All Blacks: The ‘point of difference’ that proved decisive in rookie’s selection call

Noah Hotham’s superior running game proved decisive in him receiving the nod ahead of the defence-minded Finlay Christie as one of New Zealand’s scrum-halves for the upcoming Rugby Championship.

That was the word from All Blacks defence coach Scott Hansen, who was in charge of the selection of the team’s half-backs for their 36-man squad.

The All Blacks kick off their Rugby Championship campaign with successive home fixtures against Argentina in Wellington on August 10 and in Auckland on August 17.

Hansen revealed that the All Blacks are looking to evolve their game under head coach Scott Robertson and part of that is for their scrum-halves to be more attacking in their approach.

Veteran and two rookies get the nod

That led to Christie missing out on selection with veteran TJ Perenara and rookie duo Hotham and Cortez Ratima – who have three Tests caps between them – receiving the nod as the three preferred scrum-halves in the squad.

For a long time, All Blacks scrum-halves were renowned for their excellent service and a huge emphasis was placed on their passing ability.

Legendary number nine Aaron Smith with his crisp passing game and tireless manner led the way with that style, but Hansen made it clear that under the new coaching staff a different approach is expected from their number nines.

“It’s an opportunity to see more of Noah,” said Hansen of the All Blacks’ “tight” selection call at scrum-half.

“We’ve told Fin to go back to Tasman and continue to work on his game, have high energy and be instinctive around his attacking game.

“We’ve given him some work-ons, and now the opportunity is for Noah to come in, and have the energy we saw over the last number of weeks. He played really well against Fiji, and gave us a point of difference.”

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Hansen revealed that 21-year-old Hotham’s 44-minute cameo off the bench against Fiji in San Diego – where he replaced the injured Ratima – and his fine form in a struggling Crusaders team during Super Rugby Pacific, showed the All Blacks coaching staff that he fits in with their new philosophy.

‘He finds it through instinct’

“He was close to the team to start with… with the point of difference around his running game. He’s not a half-back you need to tell ‘run’… he finds it through instinct,” he added.

“They’re the uncoachable bits in his game. Against Fiji you saw he changed our point of attack, and what that looked like – will we attack differently due to that?

“Then we’ve got Cortez who started the Test… he’s a great young man who’s open to learning, listening and growing his game.”

Hansen gave more details on the All Blacks backroom staff’s vision for scrum-halves who they want to keep defences busy around the ruck area.

“All 10s in world rugby love nines that… they think they’re about to receive the pass, then all of a sudden the nine runs, and what that does to the defence is totally different around where they need to acknowledge threats,” he added.

“It’s instinctive in Noah’s game, and you’ve got Cortez who can do it also. We’re lucky to have nines able to do that. Then you’ve got to add balance around game management, and contestable kicks.

“We’ve got nines that can threaten the line and what that does for your attack is offer new spaces to look at.”

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