New Zealand rugby supporters are a tough lot to please. They’re like heavy metallic groupies at a rock live performance, standing with folded arms, able to clap solely when strictly obligatory. Fawning followers they’re emphatically not.
No person in New Zealand is congratulating Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson after his first two seasons accountable for the All Blacks got here to an finish on the Principality Stadium on Saturday. His staff had simply received handsomely towards Wales however there was solely a muted smattering of applause to be heard. Razor’s second season completed with 10 wins out of 13 and his general file stands at 20 wins from 27 makes an attempt.
A 74% return could also be respectable for New Zealand and the aspirational pot of gold on the finish of the rainbow for many top-tier rugby nations, but it surely stays stubbornly 10-15% beneath the astonishing win fee of the three smart males, Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith. From most New Zealanders, the arms stay folded, the bravos are muffled and there are not any stars within the eyes. It’s not sufficient.
The sample of the 2 most important defeats, to South Africa in Wellington in September, and to England at Twickenham two months later, was disturbingly related. Each side in the end cracked the All Blacks within the aerial battle and at scrum time, and so they ran away with the sport within the second half.
It’s not a method which might be copied and pasted by any outdated staff, but it surely works for these on the very prime finish of the sport. The All Blacks will not be bulletproof and they don’t seem to be invulnerable. There’s a clear path to victory towards them.
All Blacks management isn’t a lot a one-man affair as a partnership between coach and captain, and Robertson’s chosen skipper is his outdated mucker on the Crusaders, Scott Barrett. Whereas coaches have come and gone, the captaincy has remained within the palms of Robertson’s mate in Christchurch every time he has been accessible.
With the primary instalment of ‘The Best Rivalry’ due in 2026, the composition of the tight forwards on the whole, and Barrett’s spot within the second row, will come below extra intense scrutiny than ever earlier than. The very considered that tour of South Africa raises the spectres of the Cake Tin, and it left New Zealand forwards coach Jase Ryan momentarily speechless and scrambling for a response in dialog with The Breakdown’s Taylah Johnson.
“We came visiting right here to win a Grand Slam [beating all four of Ireland, Scotland England and Wales] however that by no means occurred,” he stated. “The England Check [which the All Blacks lost 33-19] will damage for some time – and thru the summer season.
“We are able to’t look previous our inconsistencies and we’ve got to be actually sincere about it. I do know I’ve made a number of errors this season and I’ll need to study from them fairly fast.
“But it surely’s 19 new All Blacks in two years and we’ve obtained practically 200 caps within the ahead pack sitting at residence, so I’m pleased with the younger fellas we’ve got introduced via within the forwards and we can be higher for it. However 2026? That Best Rivalry’s going to be… Whoomph!”
When pushed by Johnson, who requested “Is it unhealthy we don’t know who our prime 23 are, or is it good we’re blooding new gamers?”, Ryan couldn’t be something aside from candid in his response: “I feel it’s a mixture of each.”
‘We don’t know who’re prime 23 are’. The scenario within the center row of the scrum is symptomatic. With Tupou Vaa’i and Patrick Tuipulotu placing their toes up at residence, the second row on tour was crammed by a mixture of newly-crowned World Rugby breakthrough participant of the 12 months Fabian Holland, 6ft 8ins Chief Josh Lord and ‘Scooter’ the skipper.
The issue for Robertson is 6ft 9ins, 124kg Holland is competing straight for Barrett’s spot. As time goes by, he’ll grow to be extra ‘Guzzler’ than ‘Gandalf’. The form of his recreation will mirror Brodie Retallick greater than carefully than Sam Whitelock, as a classically cell Kiwi enforcer. As Stephen Donald noticed on The Breakdown: “I keep in mind initially of the 12 months somebody talked about him as a comparability to Brodie and I nearly fell off my chair! How are you going to examine somebody who hasn’t performed for the All Blacks to the best [second row] to have completed it?
“He’s not there but, however there are some putting similarities – in his core work, in his open play. You discuss dominant tackles, out of 5 in a recreation, he in all probability equates to 3 and a half of them. Within the final month on tour, he has been bodily huge on D.”
