'We're missing something at the moment': Senior All Blacks searching for answers

For the first time in almost a quarter of a century, the All Blacks have suffered back-to-back defeats at home – and senior players within the squad are unsurprisingly clamouring for answers with little more than a year to go before the next Rugby World Cup.

It isn’t just the fact that Ireland have beaten New Zealand twice on the trot that will be frustrating the players, it’s the way in which they’ve been so comprehensively outplayed by their opposition that will have struck a few nerves.

Speaking to media after the series-deciding match, both Dane Coles and Ardie Savea expressed their disappointment at how the All Blacks had performed, with the former comparing the loss to the one suffered in the 2019 World Cup semi-final.

“It kind of feels like that loss to England, that kind of sombre disappointment,” said the 81-test hooker. “To lose a series in New Zealand is very disappointing.

“We can’t shy away from the fact that we lost and we weren’t the better team. Got to face it but yeah, pretty gutted for everyone involved.”

While the All Blacks were good in patches in the second half on Saturday night, they ultimately had few answers for the resilient defence and well-drilled attack of the tourists in their 32-22 defeat. They certainly didn’t help themselves by conceding a try in the first five minutes and two further in the first half before they were able to get one back of their own – continuing a trend from the previous week where they went down early before eventually finding their groove.

“A big part of our week was we wanted to start well – and we didn’t, which is the frustrating thing,” Coles said. “We’ve got to walk the talk a bit more. Just a little bit lack of energy in that first half and they dictated the game and got some really good tries, put us under a bit of pressure.

“You can see when we come out with a really good, positive attitude, we can play good footy. We’re missing something at the moment. I don’t have the magic thing for it but there’s something that needs to change from the whole group at the moment because it’s not good enough.”

Down 22-3 at the break, the All Blacks burst out of the blocks in the second spell to score two tries and bring themselves within five points of their opposition. From there, however, they weren’t able to push on and claim the spoils.

“We got a rile up at halftime and we came out firing in the first 10 minutes and started to get our mojo back,” said Savea, “and then just a few moments in that game where we dropped the ball or knocked it on in our own half and the Irish punished us.

“That’s probably not good enough against this Irish team; they’re quality, an amazing team and they just capitalised on that and put us under pressure.”

Savea and Coles both suggested that it was up to the leadership group within the team – shorn of men like Joe Moody, Anton Lienert-Brown and now Brodie Retallick – to galvanise the squad ahead of their next match in South Africa, and that it was important to reinstil some pride in the black jersey after a string of less than impressive performances.

“We’ve got to look at ourselves first, put our hands up,” said Coles. “There’ll be a couple of meetings during the week to digest the game and the week and stuff like that just to find things that we can make better.

“If the leaders are playing well then, the team will follow.

“I can definitely put my hand up and want to step up. And I know everyone in that changing room wants the same thing. We don’t go out to perform poorly but we are at the moment so everyone has to have a deep look at themselves and we’ve got to put all our wisdom and hurt together and come up with better solutions and better effort to represent this black jersey because it’s not good enough at the moment.”

“We’ve got to sit on (the result) and have some time and look at the game properly,” added Savea. “We’ve also got to question our mana and heart. We talked about starting well and the Irish came and scored within the first five minutes again. That’s not up to our standards.

“We’ve got to try and get out of the trenches and put some pride back in the black jersey because it’s probably not there at the moment.”

Savea, to his credit, was one of the best performers on the park in the defeat. The 62-test loose forward scored one well-taken try but was always a formidable force with ball in hand and took over captaincy duties late in the match once Sam Cane departed the field.

While both Savea and Coles will undoubtedly shoulder some blame for the defeat, the team as a whole will certainly have to step up in the coming weeks if they want to avoid suffering further defeats in the cauldron that is South Africa.