Beau’unga: Tonight will show if it’s a smash hit or just passing fad
It’s a big night for Beau’unga. It’s a big night for footy. In these days of Instagratification, it’s tempting to bestow great significance on the mundane, but make no mistake, this Bledisloe Cup rugby test holds as much importance as any of the 143 before it and more than most.
The All Blacks might have a 16-year stranglehold on the big cup and it might have been 25 years since they’ve been toppled at Eden Park, but you have to go a long way back — 2009, perhaps — when they’ve appeared this vulnerable.
Cracks have appeared in the All
Blacks infrastructure and tonight will go a long way towards determining whether Perth was the day the dam burst or whether it was nothing a bit of No More Gaps couldn’t fix.
Whatever way you look at it, rugby has become interesting again. You could even go so far as to say this untimely form slump is the shot in the arm the sport desperately needed.
All of a sudden, rugby has got really interesting again.
All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen’s dumping of some big names for tonight’s encounter — and let’s not ruin the moment by playing the “squad rotation” and “opportunities to create depth” cards — is an indication his team’s straight-line route between 2011 and 2019 has veered off course.
This brings us to the most intriguing aspect of this campaign: the promotion of Richie Mo’unga in a twin-pivot formation with Beauden
Beau’unga is something we never knew we needed until it was apparently an indispensable part of the World Cup plan. Tonight it’s time to find out why.
Barrett. As head coach, one of Hansen’s most impressive feats has been his ability to control the message (something he was singularly unsuited to in his earlier days as Graham Henry’s pugnacious caporegime), though unfettered makes that task easier.
For the first time in his reign at the pointiest end of the All Blacks, Hansen is faced with second guessing rather than blind faith. His messages are still getting through, just not unchallenged.
Take the rendering of the Mo’unga-Beauden Barrett twin-pivot plan. It has been sold with all the vigour of those people that show up at your door trying to get you to change power companies and received with all the cynicism of the consumer who thinks, “Yeah, it’s nice of them to throw in a free smart TV but do I actually need another one?”
Beau’unga is something we never knew we needed until it was apparently an indispensable part of the World Cup plan. Tonight, it’s time to find out why. There is a significant portion of the rugby populace who are satisfied only when the All Blacks are laying waste to every team by 30 points while playing “running rugby”.
The problem with this is it’s unsustainable, and like an addict always needing more to achieve the same high, the crash hits hard when it doesn’t come.
For some of us, though, the deep fascination with the All Blacks is how they react when things are not coming easily — and for the first time in close to a decade, things look difficult.
Wins against the Wallabies at Eden Park are taken for granted these days. Should it happen again, masterminded by world-class performances at Nos 10 and 15, this one will mean more than most.