Shuffling deck: Versatility overhyped, misunderstood
It is impressive that every week New Zealand’s Super Rugby teams can pull a surprise selection where they select someone in a new role and they seamlessly take to it.
One week Jordie Barrett is a fullback, the next he’s in the midfield. Ardie Savea was once chasing the title as the world’s best openside and here is now, probably one of the best No 8s, just as Rieko Ioane has transformed from a brilliant wing to a stunningly good centre.
The list of players able to excel in different roles is endless. Will Jordan can fit in anywhere across the back three. David Havili can play just about anywhere in the whole backline.
Jack Goodhue has played tests at second-five and centre and no one is yet quite sure at which one he is best suited.
Dalton Papalii looks the part at blindside and yet is every inch a natural No 7 and this year we have seen Tupou Vaa’i bounce around between lock and blindside.
All this positional versatility is celebrated as if it gives the All Blacks an inherent advantage when they have come to cobble together their match day 23.
Versatility, supposedly, provides selectors with greater options in how to set up their team and it supposedly enables the All Blacks to build a greater number of attacking threats than other teams.
But the value of versatility is overhyped and misunderstood. Having individuals who are comfortable in two or more positions is helpful in Super Rugby, but look through history and no great test side has succeeded by constantly shuffling players.
Test sides need specialists and versatility only becomes a valuable commodity come World Cups when its useful, imperative even, to have a few Swiss Army Knife sorts who can cover injuries.
Now that All Blacks coach Ian Foster has confirmed that 2022 will be a year of finding, building and refining combinations, he and his selection team need to first determine specific roles for a handful of specific players.
He has already said that the midfield and back row are the most congested areas in that they have a glut of individuals pushing for selection, but no clear sense yet of who might work best together.
To gain clarity of thought, it would help enormously if firm decisions were made about Ioane, Jordie Barrett, Jordan, Goodhue and Havili.
Ioane played both centre and wing last year, but in 2022 he has to be fixed in the midfield: given the No 13 jersey and left there.
Barrett has made noise about wanting to play at No 12 but has already shown he’s a world class fullback.
Foster needs to commit to playing Barrett in one position or the other from now until the World Cup and not get caught in the trap of flipping him between the two.
There are 13 tests this year and most likely another five next year before the World Cup which doesn’t afford Foster the time to experiment if he wants combinations to be established before the team arrives in France next year.
Ditto, Goodhue has to be considered a 12 or 13, not both and in his one game back so far since he badly damaged his knee, he provided a timely reminder that he’s a classy
Having individuals who are comfortable in two or more positions is helpful in Super Rugby, but look through history and no great test side has succeeded by constantly shuffling players.
distributor, big defender and good communicator.
He may be the player the All Blacks have been looking for at second-five and the best midfield partner for Ioane.
Jordan has played much of his rugby for the Crusaders at fullback and there is this assumption that he’d be best utilised there by the All Blacks as well.
But he has played all his tests on the wing, looked a natural operator there and by keeping him in the No 14 jersey.
He can form a back three with Jordie Barrett and Caleb Clarke, while Havili appears the perfect player to use off the bench given his ability to cover so many positions.
Papalii has been one of the form loose forwards in Super Rugby and it would be tempting to play him at No 6 alongside Savea at No 8 and Cane at openside.
But that combination would leave the lineout short of height and potentially vulnerable.
It would also compromise Papalii who has earned the right to be picked as an openside and go head-to-head with Cane for the No 7 jersey.
A combination featuring Cane and Savea needs an imposing, bruising, physical presence at blindside and a choice will have to be made between Ethan Blackadder, Akira Ioane, Shannon Frizell and Luke Jacobson.
Given the injury status of Ioane and Frizell and form of the other two, the Irish series could see Blackadder at six, Cane at seven, Savea at No 8 and Papalii on the bench.