Aisle be Back: Bledisloe Cup Two

• By Kevin McCarthy

The Cake Tin can be a place of swirling currents – so apt that suddenly Beauden Barrett and TJ Perenara are the starting 10 and 9 for  Bledisloe Two.

Damien McKenzie has played the first eight matches of the year in charge – so is it a demotion? Not at all, says coach Robertson. Instead, it’s putting the old band together again, with two players well versed in coping with the conditions of night-time rugby in Wellington.

True, but hardly the future for this side you’d think. TJ after all is in his final test year and making a generally fine fist of it. And we know that Beaudy is a proven test first-five.

Damien McKenzie has copped expected flak for the All Blacks not nailing some key opportunities, and the dreaded last 20 points-free hoodoo. It’s a mix of fair and unfair, Certainly if you were worried about DMAC as a game closer, you wouldn’t be picking him necessarily to come off the bench – and close a game.

The whole last 20 thing is strange but also overcooked. The fact is that All Blacks should have blasted the Wallabies out of sight by the 60 minute mark – similarly, they had the Boks creaking badly in that first test but did not nail it. Maybe it’s the first 20 after the halftime that is where the team is drifting.

Anyway, at some point it will cease to be a thing.

I listened to Razor doing an interview on National Radio’s Morning Report show. Unusual in that it’s not typically the place you find All Black coaches doing interviews, and 24 hours out from a test (though I reckon it was  pre-recorded – disclaimer here, I work at the place!).

Anyways it was not what he said – but the way he said it. Asked where the team was at before the trek North, he replied with a pause and a long ahhhh. Secondly he tends to talk at a million miles an hour and be moving on to one thought before he’s quite finished the last one.

It’s certainly a change from the normally taciturn coaches, but I am not sure I am much wiser either way.

Realistically the Springboks should overpower Argentina this weekend, leaving New Zealand with a chance to sneak into second place. Or stay in third if things don’t work out.

Hardly an ideal outcome – but as Razor admits, small margins are what have cost the team at many points.

What is good is that this has been the most competitive Rugby Championship I can remember, chiefly because Argentina are preforming well, and with a sometimes lethal attack.

The All Blacks team is (Test caps in brackets):

1. Ethan de Groot (27) 2. Codie Taylor (92) (Vice Captain) 3. Tyrel Lomax (39) 4. Scott Barrett (75) (Captain) 5. Tupou Vaa’i (33) 6. Wallace Sititi (4) 7. Sam Cane (99) 8. Ardie Savea (89) (Vice Captain) 9. TJ Perenara (86) 10. Beauden Barrett (130) 11. Caleb Clarke (24) 12. Anton Lienert-Brown (78) 13. Rieko Ioane (76) 14. Sevu Reece (29) 15. Will Jordan (36)

Reserves: 16. Asafo Aumua (13) 17. Tamaiti Williams (13) 18. Pasilio Tosi (2) 19. Patrick Tuipulotu (45) 20. Luke Jacobson (23) 21.  Cortez Ratima (7) 22.  Damian McKenzie (55) 23.  David Havili (27)

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The Lions are still on course in the NPC -albeit living  a bit dangerously.

However, Tasman, with a game in hand, are poised to overtake them at some point.

Nothing in the weekend matchup’s suggest either will lose. And Tasman should dispose of a poor Auckland side in their catchup game.

Then it will be down to the last rounds – where both frontrunners will face serious challenges –  and in the case of Tasman, an actual Shield challenge against defending champs Taranaki.