All Black rookie highlights NZ's biggest challenge ahead of Northern Tour
SPOTLIGHT: All Black scrumhalf Cam Roigard has highlighted ‘back-to-back performances’ as New Zealand’s greatest challenge ahead of the side’s Northern Tour.
After failing to win the 2024 Rugby Championship, the All Blacks are preparing to come up against some of the world’s best in Europe.
The All Blacks will open their end-of-year tour against Eddie Jones’ Japan as they’re currently based in Tokyo to prepare for that Test.
New Zealand will then embark north where they’ll face England, Ireland, France and Italy.
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The Twickenham clash against England has the ingredients to be yet another classic Test between the two rival nations, with New Zealand edging past Steve Borthwick’s England in two tightly contested matches during the July international window.
England playmaker Marcus Smith recently warned the English ‘owe New Zealand one’ ahead of that clash in early November, and they won’t be the only side sharing that view.
Ireland will also be out for revenge when the two sides will square up for the first time since the 2023 World Cup quarterfinal.
The All Blacks will have to be at their very best across these five Tests, and consistency hasn’t quite been their friend so far during the 2024 season.
They lost a home Rugby Championship Test to Argentina before falling to the Springboks twice in back-to-back clashes, although they managed to end their Rugby Championship campaign on a high with two wins over Australia.
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“Back-to-back performances will be huge,” Roigard told reporters this week.
“Obviously, we’ve got Japan, and then we’ve got England, Ireland and France which are obviously great sides. It’ll take the whole squad to put some good performances through. Probably can’t rely on the same 23 because they are such physical games.
“Teams like Ireland will be trying to get one over us, and on the flip of that, we’ll be trying to get one over France. It’ll be hugely contested but it’ll take the whole squad to get the performances we’re after and consistency will be huge.”
You could hear in Roigard’s voice that he can’t wait for this tour abroad.
The scrumhalf has not featured for the All Blacks since the pool stage of the 2023 World Cup in France, with the highly rated No.9 suffering a devastating knee injury during Super Rugby Pacific.
Roigard was earmarked as the potential successor to Aaron Smith to take over the No.9 black jersey, with Smith retiring after the 2023 global showpiece.
Roigard’s absence during his injury opened the door for Chiefs scrumhalf Cortez Ratima who has shone in the black jersey.
Whether it’s a starting role or off the bench, Ratima has emerged as a potential candidate for Breakthrough Player of the Year honours – combining well with veteran TJ Perenara as a skilful one-two punch regardless of who don’s the No.9 jersey.
But with Aaron Smith out of the picture and Perenara hanging up his Test boots at the end of the year after signing a multi-year deal in Japan, there is an ‘opportunity’ for Roigard, Ratima and one-Test All Black Noah Hotham to shine.
“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty clear there is an opportunity there to cement a spot in the All Blacks. It’s no one’s to start with but I guess there is opportunity there, but not trying to look too far ahead,” Roigard explained.
“I’m sure when [Aaron Smith] was first in the team, he was never thinking he was going to have the career that he had – straight into starting and playing all those games consecutively.
“I’m focused on just trying to get back in the group and try and work as hard as I can to get an opportunity, and if that does come, then I can take it hopefully with both hands and see what happens from there.
“Really looking forward to working alongside Cortez and TJ for this next block.”
Finn Morton
@Rugbypass
