I’m not sure Grant Fox gets remembered as fondly as he should be.
Fox wasn’t a flyhalf with a big bag of tricks. He scored one try in his 46-Test career for New Zealand and was known for his game-management and goal kicking more than anything else.
At various times, contemporaries such as Frano Botica, Walter Little and Stephen Bachop were seen as offering a superior attacking threat.
Most of the time, though, All Blacks coaches saw sense and realised that Fox – while not tearing defences apart himself – was creating the space and opportunities for his outsides to do so.
Fox played in teams that were ruthless winning machines. Teams that dominated up front and then unleashed attacking threats such as John Kirwan, John Gallagher, Craig Green, Va’aiga Tuigamala and Terry Wright.
Fox was a passing, rather than running, flyhalf with a pinpoint kicking game.
The subsequent deeds of Daniel Carter tend to eclipse the achievements of Fox and the teams he played in, but they shouldn’t.
All of which brings me to Harry Plummer. I don’t know how good Plummer actually is and, at this juncture, I’m not going to find out.
I do know that Plummer and the Blues annihilated Damian McKenzie’s Chiefs in the Super Rugby final and that one of those flyhalves is now set to start for the All Blacks on Saturday.
Damian McKenzie runs through drills during a New Zealand All Blacks training session at Waitakere Stadium on August 10, 2021 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
For those who don’t follow New Zealand rugby closely, I won’t keep you in suspense. It’s McKenzie who’s going to wear the No.10 jersey for the foreseeable future, not Plummer.
We can’t judge whether one should be there ahead of the other, because our only sample size is Super Rugby.
That’s where the impish McKenzie is in his element, with his heady mix of speed, bravery and audacity enabling him to start or finish eye-catching attacking movements.
By comparison, Plummer is a plodder.
Former All Black Justin Marshall said as much in recent days.
“The way that he was able to do all the right things, make good decisions, kick his goals, make his tackles, it was faultless and he didn’t put a foot wrong. You have to say he was one of the reasons that they won that championship,’’ Marshall said of Plummer.
Which, Marshall added, suited the dour football favoured by Blues coach Vern Cotter.
“I would say probably he’s not unlucky to make the All Blacks because I just feel that’s a step that he hasn’t taken yet in terms of he hasn’t been involved with New Zealand A,’’ said Marshall.
I expect the All Blacks to beat England by 20 points on Saturday night. I wouldn’t be surprised if McKenzie scored a couple of tries, kicked goals well and received glowing reviews from all and sundry.
But I come back to the way Marshall almost damned Plummer with faint praise.
We’ve developed a disdain for anything other than all-out running rugby. We’ve decided that brilliant is best.
We don’t rate Cotter, for instance, because he’s “only’’ won in France. Just the same as Joe Schmidt and Warren Gatland haven’t always been afforded the respect their deeds in European rugby deserve.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
It’s all dismissed as boring 10-man rugby. I reckon we value the wrong things. I reckon losses in recent times to Argentina and Ireland have shown that the All Blacks’ method of playing – and the athletes we pick to play it – doesn’t actually work on the world stage.
It’s not uncommon to struggle against or lose to South Africa, France and England. But when New Zealand loses to Argentina and Ireland, we really do have to ask ourselves if we’ve lost our way.
I see All Blacks assistant coach Scott Hansen praising McKenzie’s growth during the Super Rugby Pacific season and suggesting that he does possess the composure and precision to be an elite flyhalf at Test level.
I waffle on about McKenzie to the extent that some people assume I have something against him. I don’t.
What I have a problem with is our continual surprise and disappointment that the All Blacks’ preferred way of playing is ineffective.
Marshall isn’t just some talking head. He is a teammate and associate of new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson.
When Marshall speaks, it’s with some knowledge of the inner working of the regime.
If he’s almost scoffing at selecting a player with Plummer’s skillset – a skillset not dissimilar to the great Grant Fox – then it says something quite telling about how we view the game.
The aura of the All Blacks is built on the back of men like Grant Fox. Men who won Test matches and trophies and had the acumen to find answers to the questions defences posed to them.
The great All Black teams of my lifetime prided themselves on doing the basics well and winning by whatever means necessary.
Somewhere along the line we decided to go full helter-skelter, leading to results that increasingly speak for themselves.
