Watch: Wallabies vs. All Blacks review

The Tasman Sea separating New Zealand and Australia is approximately 2,200 kilometres wide. At points last Saturday it seemed the gap between the two nations was greater than that. The All Blacks turned on the class after “kissing their sister” against the Lions and sped away. There’s no bridge over the Tasman for the Wallabies to hop across this weekend, but is there any other way they can close the gap?

Undoubtedly the Kiwis were the better side. In the first half they appeared to pound the Wallaby line over and over until in waiting for an easy gap to run through or around. When Rieko Ioane flew into the corner in the 18th minute it looked, despite the fact Israel Folau is 8 years his senior, like men against boys.

While clearly the All Blacks have plenty of talent, most of their many line breaks came from some expertly planned and executed spacings. That being said, they weren’t exactly up against a stone wall defense. In our first analysed clip we see evidence of an unorganised Australian mess.

Coming off a ruck under the posts the Wallabies should be flat and lined up directly in front of their opposition. Every 8 year old is taught to pick his man and communicate across the line. In this instance, Australia somehow have their two wingers Rona and Speight standing at first and second receiver, and completely out of sync with their opposition.

The All Blacks are doing nothing special, they’re just doing it extremely efficiently. Sonny Bill Williams stands to run a straight line through the gap between defenders. The Australian backs do nothing to react. The All Black crashes over for a try. It’s that easy.

The Wallabies are of course not idiots, they’re world class rugby players. Their defensive systems are just so lacking and the All Blacks are so precise.

Even an underage team could adapt to straight line running towards the same gaps repeatedly. So the All Blacks have more intelligent ways to work these gaps into try scoring opportunities.

In our next clip we see Liam Squire rampaging up the wing before being dragged down. What happens next is a good example of the rugby brains that set the All Blacks apart.

There is no set move here, it’s in free play. Neither is there any pre-empting communication between the two Smiths. Ben pops to Aaron who runs a wide line, drawing the Wallaby pillar man out of position and opening up a gap for Ben to carve through to the try line.

It’s clear in this example just how good the New Zealand fundamentals are. In the reverse angle we can see that Aaron smith does exactly what any coach would tell him to do. He has his eyes forward, drawing his man and giving a controlled inside pass. To add to this, Beauden Barrett is running a great support line, so from ragged free play, the All Blacks backs have instinctively created the 3 on 2 drill every player has practiced a thousand times.

Of course this apparent simplicity shouldn’t detract from just how skilled the All Blacks are. Nothing at this level is easy, and execution to this degree is nothing to be looked down upon.

The accuracy with which they manipulate the opposition backs is what wins test matches. They played chess with the Wallabies on Saturday, and built their game-plan on the notion of creating and moving the gaps between players in the disorganised Australian line.

If anyone exemplifies these ideas, and those of accuracy and consistency, its Ryan Crotty. His try on the stroke of half time shows a subtle but important example of the fine margins that crack open defences.

As he runs to take a beautifully flat skip pass, he angles slightly inwards then straightens. This tiny adjustment is both intelligent and accurate enough to allow him to utilise great ball speed to attack the gap, even from a set piece.

While all of this New Zealand excellence was a great exhibition of rugby and wonderful to watch, it’s nothing to say the Wallabies aren’t a hugely talented side. Defensive frailties aside, when they got moving on attack they split the All Blacks on multiple occasions.

Towards the end of the second half we see them attack off of a ruck 5 metres out, and employ tactics almost identical to those of the All Blacks, and just as well executed.

The Wallabies and the wider rugby community understands that to create a gap you have to move two defensive players apart from each other. The Wallabies do this perfectly and simply by running two of their own men on disruptive lines.

Scrum-half Nick Phipps takes a popped ball from the base, which allows him to get wide enough fast enough to draw Ben Smith into committing to the tackle. Which means that the onrushing Curtis Rona, who is Smith’s man, is unmarked. In theory Beauden Barrett should step in and tackle Rona, but he’s drawn outwards by another rushing player on a narrow line, and thus a gap opens and Rona is straight through it.

Complex movements like this aren’t uncommon, the All Blacks and the Wallabies both tried almost identical tricks, and  both with success, but since the Australians have all the changes to make, we’ll only look at theirs in depth.

As the ball comes off the scrum, the All Blacks line is perfectly set. It’s flat, moving together, and everyone is opposite a man. To break this down, Foley throws a wide pass to where there’s more space and less men. Then a strike runner runs at a man who isn’t his opposite number. This means that the All Blacks have to swap defensive assignments. They do this, but because the Wallabies have a trail runner out the back, Ben Smith picks him up instead of Tevita Kuridrani. So Kuridrani is unmarked and in the gap created by the tackle, ready for the offload.

If that confuses you, don’t worry, it confused the All Blacks too, and at full speed it would confuse anyone.

This move, and every move we’ve shown relies on outdoing the opposition mentally. The speed, and the skill levels both teams showed were excellent, the difference was the defense. The All Blacks were good barring a few second half lapses of concentration, but the Wallabies were a shambles. There’s a mountain of work-ons for Australia, and flying into Dunedin there’s a mountain to climb. The talent is there for a competitive game, but unless a lot changes in the Australian systems, the defence is not.