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Super franchises ready to tackle competition without their All Blacks

The All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand’s Super Rugby franchises are content with missing their All Blacks for the entirety of the preseason.

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Despite some push back after last year’s directive that took All Blacks out for both mandatory rest and camps during the season, it seems franchises have embraced the change this year in preparation for the World Cup.

Blues assistant coach Tom Coventry and Chiefs assistant coach Tabai Matson both confirmed to Fairfax that they were in Steve Hansen’s corner.

“New Zealand rugby is all around making the All Blacks strong, and Super Rugby is about developing players to be good for the All Blacks for the World Cup,” Coventry told Fairfax. “We want them to be good for us as well, so there is a balancing act.

“We work closely with the coaching panel and trainers from the All Blacks who are in our ear all the time and making sure the boys are working in the right direction. They want them fit in September and we want them hissing in March. That’s our dilemma.”

Matson shared Coventry’s view on the matter.

“Initially you might think it’s really annoying but we want all our players playing well at the end of the season when it matters, and we want our players winning the World Cup for New Zealand,” Matson told Fairfax. “We all understand it’s a key part of New Zealand rugby and you find solutions.

“We all want to win in Japan [at the World Cup], and the Chiefs want to win on July 6. We’re happy to find a common ground.”

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Coventry admitted it would be challenging for sides to play their All Blacks in week one after their omission from preseason action, while Matson is looking forward to seeing how teams handle that challenge.

“If the rest of the squad is seven weeks ahead, they’ve got to try catch up that time and there’s only one way to be hardened for rugby,” Coventry said. “They’ll do it. They’ve come back off fitness regimes, they’ve just had a camp last week, and they’re all pretty motivated to give us a hand.”

“Some All Blacks will have different minutes and a graduated process back into fulltime, so they don’t play 80 minutes from day one.”

“It’s a steep curve to play 80 after no pre-season, and injury risk is high. We need a plan on how we graduate them back in.

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“The All Blacks who had big loads last year will all be well looked after.”

“It’s going to be fascinating seeing each franchise’s strategy,” Matson added. “Some will throw them straight in and know they can go from zero to 100 in game one, and others will wean them in. It will probably be case by case.”

Rugby World Cup City Guides – Oita:

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 11 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 40 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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