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Let’s not pretend this is a great All Blacks side who were robbed
I can only offer South Africa my heartiest congratulations.
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After watching them lose to the All Blacks at Mt Smart Stadium in July, I thought they were about to go the way of other ageing Rugby World Cup champions.
To me they had the look of New Zealand in 1991 and Australia in 1995 and were likely to pay the price for hanging onto guys whose best rugby days were behind them.
Throw in a 2023 tournament run that included physical encounters with Scotland, Ireland, France and England and I simply didn’t think some of those old blokes would have the legs to run with the All Blacks.
Well, I was wrong and the Springboks were the right winners of this Rugby World Cup. I was especially pleased for wing Cheslin Kolbe and captain Siya Kolisi, who would both have feared that spells in the sin bin might cost their team victory.
I’ve chuckled in the hours and days since the Springboks’ 12-11 win over the All Blacks.
It’s been comical to hear how many people aren’t familiar with the way rugby’s laws are interpreted or weren’t aware of the Television Match Official’s role.
This wasn’t a game that I’ll call contentious. I thought it was well-officiated and that the best team won.
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I’d prefer that New Zealanders were better-equipped to take defeat in their stride, but it appears not.
After all, you can’t say we haven’t had practice in recent seasons.
This has been a poor era for our national side and you would be one-eyed in the extreme to suggest otherwise.
Let’s not rewrite history here. Let’s not pretend this is a great side who were robbed of victory, having been expertly prepared by their head coach.
The evidence simply doesn’t support the argument.
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There are good players in this All Blacks’ team and I want to praise a few of them for their efforts in the final and this season.
Jordie Barrett was immense against the Springboks, as were Scott Barrett and Brodie Retallick. None of them could have done more to earn their team victory.
Aaron Smith was excellent and will be missed. Quite why he and Richie Mo’unga were replaced in the final is beyond me.
Mark Tele’a is another player whose performances are consistently outstanding. Ardie Savea too. Ethan de Groot and Tyrel Lomax aren’t far below that standard either.
That’s why I don’t support the argument – often put forward by apologists for coach Ian Foster – that we simply don’t have the cattle.
We had the talent, there just appeared to be something missing from that side. Call it consistency or clinical edge, there was just too great a disparity between this team’s best performance and its worst.
But I don’t think it’s grounds to scrap Super Rugby or rip up our player development pathway. It’s not time to change rugby’s laws or abandon the TMO.
We just need to take a breath, pass sober judgement over what worked and what didn’t in this coaching era and see what Scott Robertson can do when it’s his turn.
It’s a shame so many of this team won’t be around when Robertson assumes the head-coaching role, but such is the World Cup cycle.
It’ll be up to him to identify a new group of test footballers and quickly re-establish the winning culture that’s been the hallmark of All Black rugby.
If he can, he’ll be lauded. If not, then he’ll be subject to the sort of scrutiny that Foster got.
That’s high-performance sport.
For now, South Africa are world champions and deservedly so. More than that, they’re an inspirational and unifying force in a nation still facing massive social challenges.
The Springboks might not have played with huge style at this Rugby World Cup, but the substance of their squad is undoubted.
Theirs was a tough row to hoe, but they did it without fuss or excuses.
We’d do well to learn from that.
“Lord knows I’ll never be accused of being an All Blacks cheerleader, but I can’t see any other result in this final than a win to New Zealand by 10 to 12 points”.
Anyone can be forgiven for putting the ABs down for the win. But 10-12 points? A bizarre call.
Razor Robertson… finally takes over from Fozzie, who has shown his limitations more than once. Razor at least is a guy who understands that to win a final, then you need to do things differently and do different things - and it need not be pretty.
Obviously like all World Cup cycles afterwards you lose some key players who are retiring from ABs e.g., Sam W, Brodie, Aaron, Dane. There are those moving on, becoming ineligible but still able to come back and fight for a place e.g., Richie, Shannon, Ardie and Beauden, and there are those who stay in NZ eligible for ABs but in truth will be well past their sell-by date come next RWC27 e.g., Codie, Sam C
But Razor has a good core group to start…
While I totally agree with the author’s headline, I cant entirely agree that the REF / TMO didn’t get some calls wrong.
That said, even as a die hard ABs supporter, I cant deny “WE LOST” the game because of our poor decision-making, the wrong game plan, the ABs psyche that you only win with tries and our coaches insistence on playing Beauden Barrett at full back.
You will notice I dont mention the loss of Sam Cane as a mitigating factor, we still held out the Bomb squad and had chances to win.
Not taking shots at goal - again Savea showed poor leadership in insisting on the line outs. He made the same mistake in the 101st game in Australia - kept going for the lineout instead of the points which the Boks easily countered.
Not attempting a drop goal - reminded me of our loss in Wellington in 2018 - nobody had the common sense to go for a drop goal - best case 3 points, worst case Boks must kick back.
Too many times Beauden inserted himself at #10 only to shovel the ball on as he always does nowadays for the ABs and Blues. He’s an attacking liability.
The truth is the ABs team and coaches just didnt understand that this was the RWC final - its won on small margins.
So I congratulate the Boks on winning 3 games by one point. I must say their sluggish performance against England probably saved them from a loss to the ABs, either that eye opener or Rassie has been using stimulants.
Yes, this was a side full of inconsistencies. They were tactically inept in both thought and application. Turned down easy shots at goal, then stuffed up the lineout. No plan to execute drop kick, even though they only needed 2 points. Took Hail Mary penalty at end when lineout, if executed properly was a better bet! Add to this the dropped balls, loss at lineouts, discipline: we weren’t robbed, we weren’t up to it! We rode “Lady Luck” to get to the final
Can NW supporters show some integrity admit defeat and stop bringing the game into disrepute and referees and their spouses into danger by pretending you were robbed in that final. Do you care for the game of rugby or do you only care when NZ are winning it? It’s looking more and more like the latter.
Just a clarificationon the rules, I thought an issue was with the disallowed ABs try was that it was about 5 phases before a try scored and the law states it is two phases from a try that an infringement can be ruled on? Or can they go back as far as they like??
What a straw man article. Few if anyone was saying that this was a great All Blacks team.
They deserve our respect though, knocking out their bogey team, the world number one Ireland, then coming within a point of a great Springbok team despite playing with 14 men. They have guts.
This dude knows it was a one point game, eh.
Oh dear, grieving Irish fans resurfacing to make themselves feel better. Noone takes advice from eight times RWC quarter finals losers my friends. Away with ya. Scat.