Billy Proctor lasted barely half an hour of the second half in Cape Town before an arm injury sent him off, and Rieko Ioane shifted from the wing to outside centre. It was a small moment in a 38-21 win over the Stormers. It was also, in miniature, the problem that has dogged New Zealand's midfield for a decade.
Justin Marshall put a number on it. Speaking on the GBRANZ podcast, the former All Blacks halfback traced the side's inconsistency since their back-to-back World Cup wins directly to the vacancy left by Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith.
"It's not rocket science that a lot of the All Blacks fluctuations recently, since the success at the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, is the fact we haven't generated a regular centre combination since Ma'a and Conrad," Marshall said. "That was so functional and then guys like Ben Smith, Cory Jane and Israel Dagg, all of those, they just revolved around that centre pairing and all had their time coming into the jersey."
"There's never been a regular centre combination has there? I couldn't name two players that played 10 Test matches together on the bounce in the last five or six years."
Frank Bunce, whose own Test career ended in 1997 and who watched New Zealand spend more than a decade searching for a midfield before Nonu and Smith first paired up against Ireland in 2008, recognised the pattern immediately.
"When me and Walter [Little] went, it took ages, there were heaps of different individuals; 'let's try and make up a pairing'," Bunce said. "Mine and Walter's time at Harbour and the Chiefs, that was the working that it did for the All Blacks."
"After Ma'a and Conrad, it's been individuals, they haven't picked the combination and gone, 'right, let's try that, try that, try that'. When you settle on something, let it see its time."
Bunce is warmer than most on the current pairing. "I must admit, I'm liking Jordie and Quinn Tupaea at the moment, so we'll just see where that goes."
Dave Rennie appears to agree. Anton Lienert-Brown and Proctor started against the Stormers, but Jordie Barrett and Tupaea are expected to be the midfield for the first Springboks Test. That combination has already survived one round of chopping and changing this year: Tupaea started against France, was dropped for Proctor against Italy, then was recalled for the Ireland Test at Eden Park, where the pair looked considerably sharper.
Tupaea has been open about what changed after the France match.
"You know, just after the France Test, I wasn't disappointed with how I played, but I knew I could play better and I sort of simplified it. And that's when I play at my best," he said on Sport Nation's Millsy & Guy. "I'm physical on both sides of the ball. Rennie demands a high work rate, getting yourself in positions to attack, but then come forward on defence."
He also described how the partnership with Barrett is being built — not through instinct, but through argument.
"Yeah, look, we challenge each other most places. To be fair, because as a centre, I want to get to a certain spot, and then he wants to get to a certain spot as a 12. So by the time the ball goes in, we're on the same page."
That, for Marshall, is exactly the point. Combinations of the calibre New Zealand once had were not designed on a whiteboard.
"They just need time," he said. "It's like any combo, some of the greatest centre combos in the world. You knew we were up against Tim Horan and Jason Little or Will Carling and Jeremy Guscott-type thing. Nothing can emulate the type of pressure you get in a Test match for time. Time is taken away from you because the intensity and the skill set they have, it takes away your time more than any other game you will play."
"Trust is massive. Trust in the guy on defence, trust in the guy making the right decisions with ball in hand and that just happens out of knowing each other. There's no thinking component is there? It just happens, and that's irreplaceable when you get combinations like that."
Marshall had already flagged Tupaea as the answer after the Ireland win, and framed the South African tour as the real examination.
"What we've all been wondering is when the aggressive UK-style blitz defence comes at you and South Africa, have we got a player that can handle that, not get spooked, distribute pre-contact, and free the space to our weapons that we've got out wide? And I think Tupaea provided that answer not only with his distribution, but his carries were strong."
Bunce, meanwhile, wanted credit given to the less visible half of the job — the organisational work an outside centre does before the ball ever arrives.
"I think that's a role too for the outside centre, which is the organisation. You're talking and communicating with your 12 and then you're getting your outsides and your full-back, it's like 'move back, come up'," he said. "I used to tell Goldie [Jeff Wilson] all the time, 'make that guy cut in, I will get him. You then can stay back and help Cully [Christian Cullen]'. You position people, so a lot of that is the role of an outside centre and I don't know how much of that gets seen by people."
Four Tests against the Springboks over the coming weeks will settle whether Rennie has finally found a pair worth leaving alone.
