Opinion: Milner-Skudder books World Cup ticket

Nehe Milner-Skudder (Photosport file)
Nehe Milner-Skudder (Photosport file)

The All Blacks' 27-19 loss to the Wallabies on Saturday raised plenty of concerns, but one shining positive was Nehe Milner-Skudder's performance on debut.

The Manawatu winger's electric turn of speed and fleet of foot has been a joy to watch all season and now there is no question he must go to the World Cup.

I recall covering the Turbos in the lead up to last year's ITM Cup Championship final and the trainer pointed out Milner-Skudder as a future superstar. I don't think either of us could predict his ascent would be this swift.

In fact, you'd struggle to find a current player in world rugby with more X-factor than him. He made a mockery of defenders in the ITM Cup, then Super Rugby before showing on Saturday he can do the same at Test level.

Sure, he faded for parts of the match but this was hardly an All Black side spending 80 minutes on the front foot, in particular the backline looked rudderless.

You can rarely rely exclusively on statistics in a game of rugby, but the 24-year-old was the only player on the park to run more than 100m with the ball and his four clean line-breaks were unmatched. Just five other team-mates had one and no Wallaby had more than one either. That's hard to argue with.

It's certainly a hard jigsaw for Steve Hansen to piece together though; Julian Savea was below his best on Saturday but could still be hampered by injury, while Charles Piutau's form has been immense.

Milner-Skudder won't be the difference between the All Blacks winning and losing the World Cup but at any point in a match, he is the type of player capable of breaking the game open with a dazzling run.

Saturday night in Sydney proved a World Cup winner is becoming harder and harder to pick and Milner-Skudder is becoming harder and harder to leave out.

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