Ex-All Black praises forwards but calls out no 'rhythm and unity' in backline

Jason Ryan has again been applauded for his remarkable work turning the All Blacks‘ forward pack into one of the world’s most formidable after being thoroughly out-muscled against Ireland.

The compliments this time come from former All Black No 8 and captain, Murray Mexted.

Mexted spoke to Martin Devlin on The Platform and was focused solely on how this year’s performances prepared the New Zealand team for next year’s World Cup. While he acknowledged the inconsistencies the team have shown are a significant vulnerability, he claimed the improved play in the forwards has the team in good stead.

“It’s not easy to win three or four in a row,” Mexted said of the route to World Cup glory. “We’re not performing consistently.

“But to do that, we need to be able to dominate any forward pack in the world. If we can’t beat them (there) then we’re not going to win it so, I think we made great progress in the forwards since Jason Ryan’s been on board – they’ve made steady progress and that all came to fruition at this fantastic Twickenham Stadium.”

While the All Blacks have faced more than a sprinkling of criticism for how England came back into the game in the final ten minutes at Twickenham, Mexted was more concerned with the first 70 minutes and how it compared to the Ireland series at the start of the season.

“You’d have to say that’s a pretty good result when you look back six months,” Mexted continued. “Because it’s probably been one of the worst years we’ve ever had in rugby, so much so that the All Blacks head coach, his position was threatened.

“A 25-all draw against England, not a great result on the scoreboard but a great result as far as exposing our limitations and realizing that we’ve got a forward pack that can beat anyone in the world.

“If we’re big enough and strong enough and ugly enough to beat a team like England on their home ground when they were up for that match – don’t worry about that – and we dominated them in the scrum, dominated them in the lineout, dominated them in the driving maul for 70 minutes, that’s pretty bloody impressive.”

Jason Ryan and Joe Shmidt assumed the roles of forwards and attack coaches respectively following the Ireland series loss.

The front row of Ethan de Groot, Samisoni Taukei’aho and Tyrel Lomax soon got their chance to start under Ryan and the forwards have found fine form since.

The defensive cohesion of the backs, on the other hand, was a real area of concern in Mexted’s eyes and an uncharacteristic weakness for an All Blacks team.

“We’ve got problems in the backs. When I say problems, they haven’t ironed out their best backline yet.

“I don’t think there is rhythm and unity in that backline, every team we play against, we have trouble in defence, our defensive record is poor. That’s one reason why we’re not playing consistently because I think our defence is poor and every team we play can split us open in the backline, well that never happens with an All Black team. ”