Goodhue looks to fill midfield holes for Blacks

Skirt through the many articles devoted to the raft of All Black retirements after the 2015 World Cup and odds are that the photos alongside them carry the photogenic face of Dan Carter or Richie McCaw’s spiky ruggedness.

Carter and McCaw were only two of the five veterans to walk away in the wake of that Webb Ellis triumph.

Keven Mealamu wrapped up his test career after the defeat of Australia in the final in Twickenham. So did the centre pairing of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith.

Jack Goodhue and Ryan Crotty. Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland

The consensus is that the Kiwis are not quite the team they were when that quintet was still clocking in — how could it be? — but there is an argument to be made that it is in midfield where those losses have been felt most keenly.

Nonu and Smith spent eight seasons holding down the centre, starting a world record 62 games as a pairing.

Three years on and Steve Hansen is still searching for pieces of the jigsaw that fit anything like as smoothly together.

It looked for a while as if he had settled on Ryan Crotty and Sonny Bill Williams but injuries allowed others to step up.

The All Blacks coach has used six players in his midfield across their dozen games in 2018 alone. And at least seven different combinations.

That includes the Matt Proctor/Ngani Laumape tag team that featured for a virtual All Black ‘B’ side against Japan in Tokyo two weekends ago.

But the most impressive of the newer kids on this particular block has been Jack Goodhue.

The 23-year-old Crusader, who shares his birthplace of Kawakawa with Joe Schmidt, will earn his seventh cap at the Aviva.

Alongside him will be clubmate Crotty who has described a player with a huge workrate, a superb defender, and a man whose zen-like calm is almost unsettling.

“Sometimes I need to check he’s awake,” he has joked.

Goodhue appears to be the full package. Williams hailed his attacking skills — and boyish good looks — prior to the pair lining up against Australia in Sydney.

This farmer’s son from the North Island has remained unflustered amid the musical chairs.

That last brownie point can’t be highlighted enough.

Brian O’Driscoll regularly stressed the importance of communication to the cohesion of a midfield partnership with Gordon D’Arcy that served Ireland 56 times.

The worth of such familiarity has been reiterated since their own retirements.

Schmidt has, like Hansen, been forced to shuffle his deck in the same sector but Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, and Robbie Henshaw have all built solid understandings through their time together, whether at club or international levels.

And, impressive as Will Addison’s full debut was for Ireland against Argentina, the Ulster man’s partnership with Aki betrayed signs of one that had been hastily patched together 20 minutes before kick-off. Which, of course, it had been.

These things matter.

“We have a game plan, we’re going to try use the skills we have,” explained Goodhue.

“With Ryan you know what he’s like. He’s got good footwork, good handling skills, good communication. I’ll let him play his game, I’ll play mine and we’ll make it work.”

The New Zealand Herald ran a headline back in August describing Goodhue as “the next iconic All Black centre” but he has had to overcome two serious injuries to his right knee just to make it this far.

His Super Rugby debut didn’t come to pass until last year but he was superb in that rookie season with the Crusaders.

So much so that Hansen drafted him into the All Blacks’ wider training squad during the British and Irish Lions series.

Goodhue has succeeded so far where the likes of Anton Lienert-Brown and Nagani Laumape failed in making the most of his audition at test level.

His performance tomorrow will owe something to a certain Irishman on the books in Christchurch.

Goodhue, like Crotty earlier this week, has been effusive in his praise for Ronan O’Gara, crediting the Crusaders backs coach with instilling a greater aggression in their defence and the introduction of some new ideas on how to attack the line off set pieces.

“He’s brought some enthusiasm. He’s a great guy and I enjoy working with him. He’s brought some northern hemisphere defence and getting up in opposition faces.

"You need to learn from any coach, especially someone like Ronan. He’s got a lot of experience, he’s taught me a lot.”