All Blacks: Lima Sopoaga gives blunt verdict on Ruben Love’s performances at 10 in the Nations Championship
All Blacks fly-half Ruben Love and ex-New Zealand playmaker Lima Sopoaga (inset).
Lima Sopoaga believes Ruben Love is the right man to start at fly-half for the All Blacks after he was in that position in their recent Nations Championship Tests.
Ahead of their eagerly anticipated Greatest Rivalry series with their arch-rivals South Africa, New Zealand kicked off their Nations Championship campaign with successive victories over France (34-32), Italy (47-17) and Ireland (40-21).
Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett were the two players who shared the fly-half duties for the All Blacks when Scott Robertson coached the men in black in 2024 and 2025.
However, Robertson was axed at the start of this year with Dave Rennie appointed as the All Blacks’ new head coach.
Rennie selected McKenzie and Barrett in his Nations Championship squad, but neither got the nod to start at fly-half, with Love the preferred choice for the number 10 jersey against France, Italy and Ireland.
Meanwhile, McKenzie started at full-back in all the aforementioned Tests while there was no place in any of those matchday squads for Barrett.
With those Tests against the Springboks looming large on the horizon, Sopoaga highlighted the importance of the fly-half’s role for any team.
‘The hardest position on the field to play’
“Obviously, playing 10 is, I would say the hardest position on the field to play, because outside the captain when you’re out on the field the team’s looking at you,” he told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin.
“You’re the quarterback. You’re the director. You are the conductor of the team.
“So, when push comes to shove and the rubber hits the road when it comes time to make big decisions it’s on the 10 to make them.”
Love delivered solid performances in those Nations Championship matches and Sopoaga believes his progress as the All Blacks’ starting fly-half is being helped due to the support he is receiving from some of his team-mates.
Ex-All Blacks star reveals Dave Rennie’s ‘super’ strength as he prepares for Springbok showdown
“You’ve obviously got support from the outside, he’s got great support and guys like Jordie (Barrett), Quinn (Tupaea),” he said.
“So they’re constantly feeding those comms in so when you’re seeing Ruben get it out the back, he’s actually heard it from two players outside (saying) like, ‘Bro, we want it now’.
“And so, it’s up to him to listen to that call then execute the skill under pressure.”
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Happy with Love’s displays at fly-half
Sopoaga, who represented the All Blacks at fly-half in 16 Tests between 2015 and 2017, is happy with Love’s overall play as the All Blacks’ first choice number 10 and feels he will grow in the role the more game-time he gets.
“What I’ve loved from Ruben is 10 is such a hard position to be in, especially as someone who hadn’t started there (for the All Blacks) before,” he said.
“His first game was against France, second game Italy and third game (against Ireland) so the longer he gets in the saddle the better he’s going to get, and he is thriving under the regime because he is a confidence player but he does everything really well.
“He’s meticulous in his preparation. He knows who he wants to be, he understands who he is and when it comes to (a) Saturday, I think what we’re seeing is his expression of love for the game.
“Like he’s not walking into that game feeling scared. He’s done all the work. The work’s been done Saturday’s time to have fun.”