Another chapter of the Barrett-Mo'unga saga

last saturday we could see for the first time both nº10s playing with the same forwards (more or less) and against the same defense,... and it was clear as daylight,... Beauden Barrett is not a nº10,... he's alongside Ioane the most dangerous attacking kiwi player,... but he needs space and time

BB is exceptionally good in broken play,... but in structured game he tends to take bad options,... especially when pressured (e.g. against rushing defenses),... against the argies he kicked when he shouldn't have,... and his kicking was aimless, out or to the hands of the argies,.... didn't vary his game,.. didn't attack the defensive line,... the backline had no fluidity,... tries came from set pieces or Ioane's last one from a loose ball,... the midfield was absent,...

but when Richie Mo'unga came in the whole thing changed,... he did everything Barrett failed to do,... each time he received the ball he made a different thing,... kicked when he had to and looking for space,... he often attacked the line,... and the most important thing, he made play his teammates,... the midfield entered into the game,... Crotty and ALB began to break lines and distribute the ball,...

IMO there's no doubt Mo'unga should start at nº10,... especially the next game against the boks who succeeded putting pressure on him and A. Smith last time,... and BB at FB,... my team would be:

9. TJ Perenara    10. R. Mo'unga

12. R. Crotty      13. J. Goodhue

11. R. Ioane        14. B. Smith      15. B. Barrett

21. A. Smith    22. ALB    23. W. Naholo

untill now I always would have picked A. Smith,... first time I think he shouldn't be starting,.... but he's out of form, slow (was caught so many times by faf) and poorly defending,....

SBW made just one thing worth to mention,... an excellent offload,... but that's it,... the rest were 3 tackles and 6 runs for 7 meters,... IMO not enough,... he should have been playing NPC to get used to the competition, this year he has played just 6 games

Naholo had a decent game,... but he made many mistakes,... B. Smith could be not so good finisher but he doesn't make mistakes

Barrett isn't skilled enough to be 10 in my opinion. I know there will be folks building a cross for me to hang from, but that's how I see it. I always liked Cruden myself. I'm not sold on Mo'unga. I'll have to watch the last All Black test though, so can't comment on that game.

Smith is still world class. Everyone gets caught by Faf! 

Sonny Bill has never been my first choice 12. 

Fact is SBW was very good in the past - but even this year he was not good enough for the Blues and I was not convinced about his performance against Argentina.   The ye;;pw card was most fo what I remember about him,

I think Crotty is at present a better option and I have seen so many good performances by Goodhue in Super Rugby - I think he is the best 13 in New Zealand, if not in the world at present.  

However, I cannot agree with the selection of Barrett at full back, instead of him I would retain Naholo on the wing and Smith at full back.       

Laumape has been very good himself. I'm starting to take a shine to him. 

So many choices

At this stage I see Mo'unga as the bench 10 and let's see how he develops. I hope he get's plenty of game time in the Bok game. I'm still for giving SBW some game time to see what he has left. He is very strong on defense and you can almost bet on at least one offensive play that results in a try.

I like Goodhue, he is a more well rounded player than Laumape but both will be developed so we will see how they shape up. Crotty has had a few head knocks but they will manage his workload until the RWC and this will give them a chance to give Goodhue, Laumape and ALB some game time.

Barrett can get the ball at any point in the offensive line. They mixed it up last time between Pod screens and a very wide alignment off a flat line of 4 to 5 forwards. There were alot of cut balls, keeping the ball in front of their runners. This is in contrast to Australia and South Africa, who like to have deeper layers on attack with miss passes behind screens. These cut balls meant any runner could be support once the target got the ball. The forwards very often played amongst themselves, all of them have good skills. They'd pick on Steph, or take advantage of his rush and send a runner through his channel through the seam. As dangerous as Barrett is, it was Ben Smith who hurt us most. 

How good is Goodhue, according to this article very good. We are going to see a lot more of him.

All Blacks midfielders are all chasing Jack Goodhue, the form runner; by Paul Culley

OPINION: The race between the All Blacks midfielders to grab a starting spot is like one of those contests involving the great mare Winx.

There are some great contenders, and then there's Jack Goodhue.

It really is that beautifully simple. It may not be reflected in the All Blacks' selections this weekend, with Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty also holding obvious attractions, but the form horse is the Northlander.

In fact, Goodhue holds the distinction of being the only All Black among the top 10 players in five key Rugby Championship attacking categories - tries scored, offloads, metres carried, clean breaks and defenders beaten.

He has beaten more defenders than Beauden Barrett and scored more tries than Ben Smith.

And those statistics don't even take into account the opportunities he has set up for others.

Like all youngsters, there is a bump or two on the track ahead for Goodhue.

He'll have to overcome those at some point of his career but at the moment he is making the difficult look easy and has the potential to take the All Blacks' game forward in the same way Karl Tu'inukuafe can on the loosehead side of the scrum.

Tu'inukuafe's trademarks might be his moustache and massive scrummaging but his ball carrying might round out a trifecta: he's like a big boulder rolling down a steep hill.

As for Goodhue there was a moment in the game against Argentina that really stood out.

You will probably recall it too - when he fended off defenders with different arms on the same run and still kept the legs pumping.

With due respect to Conrad Smith, whom Goodhue has been compared to, Smith was never the attacking threat that Goodhue is.

In some ways they are completely different footballers.