On the Rugby Championship, Barrett and Holland have been prime of the pops for dominant tackles amongst New Zealand forwards with 4 apiece, and that stat in addition to any illustrates how the pair can be operating neck and neck coming into the ultimate furlong of New Zealand’s World Cup preparation over the following season and a half. Solely the captaincy could also be preserving Scooter a nostril forward, and that would simply be ripe for a change too.
The quantity 5 ‘Whitelock’ spot needs to be managed effectively by a mixture of both Vaa’i and Lord by 2027, whereas Tuipulotu has already proven his aptitude as a specialist bench lock, so it isn’t inconceivable 32-year-old Barrett might discover himself frozen out fully by the point the World Cup spins round.
A desk of key efficiency stats culled from the November tour highlights some fascinating areas of comparability. The next figures all characterize manufacturing averaged over an 80-minute recreation.
Holland can justifiably declare to be probably the most dependable supply of lineout possession anyplace within the present worldwide recreation. He averaged eight takes per recreation on tour, and 9 on the Rugby Championship, roughly twice as many as some other beginning second row within the event. When it comes to pure lineout manufacturing, he’s actually head and shoulders above everybody else.
Vaa’i and Lord can play the position of the marginally looser, ball-handling second row, and Vaa’i posted related figures on the carry to Lord in TRC with 5 carries for 27m. Lord was one of many hidden success tales of the November tour, averaging 5 tackles extra per recreation than both of the opposite locks whereas making 100% of the stops he tried. In opposition to Scotland he additionally showcased his pure abilities as a footballer.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 24, 2025
That type of intuitive offloading potential and nostril for a niche are instincts that can not be purchased, or faked. That snapshot alone hints that Lord might but grow to be New Zealand’s reply to RG Snyman.
The place does Barrett match into the general image? It’s not to be present in his lineout work or scrummaging prowess, or in his carrying potential. The understated level of distinction is in that fifth column, it lies in his potential to get to locations in cleanout help different tight forwards can solely watch with a measure of envy.
In opposition to Wales, he was normally first ahead up in help on kick-chase, and the primary one again in defence when hazard threatened.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 24, 2025
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 24, 2025
In each instances it’s Scooter’s help work on the breakdown which confirms the turnover; first to latch on to the aerial reclaim by Will Jordan and first to nail Pasilio Tosi into the breakdown and make sure the turnover penalty within the second.
Barrett’s penchant for double involvements was a keystone of the All Blacks’ attacking breakdown work in Cardiff. The All Blacks received 137 rucks and misplaced none to would-be-Welsh pilferers on the deck.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 24, 2025
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 24, 2025
Within the first clip Barrett cleans out each Welsh locks within the house of 15 seconds on separate performs to avoid wasting the turnover, within the second he’s the primary tight ahead across the nook to the second section of assault from lineout, taking part in within the twilight zone between a unfastened and a decent ahead, and making certain there may be that ‘pearl of nice value’ within the trendy recreation – continuity.
The captain’s work within the gray areas helped Tamati Williams to a strive as the primary half drew to an in depth.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) November 24, 2025
The facility of Williams on the short-range carry is plain, and it must be beginning to make its mark. However who’s the bloke up in help, peeling gargantuan 140kg Welshman Rhys Carre away from the deal with try on Tamaiti? That’s proper, it’s Scooter the Skipper.
Do Razor Robertson and his assistants actually know the make-up of their prime 23-man matchday squad? Proper now, in all probability not. Forty-nine gamers have been tried in 2025, with various levels of success. There can be debates forward of the ‘Best Rivalry’ tour concerning the bench break up and the perfect match for beginning and ending profiles.
With the Springbok spectre looming, there’ll discussions across the space of Ryan’s speciality within the tight forwards. There’s a distinct risk the captain might lose his place within the 23 completely. Holland is quick changing into an irresistible pressure at 4 within the line, whereas Vaa’i and Lord can be disputing 5 and Tuipulotu appears to be like a pure affect operator from the bench. Most Kiwi followers can be asking the identical query: the place now for Scott Barrett?
