Wallabies great Will Genia has run the rule over Cam Roigard after the All Blacks scrum-half dominated the recent Bledisloe Cup series. New Zealand clinched the 2026 duel 2-0 with victories in Auckland and Sydney, leaving the Australians without the trophy since 2002.
With Les Kiss as their new head coach, this setback came immediately after they picked off the world-champion Springboks in Perth.
Reflecting on his old team’s mixed fortunes, the 110-cap scrum-half explained why Australia’s current style was better suited to combat South Africa and left them vulnerable to the successive 19-50 and 21-43 defeats inflicted by New Zealand.
Appearing on the I Love Rugby podcast with hosts George Gregan and John Smit to review the Bledisloe Cup series, Genia began: “Styles make fights and when New Zealand play South Africa, it’s very much the case of physicality versus skill. At the moment, you’d say South Africa is probably better in terms of their point of difference in the game, of physicality.
“With Australia, it’s a combination of physicality and skill against the out-and-out skill and speed of the All Blacks, but we’re not at the level of either where we can impose ourselves on the game, so when New Zealand take us to deep waters and play at tempo and play at pace, we find it really hard to stick with them.
“It’s almost like they’ve gone back to what their DNA is…”
“Les Kiss is obviously trying to implement a different style of play, but if you’re looking back at the second Test, their [New Zealand’s] accuracy in and around the breakdown and the physicality in that space just allows them to play with tempo and speed on the ball.
“What I really like about the way they play is they flatten up and play between both pods really effectively. Like when I watch Australia play sometimes, we’re quite deep and we rely on structure to be able to create opportunity, even when we make linebreaks. Whereas when you watch New Zealand when they get in behind they flatten up they play on top they use their skills and they’re really connected between both pods.
“You would have seen that try where they play a forward pod who tips and then Damian McKenzie, instead of getting the ball at the back, pops on the outside of the forward; he gets a ball and the other two players push up in that second pod, so it’s their ability not to just play at pace but play with skill and at the line that we struggle with.
“The All Blacks, it’s almost like they’ve gone back to what their DNA is, which is just being brilliant at the basics. And you’ve heard Dave Rennie say that a lot, just brilliant at the basics and just playing at pace and at tempo.
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“So we’ve certainly struggled and I guess the reason I bring up the styles makes fight thing is if you watch when we play against the Boks, because we have the combination of skill and physicality, we can somewhat nullify their physicality and then play with a sense of skill which allows us to be in the contest a little bit more.
“Whereas when we play the All Blacks, when they play at tempo and speed, we don’t have the physicality of the Boks to slow down and we probably don’t have the skill level at the moment to match them and play at that speed. That’s my assessment of what I saw, not just on the last game but the first Test as well.”
Former scrum-half Genia, the seventh most-capped Wallaby of all time, went on to analyse the influence of Roigard, the All Blacks. “Roigard has been phenomenal,” he enthused to fellow ex-No.9 Gregan. “The half-back these days has evolved again.
“I would talk about the great man Fourie du Preez and George yourself; you guys sit in a category of your own amongst half-backs. I watched a lot of Du Preez because he could control the game, all aspects of it essentially from half-back, and make great decisions similar to yourself.
“Now, with the way the game has evolved, your nines are so much more your playmakers than your 10s. I find that your 10s, yes, they are drivers of when they want to pull the trigger and call the balls out the back.
“But if you look across the game, obviously the nine touches the ball more, but because the game’s a big power game at the moment as well, the nine comes so much more into play as a playmaker. And the nines kick more now in terms of your exit strategy and things of that nature.
“If you can get a nine that can run and understand when to slow the game down, speed it up, take one step out, take two steps out, go forward, play a bit of an arc, play the outside, run, play short, it just makes such a difference to your game, play both sides of the ruck.
“If you look at someone like a Roigard, he’s a phenomenal player. When the team is going forward, his ability to understand when to run, when not to run, play early, make the right decisions, kick – they had Aaron Smith, who is an all-time great player, and you often sometimes think, is it going to get better? Then you have someone like him [Roigard] coming, and he fits so well into the way the game is being played now.
“You even look at a Damian McKenzie. Everyone was sort of worried about Ruben Love and Richie Mo’unga not playing and then he steps in. His great ability is that he squares up the defence when he gets the ball and takes it to the line and his ability to be able to sit and fix defenders and he’s got a great passing game, but the fact is he’s always a threat.
“The one thing I love about playmakers, particularly in number 10s, the great playmakers across generations have always been a running threat first and that’s what then creates time and space for the guys outside them, guys on the edge, because it’s their ability to be able to fix defenders and those two have been phenomenal.
“If I look across to our boys, we’re struggling a bit in terms of our number 10, in terms of figuring out who is going to own that position. Obviously, Carter Gordon was there and he struggled with injury. I’ve been really impressed with Ryan Lonergan.
“I wasn’t sure how he would transition into Test match rugby because I’ve always been a big believer that if you’re going to make it at that level, you’ve got to have a point of difference about you.
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“He’s always been an elite-level Super player, but I wasn’t sure what his point of difference would be at Test level, but his consistency and accuracy of his service has certainly been something of a point of difference, and he allows the team to play at tempo and pace as well when we get rolling.
“So, I’ve been really impressed with him, but in particular, you look at someone like a Roigard, he’s a bit of a throwback to the greats of old like yourself [Gregan] and Du Preez in particular.
“What I like about what Roigard does is he mixes it up. He might run, get to the second defender and then play short or play across, or he might take one step out to sit the first defender, play the other guy in.
“So, he’s always scheming around where he can get to and what space he can play, which then keeps the defence guessing. Then his ability to play the other side of the ruck and then when he decides to run, it’s so hard to defend. What that does is it makes the ruck defence sit.
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“And then when you give it to McKenzie, his instinct and his ability to be a running threat, it’s just so hard to defend. What that means is everybody’s moving flat onto the ball now. You’re at the defence and you’re a threat.
“You [Gregan] and Du Preez, you guys were the masters of it. You invented it. Growing up, I used to sit there and just watch what Fourie did, why he made decisions, what cues he was looking for, why did he kick, when did he kick, how did he manage tempo.
“One of the really important skills for halves, if you want to be great at that level, is you’ve got to be able to understand and manage the tempo of the game when it speeds up, keep the momentum going, keep the tempo going when you need to slow it down and manage it. Roigard has mastered that because he’s also an incredible kicker of the ball as well.”