What’s wrong with Rieko Ioane?
The questions keep coming thick and fast for the All Blacks with the Rugby World Cup just two months away but they probably didn’t anticipate the wing positions causing them a few issues.
But that’s precisely where they are after two unconvincing tests so far this year.
Rieko Ioane hasn’t scored a try in four tests – a relative drought when you have 22 tries from 22 starts – and didn’t look like getting one against the Springboks in Wellington last Saturday night.
The Blues wing laboured through 60 largely unproductive minutes on Saturday – replacement hooker Dane Coles ran for more metres – before being replaced by Crusaders wing George Bridge.
Where has the spark gone? The All Blacks will hope he rediscovers it fast because frankly, they need it.
Ioane could be – and should be – almost unplayable.
When he first hit the scene he looked like he could score every time he touched the ball.
Teams that gave him too much room – think the British and Irish Lions against both the Blues and All Blacks in 2017 – got burnt, badly.
And when the All Blacks used him as a ball carrier he invariably made metres, even in traffic.
By the end of 2017 Wales were effectively the equal of a tired-looking All Blacks team – but they had no answer to Ioane.
Yet there was none of that punch against the Springboks and when Faf de Klerk kicked to his wing Ioane looked all at sea, beaten in the air by the 1.71m Cheslin Kolbe.
Having omitted Waisake Naholo, the All Blacks need Ioane to stand up. He
might only be 22 years old but if the All Blacks pick Ben Smith at fullback then invariably Ioane will be the ‘senior’ wing.
The other options – Bridge and Sevu Reece – both have positional issues and have three caps between them, and Bridge has yet to start a test. Braydon Ennor is similarly inexperienced.
The question of where Ioane’s form has gone is not a straightforward one because he started the season strongly for the Blues.
However, when Ioane was required to miss a mid-season game for an All Blacks ‘rest week’ he lost momentum.
Ioane scored nine tries in Super Rugby in 2019 – but only one after that ‘rest week’ interruption in round 12.
Also, it did not help matters that the Blues had the bye before that ‘rest week’, meaning that Ioane was inactive for a couple of weeks in the heart of the campaign.
This may be part of a broader problem with the player management programme, which adopted a ‘one size fits all’ philosophy that clearly suited some athletes better than others.
For example, was big prop Karl Tu’inukuafe best served by having a delayed re-entry to his Super Rugby franchise, as was required for all All Blacks?
Tu’inukuafe had only one Super Rugby campaign behind him at that stage and his breakout campaign at the Chiefs in 2018 came on the back of a long preseason, sweating through three hard months in Hamilton in late 2017.
Stuff understands New Zealand Rugby will review the player management programme and while no wholesale changes should be expected, there is surely some room for tinkering.
But Ioane’s issues might have more layers than that. In his past four tests, Ioane started against England, Ireland and South Africa, and replaced Naholo for the final 26 minutes in the romp against Italy.
Clearly, the All Blacks have struggled to break down well-organised defences that are being given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the application of the offside line.
Combined with Ioane’s own form issues, that means the sharpest attacking weapon in the All Blacks toolkit currently looks a bit blunt.