Silver lining to All Blacks’ Brisbane loss becomes clear

The silver lining to the All Blacks’ loss to Australia in Brisbane is that it managed to solidify in the selectors’ minds what their best side looks like.

They won’t be definitive in all positions. They won’t have closed any doors on any particular player in the group or outside it, but there is now a preferred match-day 23 — give or take a few injuries — and pressure mounting on a few players to prove they belong in test football.

With the exception of Dane Coles, who at 34 sits in a grey area as to whether he can still be playing as well as he is in 2023, every member of the All Blacks squad has the potential to be at the next Rugby World Cup.

And that’s illustrative of this being a mostly young and inexperienced group. The potential is obvious when the individuals and component parts are assessed.

There is heft and power in the tight five to deliver solid set-piece work.

There are good ball carriers throughout the pack, various options in how to set up the loose trio all of which give the team presence and value at the breakdown.

Aaron Smith is the world’s best halfback, Richie Mo’unga is probably the world’s best No 10 and getting better, and the backs can do passcatch, kick-chase and score tries.

It’s all there. This is a team on the cusp of finding itself. A team on the edge of slowly building a range of strategies to play the game multiple ways and build the experience required to cope with the pressure when it inevitably cranks.

To transform from being talented but occasionally erratic and mentally ill-disciplined, the team needs consistency of selection. Time together is the key for this All Blacks team.

Time to build those critical combinations in the back row, back three and midfield. Time to refine and hone the set-piece; instinctively see space and opportunity and know how to exploit it; to understand how to stay calm, task-focused and unaffected by the scoreboard; to learn not to react when they are played off the ball as they have been these last four tests.

Time to become a unified, seamless group that can hold together and squeeze through tight games even when they are a bit off being at their best.

It’s not that time is running out, but there is less of it than head coach Ian Foster would have liked.

In an ideal world — a normal world where Covid hadn’t struck — he would have had 14 tests this year to see whether the likes of Hoskins Sotutu, Akira Ioane, Asafo Aumua, Tupou Vaa’i, Caleb Clarke, Will Jordan and Cullen Grace are capable at this level.

But his window was reduced to six tests and that has put pressure not just on the new arrivals to deliver something compelling in the one or maybe two chances they will have this year, but it has also upped the ante for the likes of Damian McKenzie, TJ Perenara, Dalton Papalii and Brad Weber to make the most of whatever game time they win.

These are uncertain times but Foster will be working on the basis that next year could see normality return and that Fiji and Italy will make it to New Zealand in July and a full Rugby Championship takes place.

He’ll also be assuming quarantine requirements will change and allow for easier, quicker travel and with financial realities biting, he’ll be forced to work with a significantly smaller squad.

But he’ll also be conscious the world is so fluid the All Blacks could just as easily be staring at another year of makeshift tests, never quite knowing when and where their next game is going to come.

All roads lead to the same conclusion, though: he needs to use the bulk of next year and 2022 to embed the combinations of his first choice team and maximise their game time to help them grow into a consistent and hopefully formidable force leading to the Rugby World Cup in France.

Opportunities are going to dry up for those outside the preferred match-day 23. Hence, the pressure is on for those who want to be part of things next year to use the next two matches to prove their case.