Retired All Black Ant Strachan has saluted Beauden Barrett’s recent renaissance and chosen his most consistent loose forward in Dave Rennie’s pack.
New Zealand closed out the latest Bledisloe Cup series with a 2-0 victory over the Wallabies on Saturday, winning 43-21 in Sydney after a 50-19 success in last weekend’s opener in Auckland.
The triumph has allowed Rennie’s team to move on from their 3-1 loss to the Springboks in the Greatest Rivalry series, a setback that sparked fears over whether the 62-year-old was the right coach to succeed the sacked Scott Robertson.
However, New Zealand’s new boss absorbed the lessons dished out in South Africa and the United States of America, and they are now looking ahead to November’s conclusion to the Nations Championship with a revived pep in their step following their impressive back-to-back victories over the Wallabies.
“His transition’s been sensational…”
Having lost Richie Mo’unga to injury for the series following his Test comeback in the Baltimore loss against the Springboks, Rennie opted to switch Damian Mckenzie from full-back to out-half and recalled Barrett to No.15.
It was a tactic that worked out swimmingly across the last two Saturdays and it left Strachan, a 1995 Rugby World Cup finalist, singing the praises of the pair of 30-somethings, especially Barrett as there was concern that his Test-level career had petered out and was over.
“Amazingly with Damian McKenzie coming from full-back to 10, his transition’s been sensational. And Beauden Barrett, it’s probably a good chance just to mention him,” enthused Strachan on DSPN Rugby.
“He was kicked in the guts and we were all talking about the game’s gone past him, me included. He’s gone away and gone, ‘Hey, I’ve got some more in me, but when I come back into the mix, what am I going to actually bring? I’m going to have to step up. I’m going to have to deliver everything they need from a full-back and all my experience to use that’.
“And he’s done that in these last two Test matches. That’s wonderful because as you get knocked down, we want to see these All Blacks get up and Beaduen Barrett has been very, very good.
“One of the great things is he has packaged up all the experience has gone, okay, what do you want from your full-back? Ultimately, you got to be a good defensive full-back in the back field, catching balls, kicking back and also making those critical tackles when you need to, so he’s done that.
“You’re also now a really critical member of your attacking script or your strategy and he is now popping up – he is multi-multifaceted. We know that he has speed, you’re born with that and he’s still got it even though he’s a bit older.
“But he gets himself into positions now where he makes critical decisions with football pre and post (contact) and then he can expose defences that are clocking off and getting to those weak shoulders, so his attacking prowess is still one of the best in world and he just really likes the way Rennie and (assistant Mike) Blair have built this attack.
“It’s not perfect yet, but it’s getting to it because we want high level, high tempo fluidity and continuity and we’re starting to see that and he’s integral to that. How many errors has he made also? I don’t want to talk pessimistically about things, but he’s made minimal errors in two Tests after not playing much rugby for about nine or 10 Tests.”
With Ardie Savea injured in the third Greatest Rivalry series Test match in Soweto and out of action until 2027, the All Black started the tour finale in Baltimore with a back row consisting of Tupou Vai’i and Ethan Blackadder at flanker and Peter Lakai at No.8.
With Blackadder then picking up an injury, the starting back row for the Bledisloe Cup series against the Wallabies became Vai’i at six, Lakai at seven and Wallace Sititi included at eight. The trio gelled well and it prompted a question to Strachan regarding what happens to the selection when Savea comes back fit next year.
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“Peter Lakai has been the most consistent of our loose forwards to date and what he brings is multifaceted as well,” enthused the former All Black half-back. “His speed to ball, over ball, decision making, he can play on an edge, he can play through the middle, his defence has improved a lot, tackle accuracy superb and he gets those post-contact metres and he’s not massive, so he has to use his footwork to get to there.
“Loose forward trios have to complement, and you mention about if one guy’s a bit smaller, the other two should probably have a bit more size about them. Well, Tupou Vai’i, I know there was some question marks when he was playing in South Africa on an edge and how they kind of worked him out, but he’s gone away and worked on that.
“He brings the size we talk about, the lineout option as well and he certainly complements the other two. Sititi’s the third. We had real question marks over the way he came back but just remember, he got belted in that game, that Super game where he got knocked out really badly.
“I’m not a neurologist but those things take time before you can feel confident to get back in the mix and loose forwards have got to roll their sleeves up and hit the dark spaces but Wallace Sititi has just flicked his game to another level.
“So he is explosive, he finds space, he puts defence under pressure where the other two loose forwards can feed off and or they can play their role which is slightly different in amongst where they’re going to sit with the backs.
“Collectively they are very good defensively. Collectively, we are seeing some really, really good footwork and go forward offensively and they do complement. The lineout’s pretty well covered. They can throw Lakai up obviously. They can throw Sititi up and they do and Tupou Vai’i can also jump middle, back.
“We need to work on our lineout but that three are lineout exponents as well and also high energy, all three of them operate with really high energy. Are they sorted? Are they playing at their best collectively?
“No. They got work to do, but I like the way they have evolved as a trio, particularly when we were talking about Tupou Vai’i not really being part of that loose forward trio when he came back from South Africa. So, it has good that he’s responded in the way he has.”
Speaking generally about the All Blacks, Strachan explained what he overall liked best about Rennie’s team in Sydney. “We have to still look at those areas of the game that we want to try and perfect, so set-piece has been pretty good.
“Scrum, particularly last two Test matches, have been really effective; we have dominated in that space. Our lineout is still a little bit ropey at times and there’s a number of factors because you have different variations at lineout time.
“Four-man, five-man, five-plus-one or six-plus-one, full lineouts and there’s a lot of moving parts as well, so we need to really try and work on our lineout where we now have some genuine height and we have also got some players we can throw up and can really be trigger men at lineout time.
“We have just got to start dominating lineout, we want to be the best lineout in the world because most of our attacking prowess comes from a lineout format, so we need to do some more work there.
“And I suppose in terms of our defence, I really like the way we have improved against the Wallabies because the two 10 minutes of those two Tests where they threw everything at us, we seemed more connected. The accuracy in our tackle was better when we were double shoulders, and we were legal and not so illegal.
“We were a bit ill-disciplined there, and I like the way they just keep working hard for each other. Defence is going to win the World Cup, there’s no question, so I like the way that has been happening. I suppose all of it is underpinned by who is running your game and you have got to look at the spine of your team and we’re getting some really good results here.”