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'Call a spade a spade': Sonny Bill Williams says current All Blacks don't like pressure
By Ben Smith
Former All Blacks midfielder Sonny Bill Williams says that the current day All Blacks team “don’t like it” when faced with pressure at the international level.
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After they let three possible wins go during the Rugby Championship with late fades in the final quarter, Williams believes that they “struggle” when the going gets tough.
He believes it comes from the style of play in Super Rugby Pacific where scoring as many tries as possible is the modus operandi where defences are not as tight as the international level.
“It’s a good question, I feel like you build that DNA just through winning games,” Williams told Off The Ball.
“We were very fortunate to have the squad that we had in that era, and South Africa have that now.
“It’s a hard one but I feel that New Zealand, the All Blacks, if we are going to call a spade a spade, when the going gets tough, when the microscope is put heavily on them, they don’t like to feel the pressure.
“We like to blow teams away at the minute, it’s kind of like that Super Rugby style of play. The way your leading, playing well, everything is free flowing and things are comfortable as a rugby player.
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“But as soon as the heat comes on, as soon as that battle intensifies, and we’ve seen it. Like you said, three out of the last six games, that last 20 minute period when the heat is on, we’re struggling and falling away.”
The solution according to the former All Black is to change the way they use the bench to fight “power with power”.
The top two ranked nations, Ireland and South Africa, routinely select less than three backs on their bench, while the All Blacks have stayed true to their formula.
“I try and look at the things from an open perspective. We can’t just blow teams away anymore,” Williams said.
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“We’ve got to look at what the greatest teams in the world at the moment are doing, what’s Ireland doing, what’s South Africa doing?
“Example, the Bomb Squad, they’ve been putting no backs on the bench, these guys are crazy. Well, how about we meet power with power?
“We’ve got Beauden Barrett that can play a few different positions, we’ve got Rieko Ioane who can slide onto the wing.
“How about we mix it up and put Dalton Papali’i on the bench? We should be carrying an extra forward. We’ve got the depth, we’ve got the talent, I just feel like the coaches need to accept that we are not where we once were.
“We’ve got to fight power with power, test the waters so to speak.”
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AB never liked pressure. Every time pressure as been applied on them they struggled to fit. But in the good old time of SBW, nobody dared and they were kings of the world (Nevertheless I do remember some rough french games :P ). Nothing changed but today everybody notice "the king is naked"
. The all blacks are rebuilding and have struggled to put in an 80 minute performance. Being on and off in their game for differing periods through out games. It’s likely more time to get the new game plans set, confidence in the combinations and time together on the paddock. Hopefully that will bring the consistency needed. The other reason the old dominance is gone is the rest of the world have improved significantly and standards internationally are at an all time high.
Sonny has a point, I was thinking the same thing during our recent run of second half meltdowns. Once the pressure goes on, everything falls apart. You can blame the bench, but you have to also blame the leaders, most of them who play for 80 minutes. That's why Cane is there right?
Razor blames execution and discipline, but these are just symptoms, not the cause. When teams are under pressure, those things are the first to go out the window.
To some degree it has always been an achilles heel of the ABs (at least it was at WCs), except for the period of dominance starting in 2011. That era came about after Henry and McCaw realised after the 2007 disaster that mental strength under pressure was the fundamental weak spot that needed fixing.
Under Foster things went drastically south, and many of the same leaders have been retained. There's something not quite clicking when the chips are down.
Look at young players like Sititi, Ratima and Roigard, they seem unburdened by the weight of pressure when things are going wrong. Perhaps they don't have the same baggage to carry like some of our older stalwarts.
Hopefully Razor will see the problem for what it is. He seems like the right guy to sort it out. But so far his reliance on the old guard and their experience does not seem to be working.
Sonny Bill just hasn’t learned his lesson - if he wants to criticize the ABs, he needs to do it anonymously with all the kiwis who do it online.
Otherwise he needs to toe the line and be compliant. Or his legacy as a great All Black will be called into question by people who think they know better than him.
lol Sonny bill was a good player but he does love the attention
Is that you Sonny?
