Sabbatical will allow ABs to boost back three options
There’s two parts to the impending sabbatical Ben Smith plans to take. The first is the rejuvenation and invigoration of the country’s best back three player.
Smith, who recently turned 31, wants to be an integral part of the 2019 World Cup bid. He wants to ensure he’s at his world class best for the remainder of his contract. Having been battered for the past 10 years, in which he has played more than 50 tests, 100-plus Super Rugby games and sevens at the Commonwealth Games, he needs a mini career break to refresh a body that is not broken but would benefit greatly from some extended time off.
Smith saw how his namesake, Conrad, did much the same thing at much the same age in 2013 — skip the second half of the test season and return to Super Rugby in 2014 with an energy and dynamism that recast him as the world’s best centre.
Smith is expected to play the two Bledisloe Cup tests next month, then sign off until Super Rugby next year.
As much as his sabbatical is about physical recovery, it will also afford him the opportunity of some kind of normality in his domestic life where he and his wife recently had their second child.
That chance to be at home, to do regularly the things most others take for granted, will essentially be the true value of Smith’s sabbatical as it has been with those other players who have taken time out through the same contractual dispensation.
The second part to Smith’s break is the landscape it creates for the All Blacks to operate without him.
He’ll be missed, as he was in the series against the Lions where he played only 25 minutes.
What became apparent in his absence is that New Zealand’s back three players perhaps need to recalibrate their skill sets, or at least review and refine them to better equip themselves to deal with the demands of the professional game. It’s not that the All Blacks found themselves horribly out of sorts in the back three as they did in 2009, but they didn’t deal with the high ball as well as they would have liked against the Lions, their kicking from deep lacked accuracy and direction at times, and by the end of the series, there was a sense they needed to develop individually and collectively in the backfield. The primary beneficiary of Smith’s decision to stand down will most likely be Jordie Barrett, who played remarkably well in the third test and looks well-equipped to become an international quality fullback.
He is a kick and catch player. At 1.95m, he has the height to be aerially effective in defence and attack, and he tackles hard.
His trump card is his goalkicking, and although the All Blacks selectors don’t want to undermine his brother Beauden, having a second option at fullback is something they want. What they will also be considering is recalling Nehe Milner-Skudder to the Rugby Championship squad as he, too, has a skills portfolio that gives the back three a greater breadth of options.
He was superb under the high ball in the Hurricanes’ quarter-final win against the Brumbies on Friday night and his ability to flit between wing and fullback, and also pop up at first receiver, as he did to good effect in Canberra, are boxes the All Blacks like to see being ticked.
The other back three candidates, Rieko Ioane, Julian Savea and Waisake Naholo, will all be asked to tighten and improve their kick and catch and chasing skills throughout the Rugby Championship and beyond.
All of them bring finishing power and X-factor but that needs to be underpinned with solid basic abilities. By the time Smith returns, the All Blacks will be hoping they have built a wider range of genuine options in their back three and Smith will have to be at his best to force his way back in.