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What the All Blacks 'learned' from their unlikely Rugby Championship win

Ardie Savea, Sam Cane and Shannon Frizell. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

On August 8, his team soundly beaten in South Africa, the bell tolled for All Blacks coach Ian Foster.

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After three straight defeats – the team’s worst run this century – the NZ Herald splashed a sullen-faced Foster on its front page with a headline “It’s time for change”.

While New Zealand Rugby didn’t change Foster – as many fans hoped they would – Foster did change the team.

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With the benefit of some backroom and on-field tweaks, Foster and the All Blacks woke up Rugby Championship winners on Sunday for the third straight year, the title helping to wash away the troubles of the previous weeks.

The All Blacks belted Australia 40-14 on Saturday night at Eden Park to give themselves a big shot at the title, with South Africa needing to beat Argentina by 39 points in their early Sunday morning contest (AEST) to wrest it away.

The Springboks could only manage a 38-21 win, allowing Foster to flick off the TV in his hotel in the 75th minute, around 5:45am local time, a “very satisfied” man.

“It’s a championship that we stated we wanted to win and we’ve done it the hard way,” a bleary-eyed Foster told journalists a few hours later.

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“It’s very special. It’s been a very different journey to other Rugby Championships that we’ve won.

“To do it from behind the eight ball at the start and have to climb through that, it’s not the way we wanted, but it’s really satisfying.”

From the team’s lows in July and August, with two home losses to Ireland, one away to South Africa and one at home to Argentina, the All Blacks shuffled their pack.

Out went two assistant coaches, replaced in the backroom by schemers Joe Schmidt and Jason Ryan.

The team found solutions to on-field problems, returning to a kicking game, managing the absence of Ardie Savea in Australia, and pushing Jordie Barrett into midfield at Eden Park to stunning returns.

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“What have we learned? Under pressure we’ve stayed tight,” Foster said.

“Under pressure we’ve sought different solutions that have made all of us uncomfortable at times.

“And I’ll just say, there’s quite a bit left in this tank. There’s still a lot of finishing touches we’re not quite getting right. And what a good place to be.”

Foster has granted his players a fortnight off ahead of a squad naming on October 9 for a northern hemisphere tour beginning in Japan, before trips to Cardiff, Edinburgh and London.

There are also All Blacks XV games in October and November which will give fringe players a shot against Canada and the Scott Robertson-coached Barbarians.

Foster said the spring tour would be “vital” this year given a shortened southern season next year to accomodate the Rugby World Cup in France.

“Next year is pretty thin … five Tests before a World Cup starts next year so we’ve got to maximise our opportunities we get now,” he said.

The All Blacks will head north with their lowest-ever world ranking of fourth – behind Ireland, France and South Africa – but Foster said he was “not deeply concerned about that”.

“What we’re concerned about is that we show the improvement that we need and our trajectory is upwards because where want to be in 12 months time is not to be two, three, four or five. It’s to be one.”

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Flankly 52 minutes 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
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Nickers 1 hour 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 1 hour 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.

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