RWC 2015 - South Africa vs New Zealand: All Black duo offer light and shade

It was only recently – just in time for the World Cup, funnily enough – that the All Blacks stumbled upon a new wing combination hot enough to wage a scorched earth campaign across the entire rugby landscape. Julian Savea and Nehe Milner-Skudder have already accumulated 13 tries in this tournament and while they have yet to overhaul the most prolific New Zealand pairings at these global gatherings, the smart money says they will get there some time soon. Later today sounds about right.

In the unlikely event of the Springboks straitjacketing the two of them at suburban Twickenham this afternoon in the way they incarcerated Jonah Lomu and Jeff Wilson on “Nelson Mandela Day” in downtown Johannesburg back in 1995, there will be another match available to Savea and Milner-Skudder next weekend: maybe a grand final, maybe a bronze medal play-off. As they need only one more try between them to equal the Lomu-Wilson tally at the 1999 tournament and two to set a new mark, the odds are stacked in their favour.

It was, therefore, more than a little interesting to see Savea, the senior of the wide men, being roundly ignored by the massed ranks of media types who congregated at the All Blacks’ hotel in Weybridge on Thursday lunchtime. There were 30 or so television and radio microphones on the table in front of him, plus a couple of dozen tape recorders, but all of them were pointing towards the man sitting at the other end of the table. Some bloke by the name of Daniel Carter, apparently.

When, after what seemed like a week, Savea was finally asked a question, he knocked it clean out of the park in the no-nonsense style of his cricket-playing compatriot Brendon McCullum. Pressed for an opinion of Bryan Habana, the South African wing who has a scoring record of his own to chase this afternoon, the so-called “new Lomu” replied, with something approaching complete disdain: “Nehe has a big job ahead of him, but I’ll be up against JP Pietersen and he likes scoring tries as well.” Smack. Six runs.

Born in Wellington to Samoan parents, Savea is so reserved in public, he makes the famously monosyllabic Lomu sound like a late-night chat show host with a bad case of verbal diarrhoea. His Maori partner Milner-Skudder, far smaller in stature but generally considered to be more loquacious, has been equally quiet over the course of this competition. When the newcomer was asked to lift the veil on personal detail just a centimetre or so before last weekend’s quarter-final against France in Cardiff, his response was so non-committal there is no record of it anywhere.

But the rugby played by the pair could not be louder and clearer: with their contrasting styles, they have been the best wing partnership seen at this World Cup by many a long mile and probably the most electrifying since Doug Howlett and Sitiveni Sivivatu, two silver-ferned predecessors of the stellar variety, ran in 10 tries during the pool stage of the 2007 tournament. They proved as much seven days ago, when Milner-Skudder bamboozled half the French team with a single step off his right foot, while Savea strong-armed his way to a hat-trick – his second of the tournament and therefore a first. No other player has bagged two threes in the same World Cup.

His second try against France was something to behold as he skittled three would-be tacklers in Lomuesque style before touching down. If Savea is slightly uncomfortable with the Lomu comparison – “It’s always an honour to hear that kind of talk, but my focus is on this game,” he said, fascinatingly – it is not difficult to trace its provenance. It has its roots in the 2010 Junior World Championship in Argentina, which the New Zealanders won largely on the back of the Rongotai College student’s eight-try contribution: the result of a power game played at pace in the unmistakeable style of the master of old. The International Rugby Board’s “Junior Player of the Year” award soon followed, as did a provincial contract with Wellington.

His anointment as a full-fledged All Black was not long in coming either – his form in the 2012 Super 15 tournament was not so much persuasive as insistent – and, given his head against Ireland at Eden Park, he delivered the first of the hat-tricks that have since become a calling card. His running total as we speak is 38 tries in 39 Tests. The word “ridiculous” springs to mind, not least because Lomu managed only 37 in 63.

Milner-Skudder, whose uncle George Skudder played a Test on the wing for New Zealand against Wales in 1969 and whose cousin Buff Milner won a single cap against the Springboks a year later, has a lot of catching up to do, but nobody could accuse him of not giving it a go. He put two tries past the Wallabies on his debut in Sydney a little over two months ago and has followed up with five over the course of this tournament. Seven touchdowns in six outings? Maybe the other guy is the one off the pace.

Savea was certainly on the slow side back in the summer, when he materialised at an All Black training camp in a condition some way short of aerodynamic. “We’re trying to get Julian fit because he’s turned up overweight,” said the head coach, Steve Hansen, deciding against giving the player a soft landing on his over-ample behind in favour of a sharp poke in the eye. “But he seems pretty hungry – and I don’t mean for food. And that’s a good place to have him, because he’s a handy footballer when he’s in the right condition.”

“Handy” was one way of putting it. Assuming he stays in decent nick and avoids serious injury, he will have an even-money shot at becoming a great All Black wing. Great as in Ron Jarden and Bryan Williams, John Kirwan and Jolly Jonah. Who says so? Hansen, for one. And he should know.

“I think he’s probably better than Lomu,” the coach said this time last year. “Jonah was a great player but I think Julian has more to his game. I know that’s saying something, but I genuinely believe it.” Hansen went on to highlight Savea’s defensive ability on the turn – hardly one of Lomu’s strong suits, given that tectonic plates changed direction more quickly – and his security under the high ball. If Jonah was the man who, according to legend, persuaded Rupert Murdoch to throw money at the union game and turn it professional overnight, Savea is surely one of those who convinced Sky Sports to recommit to their southern hemisphere broadcasts a couple of days ago.

Only twice in the annals of World Cup rugby stretching back more than a quarter of a century have players scored eight tries in a tournament: Lomu in 1999, Habana eight years later. Savea stands equal with them right now, with power to add. By mid-evening, he could have a tournament record all to himself.

Yet New Zealand’s clear advantage over their rivals in the wing department arises from a double act, not a one-man show. Milner-Skudder and Savea offer the same range and contrast, the same mix of light and shade, as Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu in midfield – and we all know how effective those two have been down the years.

During the briefest of stays at their own World Cup, the England back division might have been awarded a first-class honours degree in acute misunderstanding. The All Black version oozes empathy. Lomu and Wilson, perhaps the most obvious reference points from yesteryear, emerged from the 1995 and 1999 tournament with 24 tries in their joint account, but no title. Their successors are already more than halfway towards outscoring them and just two victories from outachieving them. From this distance, it is difficult to see them failing on either count.