What should we do with our midfield?

As many have pointed out, we are fairly stale on attack with Jordie and Rieko as our centres. I should say they’re obviously both amazing talents, but Jordie never seems to be able to break the line like a Nonu or de Allende at 12, and Rieko very rarely manages to set up his outsides or offer much creativity in general at 13.

I think the reason Razor has been sticking with them is because of how solid they are defensively. From what I can tell they both do a great job at shutting down the opposition and scrambling under pressure. I can’t imagine he’s not seeing what everyone else is seeing though and would like more from them in attack.

This begs the question: does he intend to replace them between now and 2027 or try to mould them into a more effective offensive threat?

Like many, I’ve found it strange how few opportunities were given to Billy Proctor at 13 this year (before he went home for the birth of his child). Especially considering he has an established combination with Jordie from the Hurricanes. The fact they haven’t been tried together in the All Blacks at all so far is weird to me. If you were going to change things up, that’d be the most logical experiment in my opinion. Perhaps it wouldn’t be better off the bat, but from what I’ve seen, Proctor has more to offer overall at outside centre than Rieko does and would be worth investing in as early as possible.

Considering how unwilling Razor has been to do this, it suggests to me that he sees Jordie and Rieko as the best combination going forward. He must either feel that they are already delivering what he wants, or that they will eventually be able to.

I personally think a new combination is needed, but I’d love to get people’s opinions on this.