Is life a bench for Ioane?
There is the appearance of change in the All Blacks’ 23-man squad to take on Argentina tomorrow, although upon closer inspection some of it is superficial.
A first start for Blues lock Sam Darry is largely the result of Scott Barrett’s finger surgery and a previously undisclosed calf injury to Patrick Tuipulotu.
Similarly, Wallace Sititi’s place on the bench could be down to a hamstring injury that Luke Jacobson also picked up in training, rather than confirmation the bruising Chiefs No 8 has moved up the All Blacks’ pecking order.
However, the selection of Anton Lienert-Brown at No 13, ahead of Rieko Ioane, who is on the bench, signals the first genuine change of the Scott Robertson era.
Ioane has been used at No 13 for the All Blacks since 2020, but on the back of a relatively quiet Super Rugby Pacific campaign, his hold on the jersey is under clear threat.
Hurricanes midfielder Billy Proctor must have also been in the conversation to start in Wellington after an encouraging debut against Fiji in San Diego, and you could even argue that Ioane could slip down to the third-ranked No 13 in the squad.
Lienert-Brown and Proctor are very different players, but both might be more effective than Ioane as link players capable of releasing their outsides against aggressive test defences.
But this does not mean the end of Ioane as an All Blacks player – far from it. In fact, even if he does lose the No 13 jersey he will have the opportunity to reinvent himself as the sort of bench weapon the All Blacks have lacked for years.
Ioane’s ability to cover wing as well as centre is invaluable, and there will be those who argue that he is closer to world-class on the edge rather than in the midfield.
That versatility would be beneficial to the All Blacks, who have previously opted for Lienert-Brown on the bench due to his ability to cover No 12 and No 13.
But as good as Lienert-Brown is, he doesn’t have the potential to break open a game the way Ioane could from the bench: Lienert-Brown has always been a better starting option rather than an impact one.
If the All Blacks do go down the path of choosing Lienert-Brown or Proctor at No 13, both can cover the No 12 position in the event of an injury to Jordie Barrett, so the coverage is there to allow Ioane to be used as that bench weapon.
He’s probably too good a player not to be included in the 23 somewhere – too fast and too strong – so while his demotion this week might sting, there’s an opportunity for reinvention in a way that might actually enhance his value to the team.
If Will Jordan, named on the bench against Argentina, does in time claim the No 15 jersey, the All Blacks’ backline bench options in the future could be Cortez Ratima, Beauden Barrett and Ioane.
That’s arguably the strongest group of impact players since the 2015 World Cup, giving the All Blacks the chance to reclaim their status as the best final-quarter team in the world.