Opinion - The All Blacks' second test of the year is kicking off tonight and we'll be welcoming a new captain to the list of men that have led the side.
Aaron Smith gets the honour in his 98th test match, which is a nice gesture but really does make you wonder what may have happened if he'd been given the job full-time.
Aaron Smith Photo: Photosport / Andrew Cornaga
Now, this is not a gripe at Samuel Whitelock, who has stepped in for the injured Sam Cane till presumably some time during the Rugby Championship.
Whitelock was the predictable choice given he'd done the job before, was likely to be on the park for the duration of all the big games, and has 123 tests worth of experience. But that's kind of the issue with the All Blacks, indeed with rugby in New Zealand right now - it's predictable.
It was predictable that NZ Rugby chose Ian Foster to be the coach, it was predictable that Stewart Mitchell would be elected chairman, it was predictable that the All Blacks would hang 102 unanswered points on Tonga last weekend. It was even predictable that Foster would make 13 changes to his side from that test, because he was allowed to pick a 36-man squad.
This conservative mindset isn't such a bad thing to a great many who follow rugby here and NZ Rugby knows this. But the naming of Smith as captain shows that he does indeed have the respect of the team as one of its most influential players, plus it completes a pretty remarkable redemption arc (at least in All Black terms).
Smith has become far more of a go to mouthpiece for the game of late, is active on social media, and would be counted as one of the most popular players among fans. But picking him as the proper stand in for Cane was just a bridge too far, it seems.
While that would have been nice, it won't make a difference to the score on Saturday night. The Fijians should pose more of a challenge than Tonga, although they have only had a few days to prepare given they've just come out of managed isolation.
What sort of crowd will be taking money out of their pockets to sit and watch that at Forsyth Barr Stadium remains to be seen and will probably be of concern to both NZ Rugby. They have known full well that it'd be a struggle to fill up the seats while also struggling to convince anyone that these games are actually doing anyone other than the All Black coaching staff any good, therefore undermining the holding of them in the first place.
But at least they can count on some sort of crowd showing up, which is not an option for what was supposed to be the most notable rugby event of the year. Over in South Africa, the British & Irish Lions tour is one step away from being an absolute disaster, with a match postponed and positive Covid-19 tests in both test squads, all the while being played in front of empty stands as the country deals with another outbreak.
It must be galling for the Lions players to be watching the Euro 2020 tournament and seeing 60,000 in the stands at Wembley celebrating England's semifinal win, given that relocating the tour to the UK was one of the possible work-arounds.
The ramifications of the test series going pear-shaped would have an effect here, too. The Springboks are using this series as a very intense way of crash starting their programme after not playing a test since the 2019 Rugby World Cup final (they did have a hit out against Georgia last weekend, with the second test in that series called off), which means if the unthinkable happens and the test series is called off, they will come to New Zealand without any real preparation for the much-hyped 100th test match against the All Blacks.
That fixture now looms as the biggest game of the year, given the Lions series may well end up being a complete damp squib. Let's just hope the old enemy gets a chance to tune up before they collide with the All Blacks on 25 September.
