Ioane not ready to displace incumbents in ABs midfield

In a couple of weeks, Ian Foster will name his match-day squad for the first Bledisloe Cup test. This momentous occasion for the new head coach will come just under 12 months since the World Cup started in Japan.

That tournament highlighted the best of the All Blacks’ attack but also exposed the cracks pried open by the British and Irish Lions tour of 2017; namely, a weakness when faced with the twin challenges of a big and motivated opposition pack and extreme line speed from the opposition defence.

Foster’s first test 23 will presumably show the direction he wants to take his team against a Wallabies squad which won’t lack motivation or detail under new coach Dave Rennie. While the Australians won’t possess a pack as big or scary as the Lions three years ago or England in their semifinal in 2019, Rennie will hope the line speed and pressure from the green and golds is just as formidable.

Those watching the North v South match three weeks ago may have picked up clues on how the All Blacks will deal with that advancing wall, but in general, they will need experience and dependability in their backline, and in particular their midfield, to deal with it.

For all Rieko Ioane’s excellent recent development in a relatively new centre role, that makes Anton Lienert-Brown and Jack Goodhue the only midfield combination in the frame to start at Wellington’s Sky Stadium on October 11.

Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty have moved on, Ngani Laumape is still to return from a broken arm suffered in Super Rugby Aotearoa and Braydon Ennor’s rugby year is over due to a knee injury.

That means Lienert-Brown and Goodhue are not only the incumbents for the No 12 and 13 jerseys respectively but also the rightful starters — at least for the two home Bledisloe Cup tests. Foster is likely to shuffle his selections for the Rugby Championship.

The pair are world class defenders, and Ioane, while having improved significantly in this area at Super Rugby level, is not — at least not yet as a midfielder. And, crucially, Lienert-Brown and Goodhue are such good distributors and decisionmakers under pressure that the midfield may be one of the easiest decisions for Foster to make.

None of this is to denigrate what Ioane has achieved in reinventing himself in a new position, just that he still has some developing to do.

Aaron Smith is a near certainty to start at halfback, with Crusaders pair George Bridge and Sevu Reece warm favourites to start on the wings, but there remains significant intrigue among even those in Christchurch closely connected to Richie Mo’unga around whether he or Beauden Barrett will start at first-five.

Mo’unga couldn’t have done much more to press his case during Super Rugby Aotearoa, but Foster is a big supporter of Barrett’s in terms of him being the main playmaker.

Mo’unga, the starting No 10 in all five of his tests at last year’s World Cup, including the big ones against South Africa, Ireland, England and Wales, has a good understanding with Bridge and Reece, and this could be another advantage in combating the Aussie rush defence.

He showed an intricate attacking kicking game for the South against the North that looked like an entre for the main course next month. The tactic also had the fingerprints of Brad Mooar, the South’s coach and new All Blacks attack coach, all over it.

It would surprise if Barrett was named ahead of Mo’unga, but not as much as the absence, if both fit, of either Goodhue or Lienert-Brown.

Lienert-Brown and Goodhue are such good distributors and decision-makers under pressure.