?Goodhue actually played on the wing at times for the 2015 New Zealand under 20s in a team that featured TJ Faiane and Anton Lienert-Brown in the midfield, and while he has probably given up a bit of pace for size since then (he also suffered a serious knee injury in 2015) he's still athletically blessed.

Some grumble about a lack of top-end pace.

Perhaps this goes back to being beaten on the outside by Ben Lam in Wellington earlier this year. But be fair - give Lam some grass to gallop into and no one is catching him.

Goodhue also has something that 'quicker' players would swap their fast-twitch fibres for. Along with Damian McKenzie, no one hits the ball better than Goodhue.

McKenzie runs onto the ball at close to his peak speed, giving the impression he has unparalleled pace (in truth, if the chasers then pursue him post-linebreak in a straight line race he can be run down).

Goodhue is similar, and when they worked that move together off Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi's pass against Argentina it was impossible to stop - simply glorious off-the-cuff rugby.

It's the sort of play that keeps the All Blacks ahead of the chasing pack.

Perhaps the All Blacks will go back to Williams and Crotty as a partnership this weekend, when they name their team on Thursday.

They invested a lot of faith in it last year.

However, with No 12 being Crotty's best position the All Blacks can get most attacking uplift from changing the picture at No 13.

That's part of what makes Goodhue so appealing.

Has the time come to make the first big unforced selection shift in 2018 and revisit the pecking order in midfield?

* Stats provided by Opta

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOpqU6LGQcc

Hakwa, congrats on reaching over 4,000 posts, the post above is not your most complete effort however.

Thanks JW 

Every team is a process team. Every team is drilled into a pattern of play. The All Black game is more flexible. They merely got tackled to death and Barrett' s weakness was shown up when he was challenged to control a game, not merely run. 

I laugh at the calls for a plan B. A second gameplan. The level of detail and planning that goes into plan A is extraordinary. To simply change everything mid-game? It's ridiculous. Consider how much time these coaches actually have with the players. A change of emphasis is another story though. That does come down to leadership. 

Hi Cloudy, nice to see you back on here again

Folks, Gregor Paul (writes for the NZ Herald seems to think the way I do on how to integrate  Mo'unga, McKenzie and Barrett. It would be a very interesting combination.

"If the All Blacks want to try to turn the final quarter into an unstructured aerobic ordeal for the Boks, they might fancy having all three of Mo'unga, McKenzie and Barrett on the field to do that.

Mo'unga could run things at 10, Barrett could be at fullback and McKenzie on the wing.

Rieko Ioane could shift into centre and Ben Smith, regardless of where he starts, could be on the other wing and with those players on the park, the All Blacks would have a merciless capacity to attack at a time when fatigue is biting and space opening up." 

Hi Cloudy, nice to see you back on here again

Folks, Gregor Paul (writes for the NZ Herald seems to think the way I do on how to integrate  Mo'unga, McKenzie and Barrett. It would be a very interesting combination.

"If the All Blacks want to try to turn the final quarter into an unstructured aerobic ordeal for the Boks, they might fancy having all three of Mo'unga, McKenzie and Barrett on the field to do that.

Mo'unga could run things at 10, Barrett could be at fullback and McKenzie on the wing.

Rieko Ioane could shift into centre and Ben Smith, regardless of where he starts, could be on the other wing and with those players on the park, the All Blacks would have a merciless capacity to attack at a time when fatigue is biting and space opening up." 

Has Cloudy been hacked?  She is criticising my man SWB who she loves and predicting an ABs loss. Can the original Cloudy please step forward. I blame Beeno - maybe he has finally cracked Cloudy .

Hi Cloudy

Hakwa ,legend Bro

SBW and his offloading has changed the way the game is played in the tackle ,few can say they had such an impact .Maybe one more year in him eh ? 

I am sorry this is madness. B Smith is the best fullback in the world. Where would you put him? On the bench lol? BB has won world player of the year consectively playing at Flyhalve. The idea of moving him is ludricous. This experimentation is worryiing me as a AB Fan. Reminds me when John Hart put Cullen the best full back in the world at the time to Outside Centre. Or in 2007 when Henry put Mils into Outside Centre. Or even 2003 when John Mitchel put Leon Macdonald at Outside centre. Have you kiwis not learnt from that? We need specialist players in specilaist positions. Ritchie coming off the bench and having the impact he did. Is not proof he is a better game manager. It is proof he is a different player. And ABS can outlay a big picture. He can see things others cant. Like Ardie did. Is Ardie better than Cane. Well yes LOL. But point is. Ritchie started againgst Argentina in Nelson. No BB and he struggled. So regardless of his potential ability. To me he is a great bench option. And BB is the incumbant fly halve for the WC.

15. B Smith 14. Jordie Barrett 13. J Goodhue 12. SBW 11. R Ioane 10. B Barrett 9. A Smith

20. TJ Peranara 21. R Mounga 22. D Mckenzie 23. A Leniot Brown/R Crotty

Hi Cloudy, hope all is well with you

I will stick with SBW because he is coming back from injury but for sure he and Crotty under performed. Maybe it was because the inside backs had a lousy game and/or because we has so little possession, etc. but SBW better show something good on the EOYT as Goodhue and others are ready to step in.

On Barrett, I would go with Richie Mo on the bench and put him on if things are not working for Barrett. Moving Barrett to FB is no step backward and having them both on the field is lethal.