzie, a regular choice at fullback in 2017, covered for the injured Barrett in June this year and delivered a wow performance in Dunedin.
In that same game Richie Mo’unga, who had been quite sensational for the champion Crusaders all year, made his debut and looked super composed and capable.
It reached the stage where Mo’unga’s performances for the Crusaders were so good that a serious public debate broke out whether he should start ahead of Barrett.
That fizzled as a discussion point when Barrett scored four tries and 30 points in the second Bledisloe Cup test in one of the great performances by an All Blacks No 10.
McKenzie and Mo’unga may lack experience but not potential and once again the All Blacks, who have seen five capped No 10s leave since 2015, have three of the most exciting first-fives in the world in their squad.
They just can’t stop producing world class No 10s.
There has been a dramatic deepening of the No 10 talent pool in New Zealand, but assistant coach Foster doesn’t think has come about by dramatic changes.
“I think when you look at the 10s and sometimes when you have a Dan Carter at the top of the tree, then people look at all the others and think there is a big void there,” says Foster.
“But often once you take someone away, and give others an opportunity, they come through. And I think we saw that with Crudes and Beaudy and to be fair, by giving them opportunity early in their careers to experience test match rugby, we actually got a lot of gains out of that.
“While it was a little bit uncomfortable early on in their careers, I think we are feeling the gains from that now.
“I think we are also getting guys into Super Rugby generally a couple of years earlier than they used to. It is a demanding championship and they have got to learn game management and to a certain degree we are seeing a little bit of reward from that.
“The other thing that I like is that we
have got some players who have taken their time. 10 is often a position that takes time to learn. We see a lot of talented 10s who come in at a young age and set the world on fire but once people figure out they can stop their natural running game or whatever it is, they force the 10 to become more of a strategic manager.
“That is where some 10s have fallen over in the past. We are probably getting a little bit better at managing through that.
“If you look at the way someone like Lima Sopoaga developed with the Highlanders – he is a good example.”
There’s been another key change since 2012 which has benefitted the All Blacks. Relationships with the five Super Rugby clubs have improved and as a result, the All Blacks coaches have been able to suggest to each club the range of core skills they would like to see them develop in their No 10s.
Carter in many respects was the catalyst for that as he arrived in the All Blacks with the ability to kick off both feet, tackle, pass, catch and run and with such a broad portfolio he was able to enhance his game management quicker than most.
To some extent most of the other quality 10s to emerge in the last seven years have shared multiple similarities with Carter. In his prime Carter was quick enough and agile enough to play anywhere in the outside backs, something Barrett, Slade and McKenzie have all done.
All three of them have played tests at fullback, with Slade even being picked on the wing and Mo’unga, too, is deemed to be a candidate to play in the backfield such is his pace.
All of them, as well as Cruden and Sopoaga, have strong kicking games and are considered quality decision-makers. The way things have worked out the All Blacks have almost come to see fullback and first-five as interchangeable.
“I think we [All Blacks] have become more specific about some core skills we want them to have,” says Foster.
“Having a good relationship with the franchises so we can go in and talk about that has meant we have been able to have greater alignment about what we want out of 10s.
“In the past we have generally adapted our game based on the skill-set of the nine and the 10. Whereas we have figured out if we can get all of our nines and 10s doing a few of those things there is a better chance of taking our game up a level. There is a collective benefit.
“It is about looking at the way the modern game is played and asking what exactly is it we want out of a No 10? Yes we want decision-makers and we want them to be good at listening to voices outside
them and to be able to do basic things such as run, pass and catch.
“Having the likes of Ben Smith acting as second first receiver has been a tactic we have used. But it doesn’t have to be a 10-15 combination and if you look at the evolution of someone such as Ma’a [Nonu] from being purely a powerful midfielder to someone who was quite comfortable in that first receiver role, it is a matter of growing the group we have.
“But clearly having someone such as Damian McKenzie at the back can bring up a both-sided attack but it is more about the person and the skills they have than the number on their back.”
If it seems that the transformation at No 10 has been relatively straightforward, there has been a subtle battle the All Blacks have been fighting under the radar.
Foster believes that generally, most schoolboy, provincial and even Super Rugby teams are often guilty of setting their backline too deep. To compound that, too many first-fives have the ingrained bad habit of receiving the ball standing still.
Being too far from the gainline and static, means backlines are vulnerable to rush defences and this is the subtle shift Foster has been trying to make at all levels of the game.
He and Hansen are constantly encouraging young first-fives to back themselves to play closer to the defence and to also take at least one step into the ball before it comes from the halfback.
That one step can make all the difference as it sets the rest of the backs in motion and forced them all to be moving ahead of receiving the ball.
“It is a real challenge for us because a lot of our schoolboy teams play very deep and the biggest shift we are finding is shifting 10s, from the age of 17 to 20, and getting them to learn to run on to the ball rather than just being static and deep,” says Foster.
“Some of those little things we have got better at identifying and sending the message down and then working with those players.”
The situation that was exposed in 2011 is in no danger of repeating and that is typical of the All Blacks. They had a problem, they analysed it, planned a solution and implemented it.
And now they are feeling the benefits because for the second World Cup in succession they are likely to have three supremely good options at first-five.
Barrett is clearly the number one but it won’t be a national disaster if he’s injured during the tournament.