‘Not a great team’: Irish scribe on All Blacks’ ‘lucky’ win over England

I mean from SA, Australia, and England you nonce

Many NZ supporters are arrogant and stupid. We know this?

I think a lot of other supporters find it pretty funny 🤣

Ioane is disrespecting Ireland again and making NZ look bad. NZ stand alone in condoning the mocking of beaten opponents. Good team: horrible attitude.

Let it go mate. Looking forward to an epic clash in T minus 3hrs & 13mins.

Absolutely correct

As an ABs fan it is not a great ABs team

Losing to Argentina again and at home was the worst defeat so far to them

Fading away twice to SA was again another poor return having controlled both game for the first 3/4

Yes it was lucky win against England where they had the only two last chances to win the game - but at least we won

Plenty of talent but far from the finished article

Mixed leadership where Scooter is struggling somewhat and poor discipline

But I like the talent coming through and I like the creativity so far

Certainly busted England open multiple times but didn’t capitalise

Another step up against Ireland and very much up against it

As fair an assessment as you’ll find. I think a lot of people comment based on the emotion the article headline is designed to illicit, rather th a the actual quote.

Ireland are being granted too much respect by NZ in this build up.

They are a veey good team and favourites and #1 and blah blah blah but it’s not like the All Blacks don’t have the players to rip them apart as well.

It’s a lot more even than the pundits are suggesting.

I think the author of the article got it pretty right, it's not a great team, good enough to beat anything the north might have to offer probably but not ready for the Boks just yet.

He not wrong though. SH rugby is shite and getting worse. The days of relying on the ref to win as the inferior team should end sooner than later - and that's the death of SH rugby right there.

You had a good - and very lucky - run. Good luck trying to exist when your supporters are too cheap to even buy match tickets.

This is a very accurate analysis of where the ABs are at the moment, and how they score points. They don't seem to have a repeatable system to break teams down like SA and Ireland do.

Luck is maybe the wrong word, but the ABs attack seems to be built around individual brilliance - they are trying to engineer opportunities for DMac, Jordan, Sititi, Telea etc... to pull something off. They don't know what that thing will be but they hope that given enough shots on goal that these players are so good that they will pull something out of the bag.

The Barrett/Jordan try is an exception. That was very well worked. They kept going side to side until they got the defensive picture they needed then pulled off the play perfectly.

The upside of this approach is that it's hard to defend against. The downside, which we are seeing in every game, even the 10 try fest against Japan, is very long periods of the game without the ABs scoring any points. They don't seem to be prioritising building pressure and being able to collect points and gradually turn the screw - It's all or nothing on every play with a binary outcome - score a try or a turnover.

One Irish commentator correctly points out the following:

-This current NZ team are not a "great" team. They lost to Argentina, SA twice very recently, they almost got beaten by a very rusty England. Everyone in the SH would concur they are not great. Whats the issue?

-NZ left the winning or the losing of the game on Saturday in the hands of England. First of all they allowed England gain a two score lead. Then having taken the lead they gifted England two golden opportunities to win. They were relying on England to miss. It was down to luck. This isn't mensa stuff.

The journalist was correct. Again, pages and pages of glowing tributes from Irish media in last week ignored so that one or two lines can bait a load of Kiwis brittle egos. It's just a journalist guys, less of the 'crybaby' stuff as ye would say, its getting close to rugby time.

Author relying on brittle Kiwi ego here and you have not let him down!

I wonder if the English should stop celebrating tackles during the middle of the match, like they'd just won the WC. It's better to leave that stuff until the job is done.

Foaming uncontrollably at the mouth, clearly another case of ‘sextonitis’…!!!

Well luckily nobody is claiming this is a great All Blacks team yet, but it is a new team with the makings of a very good one. Compare this to Fozzie's 1st year, and you'd have to say this group is well positioned to at least try and become great. But in the end, greatness is earnt, and it's far too early days to go around claiming such nonsense in any case.

As Thornley points out, this is a team that can score tries from nothing. That doesn't have anything to do with luck. The most pleasing aspect of the current squad is the number of line breakers nicely distributed throughout the side from jerseys 1 to 15.

Sititi is a great find, Jordan has the ability to find tiny holes in well structured defences, Clarke has been punching holes in midfield with his power, and Te'lea is a finisher of freakish qualities. Should Roigard be returned to his rightful starting spot, they have a halfback with unbelievable athletic ability who can threaten to find gaps around the ruck all day long.

So yes, this is an imperfect and unfinished team that can sometimes be dominated and flustered, but still has plenty of ability to score more of those "lucky" tries against the rub of play.

It's an ability that was somewhat lost under Foster, but if you look through the "great" era prior, there were plenty of games the ABs probably shouldn't have won, but somehow found a way to win with big plays against momentum.

So I'm happy a bit of "luck" is back in the team. Any team who wishes to become great will need to create a fair bit of it.

There are things on the rugby field that are legitimately about luck, but there are not that many. The bounce of the ball can be genuinely good or bad luck. But, in the absence of a dramatic act of God, missing a penalty goal or a dropped goal is not a lottery. To state the obvious, missing a kick at goal is what happens when you are not good enough.

If we're going to talk about England being unlucky then we should also consider how unlucky NZ were with their recalled tries, knock-ons and loose kicks.

In the end NZ scored 3 tries against a very good England defence, and looked quite capable of scoring more. Ireland should ake that seriously.

Silly article. I'm a Saffa and I've seen and learnt that you never write an AB side off. We've played them too many times to make that mistake. Yes, this current AB team is a little bit off the boil and seem to be stuck in between the way they want to play. But they still beat England. No luck. You make your own luck. This AB team might be losing a few games at the moment, but they will find their feet. They seem to be in the same place the Boks were when Rassie took over in 2018. It's a transition phase. The NH teams must enjoy their opportunities now against this AB team. In a year or so the AB's will be back in the top 2 in world rugby

Amazed how all the criticism of the ABs comes from the NH. You will never read or hear any such stuff from Saffa, the Aussies or the Argies. Never. Maybe the ABs side is off the level of the side under Richie McC but they remain the benchmark. They are in transition with the loss of a bunch of WC players and a new coach, so need a bit of time. Their balance in the forwards is still slightly clunky, and they take time to replace their halfbacks who were world class. Have a feeling Ireland will face a smack on the nose this weekend

Get past a RWC quarter final before you start announcing which teams are 'great'.