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Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts
By Henry Lee
It’s been a blistering start in the opening six rounds of Super Rugby Pacific in 2025 and with selection discussions happening all across New Zealand and Australia regarding their respective teams, all eyes are on the national team’s head coaches.
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Scott Robertson and his staff’s first assignment of 2025 is to pick their squad for the France home series in early July, and Joe Schmidt will also pick his squad for the all-important British and Irish Lions series in July.
Sky Sports commentator and analyst Taylah Johnson strongly believes that the Wallabies players are outplaying the All Blacks players so far in Super Rugby 2025.
“The Wallabies are currently outperforming our All Blacks in Super Rugby, and I’m not saying in every position. Yes, Damian McKenzie is playing great. So is David Havili, Ardie Savea, but on a whole, the Australians are playing much better,” Johnson said on The Breakdown.
“The Wallabies look like Wallabies out there.”
Johnson then argues that when you dive deeper into the stats, the likes of Angus Bell from the Waratahs and Josh Canham from the Reds are outplaying Ethan de Groot and Scott Barrett so far this season.
“There’s been a lot of commentary saying our All Black captain is not in form. When you compare him to one of the Wallabies locks, you have to take a look at Josh Canham, the same amount of games played, more meters, better tackle percentage, and line-out wins.
“That is someone standing up, so I’m not saying all our All Blacks are playing terribly, because they’re not, but the Wallabies are head and shoulders above.
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Johnson also explains that All Blacks midfielder Rieko Ioane is being outplayed by Wallabies player Filipo Daugunu.
“Rieko Ioane has struggled to find form in Super Rugby. We know what he can do at Test level, on the wing I’ll add that, but you’re comparing him to Filipo Daugunu who’s also made that transition wing to centre.
“These stats, don’t lie either, Ioane has a game in hand over Daugunu but there’s five tries to Daugunu, more defenders beaten, more line breaks.
“He’s also top three in carries.”
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Former All Black Jeff Wilson argues back at Johnson, saying that people should only be worried if the All Blacks players aren’t performing come playoff time.
“I think there’s a lot of merit to what you’re coming up with, but I think there’s a different level of urgency in Australia right now in regards to being competitive,” Wilson said on The Breakdown.
“There’s a week that’s really important to them in the British and Irish Lions tour, right?
“So they’re trying to prove to Joe Schmidt, they deserve to be there, and now is the time to make an impact.”
Wilson also believes that the All Blacks players feel comfortable at the moment, something that could hurt them in the long run.
“I’ve got a feeling a lot of our All Blacks are comfortable: the fact that they know Scott Robertson, they know the environment they’ve been a part of last season, which wasn’t quite ideal in terms of performance. But they’ll look at the long game and go, the back half of the year, if I start to show my form again.
“Several All Blacks, for a long time through their career, chose when it was time to start showing some proper form and they didn’t help their Super Rugby teams as they should have.
“So I understand where you’re coming from, but I’d start getting concerned in two or three more weeks when things are really on the line.”
I think the draw needs to be sorted out. Its horribably unfair. Either make it 10 rounds or 20 rounds.
Conferences are the only way, double round robin inner for 15 odd game post season. Otherwise they should ditch it in favour of a united NZ and Aus club competition, say 16 teams one round. You can have Super as some sort of 1 month Cup competition along with the Japanese, just treat the NZ super regions as State sides to take on aussies state teams.
SadersMan has hit the nail on the head. I respect Taylah’s analysis but she left out one potential reason for the difference in performance - in the 30 games so far Aussie/Kiwis sides have only faced each other in 6 matches. While these have been won 3 all, two of the Aussie wins have only been by one point.
I would also like to see the stats for Anton L-B against Daugunu. I’m not a great fan of Iaone at centre but its pretty hard to shine if the team around you is struggling. Likewise, I’d like to see Tamaite Williams performance stats vs Bell.
It’s really got nothing to do with her point.
I got the sense she was just using it as a way to show that ABs are underperforming or not stepping up compared to the prospects, which is nothing to do with NZ v Aus.
I’m not sure her comparison made sense, and obviously Wilson suggested the likely reason for it this early in the season. Certainly Taylah still seemed to be championing NZ over Aus so not like she was saying they’re quantifiably better imo.
Bit of a rehash episode of the Breakdown that one. Love Taylahs stats but wonder if shes coming up with them, and wheres the talk Barrett’s out of form coming from?
Really comparing the wrong locks and wrong centers there. In both respects, they’re not like for like players or roles, and theyre not like for like status. Essentially her point were fringe All Black prospects are outperfming certainties, then tries to validate this view (underperforming) by comparing the certainties against Australias fringe prospects that are performing well.
Not that I could tell you who the nailed on lock or centers are for Australia if those two aren’t lol.
I wonder if Scott would have better stats that highlight his strength as a blinside!
More rubbish from incompetent commentators…destroying super rugby for N.Z rugby fans…does she think heartland N.Z don’t know or understand rugby ?
Huh? Taylah’s great on the comms btw, especially for someone so new. Can’t work out the rest of that sentence.
““Rieko Ioane has struggled to find form in Super Rugby. We know what he can do at Test level, on the wing I’ll add that”
Exactly, and that was years ago now. Rieko is a liability with a seriously limited skillset, especially for a 13. Frankly, every opponent is outplaying him. He’ll still make the ABs though, every player over 50 caps will, because we don’t drop ‘leadership group’ players apparently.
Slow and steady builds for sustainability. Why burn out too soon? I agree with Wilson that Aussie players are trying to prove a point but our ABs don’t need to burn themselves out within the early stages.
His point wasn’t so much that, but that Australia actually need to peak earlier. ABs would peak for mid RC, aus wants to be straight on the boil coming out of SR.
Bit of a straw man putting up RI as a centre for comparison. He simply isnt a centre to begin with. How about Will Jordan v Tom Wright?
Tupaea and Tavitavinawi against any other 12s. If she believes Canham is outperforming Barrett thats cool but what were the stats from the game they played each other? it was a 30 point thrashing from memory
Taylah’s talking nonsense.
Kiwi teams haven’t played the Aussies much. Six games over the first six rounds. The Landers lost two, the Blues lost one. The Chiefs dealt to the Brumbies by 15pts & we thrashed both the Reds & the Force.
Hardly an indication of ABs being “outplayed by their counterparts”. Then again, it IS the Breakdown, where tongues are regularly in gear before brains are engaged.
She’s talking more about individuals, i couldn’t agree more with you though from a team perspective.
Aussies also have the motivation of a Lions series to fuel them through and a lot of wide open spaces in the WB team.
So true. Especially when JK and Jeff start moaning about ABs against the mighty Springboks