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All Blacks' season defined long before their shambolic draw to England

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

I read and heard for weeks that playing England at Twickenham would define the All Blacks’ season.

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Nonsense.

New Zealand’s 25-25 draw told us nothing we didn’t already know about this team, whose season was defined months ago.

You remember those games? The series loss to Ireland, the emasculation by South Africa at Mbombela Stadium, the shameful home defeat to Argentina.

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New Zealand Rugby’s (NZR) craven reaction to those embarrassments absolutely defined the tenure of head coach Ian Foster and set a problematic precedent for what is acceptable from our national team.

It said that it’s all right to look an entirely uncoached rabble and that there will be few – if any – real consequences when you do.

The All Blacks aren’t without talent, but that is all they have.

I wrote months ago that we would continue to go on the rollercoaster ride with them, as their performances fluctuated from week-to-week and half-to-half.

They can look unbeatable one minute and completely inept the next.

Did anyone give up on Sunday morning’s (NZ time) game at Twickenham? Did they assume the All Blacks would win at a canter and decide that continuing to suffer through the refereeing of Mathieu Raynal was more trouble than it was worth?

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If they did, then they missed a New Zealand side – which lacks any real substance – capitulate before their eyes.

There are no lessons being learned here because – seemingly – there’s no-one there to teach them.

The same flaws continue to ail this side and nothing substantial appears to be being done to fix them.

I’ll go backwards a little, here.

Aided by trainer Jim Blair, the Auckland team of the 1980s established a template by which most good All Blacks teams have played since.

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You will be fitter than the opposition. More ruthless, more mentally strong, more adept at absorbing pressure.

Like a cat with a mouse, you will toy with the other team for 60 minutes and then finish them off at the end.

A mystique developed around that. Opponents knew the All Blacks were never beaten.

No matter how well they played, they knew the men in black would invariably find a way to win.

This 2022 All Blacks team reminds me of the ones from around the turn of this century.

A side still trading off the deeds of the mid-90s, but without any ability to prevail when things got hard.

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The talent was there, just not the winning culture.

When NZR retained Foster as head coach, in spite of various opportunities to do otherwise since his appointment, they condemned the players to disappointment.

They affirmed that this standard of performance was acceptable and failed to give the team sufficient tools to help them get better.

Look, some days they’ll be brilliant. They will thrash teams and they will turn around and say that the critics have been answered.

But I think we’ve all come to accept that those days won’t be as frequent as they should be and that we will continue to see 10-minute spells of shambolic rugby that beggar belief.

This is not a team built on solid foundations and the only consistent thing about them will be their inconsistency.

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Comments

2 Comments
S
Spew_81 713 days ago

Two words can sum up the current All Blacks - mentally weak.

J
JD Kiwi 713 days ago

I'm firmly in Team Razor and don't think that we're anywhere near where we should be considering the available talent. But to say that the narrative of the season hasn't changed in the past few unbeaten months is so inaccurate. We're playing much better than we were.

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O
Oh no, not him again? 1 hour ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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