1. Firstly, my main concern is with NZ's first five-eighth pool of talent. I don't have much confidence right now in their ability to produce a player who shows consistency in their strikes, especially with Carter showing a bit of fragility lately. Thoughts?
2. On the world scale, who are the best prospects for the position (provided they remain healthy) for - let's say - the top 10 international teams?
3. Do you feel that the difference between winning and losing a game hinges more on an accurate boot than on try-scoring - and does it really matter? (I know we've discussed ways of encouraging tries and discouraging the reliance on penalty kicks to advance the score - thoughts about that can be discussed here as well.)
4. Finally, why are there so many gingers wearing the #10 jersey this year?
das
By strikes I take it you mean their goal kicking? It's not a huge strength in regards to Barrett and Cruden - but it's not hugely weak. Let's look at the kicking percentages in Super Rugby (I'll include last years as we only jhave three games to go off this season) of young NZ 1st 5/8ths kicking percentages.
Beuden Barrett: 2014: 72.7%
Aaron Cruden: 2014: 67.8%
Simon Hickey: 2014: 87.3%
Ihaia West: 2014: 72%
Tom Taylor: 2014: 71.4%
Colin Slade: 2014: 80.5%
Daniel Carter: 2014: 61.9%
Lima Sopoaga: 2014: 84.4%
Hayden Parker: 2014: 78.9%
These percentages of course can be pretty misleading. Carter for example only kicked in two or so games last season. Looking at this season, plenty of players are kicking well into the 80% mark, Ihaia West as an example. I generally don't believe it is a particularly worrying point. The reality is that Cruden and Barrett create a lot more points than other flyhalves through game management and their attacking abilities. Cruden was recovering from an injury for much of last season - so far this season his kicking is at 78%. Ultimately the kicking of our international players on the EOYT was very strange, but hardly something to be too concerned about. Anyone remember Johnny Wilkinson's kicking %'s during the 2011 RWC? I'm sure the players will have ironed out most of the problems in the off season and will have time to improve during this years Super Rugby.
2. Depends what you mean by prospects. Aaron Cruden (26 years old) I probably would consider one of the top three fly halves in the world, if not the best. Not sure if I'd call him a prospect. Beuden Barrett (23 years old) is also a fantastic 1st 5/8th, I think it would probably be fair to call him a prospect. George Ford (22 years old) and Owen Farrell (23 years old) are all established internationals, with one of the two (though England aren't sure yet which) being the incumbent. From New Zealand, the young fly halves that I am most excited about is Ihaia West (23) and Damian McKenzie (19). Both have fantastic running games - although the jury is still out how good their game management is (probably needs time to develop). Marty Banks (25) who has been picked up from the Highlanders, has been setting records in the ITM Cup with Tasman and arguably has the most complete game of any of the prospects. Otere Black (19) is in the Hurricanes wider development squad - but I'd have been very happy if he was given a fulltime contract. He was tearing it up for Manawatu and didn't look to have any obvious weaknesses to his game, as well as having some very silky skills. Marty McKenzie (22), the older brother of Damian, just won the ITM Cup championship with Taranaki, so he's still a promising prospect.
In South Africa Handre Pollard (20) is simply fantastic - I think possibly the most promising prospect since Daniel Carter. Really young, but he's physical, good strong running game and good game management. I have been ruling out Patrick Lambie (24) as a guy who hasn't lived up to his early hype, but I think his game management and execution has really improved, to the point I think he performed better than Pollard for the Sharks against the Blues. Johan Goosen (22) is also a great South African fly half, but he looked shaky coming after injury and now he's playing in the Top 14 for an absorbinant amount of delicious cheese, wine and women if gaston is to be believed - so he's probably going to be less on the radar for the Boks.
3. Nope, I don't believe that that all. Having an accurate goal kicker is important, but the All Blacks went undefeated on the 2014 EOYT with some very shaky goal kicking. What won games was being able to run a backline and some very good game management. There are of course going to be games where goal kicking is the deciding factor (2011 RWC final as an example), but in reality unless you have a kicker who is able to kick 75m penalties, teams need to be managed around the field and 7 points is quite a lot better than three. As an example I'm sure the All Blacks conceded as many penalties as any other team last year (some would say cynically close to their own 22), but they also scored more tries. The only times the All Blacks were beaten last year, was when South Africa employed a very good running game. Same when they lost to England in 2012.
4. Are there? Ihaia West and Paddy Jackson are the only two that really spring to mind as obviously ginger.