All Blacks’ rising star reveals his biggest takeaway from ‘addictive’ Test rugby
All Blacks second-row Sam Darry scoring against Argentina.
After suffering a 38-30 defeat in their Rugby Championship opener against Argentina in Wellington, New Zealand are determined to exact revenge on Los Pumas in their rematch in Auckland on Saturday.
The retirement of legendary All Blacks second-row duo Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick after last year’s Rugby World Cup in France meant the three-time world champions were thin in that department ahead of their 2024 international campaign.
New All Blacks captain Scott Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu started the Test season as their first-choice locks but both sustained injuries during the July internationals which means the men in black are currently experiencing a second-row crisis.
Scored a try in first Test start
Blues second-row Sam Darry made his Test debut off the replacements bench in New Zealand‘s win over Fiji in San Diego last month before scoring his first Test try in his run-on debut in last weekend’s loss to Argentina.
Darry’s performance was one of the few positives from that encounter as apart from his five-pointer, he delivered a good all-round display, especially his lineout work.
And although the result came as a shock, he said they know what their strengths are and will stick to it while also making some tweaks to their game in a bid to improve.
“We’re clear with how we wanted to play and how we want to play,” said Darry. “There’re a few things we want to tweak, but there are also a lot of things we’re happy with that we built well from the English Tests and the Fiji Test and into last week.
“We had a good long session today and a good review. We’re feeling good coming off the grass and feel confident heading to Saturday.”
Fine margins at Test level
The 24-year-old revealed that the fine margins in matches was the biggest lesson for him from Test rugby.
“You’re half a second too late, half a second too early, or you miss something in the flow-on and the repercussions of that.
“The importance of those moments in other games, you might be able to get away with it if you are slightly off but, as we saw, the ball bounces one way and you’re not there, they pounce on it and it is a try down the other end.”
The Blues stalwart was initially called up to the All Blacks’ Rugby Championship squad as injury cover but after impressing in his first start, he is keen for some more action in the Test arena.
“Once you taste this environment, it’s quite addictive,” he said. “You want to come back in and get back into the swing of things.”
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