Nah he was misquoted. He actually said "NZ doesnt like Pizza"
The All Blacks main weapon is their backs - by using a 6-2 split, you end up with backs with less caps/experience. Suddenly you have an excess of forwards and can't work out your main forwards run-on team (which the Boks are doing now)
We simply don’t have the size to put two large packs on for 40 mins each. We have genuine athletes who can run for 80 minutes. Go back to 15 players and two injury replacements and we would once again dominate the last 20 minutes as the boks and others with the exception of Ireland and maybe Aussie don’t have a 5 that can play for 50 mins let alone 80 mins.
We already have an excess of world class forwards though😭
Silly Billy
SBW right about some things but to say the boys don't like pressure is rubbish. It's what they live for. But as he says the bench split needs to change. All the backs bar the 9 should be able to play 80min. 6-2 split at most for the backs. A good bench or a dominant 10 will get you through the last quarter. So far this season the ABs have had neither.
The ABs were once renowned for their BMT - particularly in the last quarter. Whether they were ahead or behind they finished their opponents off.
SBW is correct. The modern AB team seems to wilt in the last 20 and certainly look more rattled than previous eras when under pressure.
I do think you’re right about the bench and strength at 10. It might be the reason they look less confident closing out games.
Kiwis are so use to play open rugby and can't cope with tight games at international level. Bring back sonny.
Didn't we just beat ENG in two tight tests to open this season. With a new squad missing several greats & a new coaching team. And losing two tight tests v BOKs in RSA is hard enough for any squad let alone a new one playing only its 6th & 7th tests together. But yes, they'll definitely need to show some growth on tour.
ABs are not invincible and better parity amongst the leading teams is good for the game. Take your time and rebuild properly.
960 All Black Caps departed after RWC 2023, and you can't replace that after playing just 9 matches.
The coaching personnel have now been locked in and sorted and the upcoming EOYT 2024 will see where the All Blacks are at in terms of being mentally and physically fit, healthy and injury free to address all the above.
Go the All Blacks...onwards and upwards...going forward.
The All Blacks only have 13 out of 33 players in their current squad who have less than 20 tests the Boks in their 33 have 19 which is an indication that SA have been developing their squad quicker than NZ. Bu the time this AB squad matures the Boks will have another full squad of seasoned test players to take over from the current run on team.
Yes there is way too much angst but its mainly coming from OS rygby fans not from NZ. Seems if NZ gets beaten its the end of the world for NZ according to them but if Ireland or SA get beaten nothing gets written. NZ has only lost 1 more match than SA this year and SA has had 1 match v Portugal and 1 v Wales. 2 easy beats of world rugby.
Accurate.
ABs persisting with a 5-3 bench split with so much versatility in the backline is such a waste. Virtually the whole backline can cover 1 other position, some can cover 3.
Wow! Kiwis on here already turning on one of their all time greats for his opinion!!!
But he is bang on with his analysis and that’s why SR has dragged the All Blacks back into the pack. And don’t expect it to change any time soon…
Hows your team going? We are 3rd in the world in a total rebuilding phase and it still takes TMO's to allow SA to win the 1st test.
He was never an "all time great", used mostly off the bench. Merely blessed to be amongst several legends of the game at their peaks (which also elevated him). More of a super-sub if you like (but not when getting sent off red in a 2017 Lions test, that is).
SBW is not an all time great rugby player.
He never held down a starting position in any of his seasons playing for the All Blacks.
He was not a starter in any RWC playoff tests in2011, 2015, or 2019.
He was a career backup.
Agreed. The ABs traditional strength of playing extremely well under pressure dissipated under Ian Foster. They get rattled easily. Much like some of their fans when anyone says anything remotely critical about their team.
Okay then, a spade is a spade & Sonny's an idiot.
🤣🤣🫵🏼🤡
Agree, good player (in a great side), excellent rugby league player, passable boxer (though I don't know how he would have went with two more rounds against Botha) but, in terms of TV commentator....well it doesn't measure up to his excellence in other fields.
Saders if only you had played as many tests as SBW then Kiwis can take you seriously. I think the Irish are gunning for the Kiwis in November and have their number. SBW is saying wat everybody thinks about the current ABs.
Don't believe too much SBW has to say, GL is probably with right regards to Papalii and the best feature of Rieko Ioane is his mouth!!
Very true but no papalii pls he wilts under pressure
At least he doesn’t get injured every other game