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Sonny Bill Williams’ blunt take on where the All Blacks have gone wrong

All Blacks dejected after the try of Malcolm Marx of the Springboks during the Castle Lager Rugby Championship match between South Africa and New Zealand at DHL Stadium on September 07, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Two-time Rugby World Cup winner Sonny Bill Williams has kept it honest when sharing a blunt take on where the All Blacks are currently at. The All Blacks were beaten in two Tests over South Africa and have lost three of their four Rugby Championship matches so far.

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New Zealand’s current ranking as the third side on the four-team Rugby Championship ladder doesn’t reflect how close both Tests were over in the Republic. The visitors should’ve won the first match in Johannesburg and had every chance of taking out the second Test as well.

The All Blacks led 27-17 with just over 10 minutes to play at Emirates Airline Park before the Springboks famed ‘Bomb Squad’ helped the hosts pull off an incredible comeback win. One week later in Cape Town, the bench was once again the difference in a 18-12 triumph.

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In four Tests under coach Scott Robertson this year, the All Blacks have failed to score in the last 20 minutes of a match. To put that into context, they’ve only played seven matches in total. It’s clear that something isn’t quite working, and Williams has had his say.

As the hype and anticipation for this weekend’s Bledisloe Cup Test at Sydney’s Accor Stadium continues to build, the dual international has explained how the All Blacks’ approach to their team selection has become an issue.

“Shaky to say the least. Shaky to say the least if we’re being honest,” Williams said on Stan Sports’ Between Two Posts.

“I tweeted during the week or after the South African game, the Springboks are leading the way because they’ve worked out that it’s a 23-man game and I just don’t think we are there yet.

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“That’s not me having a dig at the players – I still think we have some of the best, if not the best, players in the world. I just don’t think from a coaching perspective we’ve nailed down the 23-man game mindset yet.

“That’s where I’m at.

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“But I still think there’s been some great signs and I still think we will win this weekend and win well but that’s my honest thoughts on where we’re at.”

Following the narrow loss in Johannesburg, the All Blacks made a handful of their changes to their starting side ahead of the second Test at DHL Stadium. As part of these decisions, Test veterans TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett dropped back to the bench.

The reaction from fans on social media was largely quite positive, but it didn’t ended up working on the night in Cape Town. Perenara and Barrett failed to fire, and replacement lock Sam Darry wasn’t subbed on at all.

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As Williams discussed, one clear issue was the approach to the front row. Tyrel Lomax was still on the field after 72 minutes of play, and that fatigue appeared to take its toll with the tighthead prop being shown a yellow card for an off-the-ball hit on Boks winger Cheslin Kolbe.

“This is me keeping it really, really simple, the game’s won through where? Through the middle,” Williams explained.

“When was the last time we saw a prop from the Boks come off the field or still be on the field in the 72nd minute?

“The greatest team that I’ve been involved with, 2015… it was a full 23-man squad  game.

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Wins
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Average Points scored
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Home team wins
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“(Lomax) played really, really well, he’s at the top of his game right now but you put that pressure on a player playing at that level in South Africa, 70 minutes into the game, him making that mistake I think that was just a coaching error more than himself.

“South Africa, the first Test, they played amazing. Some of those players were arguably the best on the field but didn’t play the next week,” he added.

“Whatever it is over there, it’s a total belief in the full squad. (But) if I’m 16 to 23 right now in the All Blacks sitting on the bench, and I’m being used for seven minutes, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Man am I part of this squad or am I a part of this team?’’

Watch the highly acclaimed five-part documentary Chasing the Sun 2, chronicling the journey of the Springboks as they strive to successfully defend the Rugby World Cup, free on RugbyPass TV (*unavailable in Africa)

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Comments

3 Comments
C
Cosmo 63 days ago

Well Sonny, if you hadn't cost us the B&I tour with your brain-dead red card tackle on AW in the 2nd test, maybe I'd listen to you.

I
IS 63 days ago

He literally didn't lose is the series seeing it was a drawn series maybe you should do more listening and less talking because you need too

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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