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If last Saturday night’s Super Rugby Pacific final was also a shadow trial for the All Black number 10 jersey, we had a winner.
It wasn’t the knockout blow that is probably needed to quell any further debate on the topic, but it certainly appears that Richie Mo’unga will be the man for the job after guiding the Crusaders to a 25-20 win over Damian McKenzie’s Chiefs in front of a stunned Hamilton crowd.
But it all could have been so different.
McKenzie was touted as the form fly half in New Zealand for much of the regular season, and fair enough too. The Chiefs recorded two very impressive wins over the Crusaders and it felt like McKenzie couldn’t put a foot wrong – until hitting a speed bump no one really saw coming in the form of the Queensland Reds.
The gutsy 25-22 win by the Reds in New Plymouth suddenly exposed some serious cracks in McKenzie’s game, by then Mo’unga’s Crusaders were on an upward trajectory towards the finals, so sentiment returned to the tried and true.
Which is fine and not at all unusual for opinion to sway towards the shiny new thing before settling back where it started in regard to the All Blacks, at least by the time they get around to playing.
McKenzie will still have his supporters and may well get a chance to wear the 10 jersey for just the third time in a 40-test career before the World Cup starts, but it feels as though he’s certainly going to have to make a pretty strong case to unseat Mo’unga.
How they’re both going to complement one another in the match day 23 will be quite fascinating, but the question now though is where does this leave Beauden Barrett?
While the Chiefs at least put up a serious fight in the final and can claim to be a little unlucky with a couple of key calls against the Crusaders, the same can’t be said of Barrett’s Blues in their semi-final the weekend before.
To say the 52-18 scoreline was a bottom of the barrel performance for the Blues is doing a serious injustice to barrels, because the rot that the loss set in may well permeate through into the earth below.
It’s fair to say that hiding may well have set the Blues back about four years, given that they stilled haven’t confirmed a replacement coach for Leon MacDonald (although if it’s not Vern Cotter then it will be a serious surprise) and have had no return other than a makeshift Super Rugby Trans-Tasman trophy in the former All Black fullback’s time in charge.
Barrett looks to have suffered the most. He has very much had his moments, is still a potent draw whenever he plays, but questions over his form have multiplied this season to the point where it would be pretty hard to find anyone outside Taranaki that would be serious about starting him at 10 for the All Blacks after his complete body of work in a blue jersey.
That leaves fullback as his only way back into the starting team, which sounds alright on paper with McKenzie coming off the bench, until we cast our minds back four years to when this last happened.
Obviously it didn’t work in the semi-final against England, who dismembered the All Blacks in a 12 point win that may as well have been 50, but it certainly looked OK in the quarter against Ireland. That game was won 46-14, but that probably said a bit more about the Irish at that stage too.
Does Barrett even make the bench?
Ian Foster has seemed reticent to use Will Jordan at fullback, despite him playing his Super Rugby there for the Crusaders, but a fresh mix of outside backs may well force Foster’s hand.
Mark Telea and Leicester Fainga’anuku are far too good to be sitting and watching, as is Jordan, so right now that’s the form combination. That would leave McKenzie at 23, coming on as a dual playmaker in the second half like he did twice last year in tight games against the Boks.
So, then Barrett will likely line up in the pool games and be on standby if one of the others goes down. While that’s certainly happened before, it’s not really the way we all saw the former double World Player of the Year’s Test career potentially finishing.
Foster’s loyalty is another factor though.
Barrett has been one of his pedigree horses and has never seriously been out of favour, ever.
There was never any danger of him not getting picked for the squad so just what his role ends up being will be known once the Rugby Championship gets underway.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.