Selection the key for AB coach
Foster needs to question whether playing Beauden Barrett at fullback is right move
There is plenty that All Blacks coach Ian Foster needs to get right this week, but the most important piece is selection. Everything hangs on putting the right players in the right jerseys and even more specifically, it’s about getting it right in jerseys 10, 14 and 15.
This feels like a big moment in Foster’s tenure — the chance to see whether he has that sorcerer’s touch when it comes to selection: whether he has that rare gift of shifting a few key pieces that deliver a dramatic impact.
He could convince himself that this week is all about strategising and that the path to victory is dissecting a highly effective but basic Pumas game plan and finding weakness to exploit. Which it partly is, but only if he gets the selection right first because the last two tests have forced a genuine rethink about how best to set up the backline.
This trend towards defensive rugby built on linespeed, tackling accuracy, ferocity at the breakdown and box kicking has dramatically accelerated in the last few weeks.
From being something the All Blacks would occasionally encounter, it is now all they are going to encounter and Foster has to challenge whether some of the ideas he held at the beginning of this test season remain valid.
Top of that list is whether the dual play-making idea is something that can still work or whether it needs to go into cold storage while the All Blacks revert to a more traditional setup to see if that provides them with more ways to traverse the new landscape.
The question he has to ask is more fundamental than even that. It’s whether he still feels playing Beauden Barrett at fullback is the right thing to do. They haven’t had much out of him all year — a few memorable bursts in Auckland and a couple of nice touches in Sydney — but the return is way down on where it has been in the past.
And why is that? Is he out of form or out of position? Is the whole dual play-making idea dead in the face of such hostile defences or precisely the right ploy to unlock them, but needs the pack to be dominant for the value to be unleashed?
The stifled nature of the game at the moment suggests Barrett’s electric pace and vast skill-set will sit dormant if he’s picked at fullback.
There’s just no space for him to weave his magic and with the All Blacks in desperate need of reigniting their attack, they have to ask whether having him observe games as a virtual passenger from the backfield is the right thing.
The choice, it would seem, is to either shift him to
No 10 or shift him to the bench and there is no doubt that Foster will be seriously tempted to go with the former this week, and not just because he’s wary of wasting the talent at Barrett’s disposal.
As poorly as the All Blacks played in their loss to the Pumas, they created some half chances and simply failed to see others. It would be harsh in the extreme to pin all the blame for that on Richie Mo’unga, but perhaps Foster feels that he needs the more experienced figure in the key play-making role this weekend. Experience is such a major factor to take into a major contest and the coach could gamble that Barrett is more likely to see the space that Mo’unga couldn’t.
Mo’unga is arguably the more rounded and strategically-minded No 10, but this week, under pressure to deliver a win with a bonus point, Foster might take the view that the All Blacks need the ball in Barrett’s hands.
The second factor driving that move could be the need to have Jordie Barrett more involved in the game, too.
He’s a good wing, but better fullback and the priority role of the latter has quickly become kickcatch. For this week, maybe they have to shelve the notion of the fullback being a playmaker and have a solid lump like Jordie, who can win ball in the air and thump it long with his booming boot.
Make those two changes and it paves the way to inject Sevu Reece into the No 14 jersey where his electric footwork and acceleration could be invaluable against such strong defence. He might not rip holes in Argentina but he doesn’t need to — he just needs to create some kind of space, something the All Blacks failed to do in their 25-15 loss.