2024 was anticipated as something of a rebirth for the All Blacks. With New Zealand’s formerly undoubted global dominance eroded through a number of historic losses in the recent World Cup cycles, a new coach with new energy was sought as the remedy.
However, the competitiveness of the global order in its current state offers very little margin for error and introducing new faces to the international arena is not as simple as it once was for World Rugby’s heavyweights. And so, outside of a Californian voyage to face Fiji and a foray to Tokyo to face Japan, new head coach Scott Robertson opted to field his best available men throughout the All Blacks’ 14-Test season.
Were it not for injuries befalling a handful of loose forwards, a couple of locks and the odd back, opportunities for New Zealand’s 2024 Test rookies looked to be few and far between.
Injuries are unfortunately a part of this beautiful game and so a number of opportunities presented themselves, leading to extended stints for the likes of Wallace Sititi and Cortez Ratima, who both established their places in the matchday 23 during The Rugby Championship.
But, the apparent reluctance to field youngsters outside of injury-enforced changes has raised some eyebrows among those hoping for a more dramatic shift in personnel within the environment. Reflecting on the balance of building for future wins and dealing with the opposition at hand throughout 2024, All Blacks attack coach Scott Hansen adopted a broad perspective.
“If you have a quick snapshot of what’s happened this year already around the 12 debutants, bringing in some new exciting players into the All Blacks environment, adding different layers around relationships and growth. I feel we’ve been focussed on doing that daily, weekly, by Test.
“You live live, you learn, you grow. Next thing for sure mate, like anything, like any job, like any environment, you’re going to learn your lessons, you’re going to sit back, adjust to how you can be better.
“I think everyone in this All Black team, both players and team always focussed on that. We understand the true privilege of being in the All Blacks environment. We understand the legacy but also the excitement around this is our time.
“So, definitely lessons from the year and looking forward to going forward with this very, very exciting group.”
Hansen then narrowed in on the 2027 Rugby World Cup plan specifically.
“You focus on each Test, that’s for sure but in the background you’ve got an understanding of where you’re gonna grow your game and what that looks like, you’ve got to understand where your layers can be, where we need to be at this stage.
“Our biggest challenge is how we evolve, and a massive part of that is selection around getting All Blacks to that level where when you’re heading into World Cups they’ve got experience, whether that be 30, 40, 50, 60 Tests.
“And the experience is not just the Test, the experience is being in a corner during a Test match and learning ‘I didn’t get out of that as well as I should have’. The experience is ‘in that moment, that lineout throw I didn’t quite nail it and/or I did, what’s the experience from that?’
“So we often talk about Tests but I believe is contextual and elemental around what that is during it. Bringing a team up to Europe, conditions in Paris the other night, wow what an environment; Peter Lakai, just a little taste of that.
“So we’ll build all of those experiences as we get into that cycle essentially and that’s what we’re doing currently.”
