FEATURE 'The All Blacks won the series, but not in the way they wanted'

England left New Zealand without the Test victory they craved, but they do at least have the consolation of knowing that they will get their shot at revenge in less than four months when the All Blacks come to Twickenham in early November.

And given how tight the two-Test series was, and how England created enough opportunities and exerted enough pressure to leave everyone believing they could and possibly should have won both matches, they will rightly carry an expectation of getting the job done on their home patch.

After all, Maro Itoje tore up New Zealand’s lineout, and by the second Test at Eden Park, Marcus Smith was pulling the strings with the sort of confidence and authority that suggested he and his team-mates are starting to feel confident in who they are and how they want to play.

But by November, England will likely find they are facing a different All Blacks team both in terms of personnel, strategy and collective understanding about the game-plan their relatively new coaching team wants to implement.

The All Blacks won the series, but not in the way they wanted or by playing the sort of rugby they envisioned.

What got them to the finish line was their tenacity, their ability to stay calm in the big moments and scrap to the death – attributes they were more than relieved to find out they had, but this portfolio of doggedness won’t be, or can’t be, the only thing they bring to Twickenham later in the year.

England exposed numerous shortcomings and frailties in the All Blacks across 160 minutes of bruising and relentlessly physical Test match rugby and while the All Blacks were good enough to win what became a street fight, they would rather not have been dragged into one in the first place.

The series highlighted the need for a few selection changes to give the team better balance, more potency and improved decision-making

That they were was a result of their game-plan not being effectively executed at all. The lineout wobbled in Dunedin and malfunctioned entirely in Auckland; the kicking game was erratic and confused; the forwards didn’t mount an effective pick-and-drive onslaught or even get their rolling maul going and the game management was never quite right in terms of pass, run, kick.

The All Blacks know that this suffocating brand of rugby is what they will face again not just at Twickenham later in the year, but also when they play South Africa, Ireland and France, too and the series against England highlighted the need for a few selection changes to give the team better balance, more potency and improved decision-making.

The most obvious take-out of the series for the All Blacks is that they have to inject Beauden Barrett into their starting team at full-back.

The veteran came off the bench with good impact in Dunedin, but at Eden Park his 30-minute cameo was the catalyst that won the game.

Barrett was the difference between the two teams – he brought energy, vision, a cultured right boot and a brilliant ability to see where the space was.  He also made the line-break that got behind England’s defence to set-up Mark Tele’a for the winning try.

He delivered the sort of impact that coaches want from their bench players and while it will be tempting for Robertson to keep using Barrett from the bench to produce those game-changing cameos, the All Blacks need their star turn on the field for 80 minutes not 30.

Barrett not only put the All Blacks in the areas of the field they needed to be, he brought a defensive solidity that had perhaps been missing in the first half when England were able to score two well-executed tries from cross-kicks.

Whatever the Test needs is what we will do with him. If you perform like that you can play the whole 80.

He’s also a supremely good communicator from the backfield and there’s no question that if the All Blacks are to persevere with Damian McKenzie as their preferred No 10, he looked more comfortable when Barrett was on the field helping direct the playmaking.

Asked the day after the 24-17 victory at Eden Park whether he was open-minded about what to do with Barrett longer-term, Robertson said: “I think every Test match is different whether it is off the bench or starting. He is class and he can play 10 or 15 and we can slot him straight in.

“He’s got a great temperament; you just don’t know how valuable it is to have someone like him who can put the ball on his foot and do what he did and set us up. Whatever the Test needs is what we will do with him. If you perform like that you can play the whole 80.”

There is one other potentially complicating factor, which may be why Robertson continues to be non-committal about Barrett – which is that Will Jordan has recovered from shoulder surgery and is expected to be available for selection against Argentina in the opening Rugby Championship encounters after playing some pre-season games for Tasman.

Jordan has played nearly all of his Test rugby on the wing, but he was exclusively used at full-back by Robertson at the Crusaders and it is the 26-year-old’s preferred position.

The potential is there to start with Jordan at full-back and continue with Barrett in an impact role off the bench.

But the All Blacks started the World Cup final with Barrett at full-back and Jordan and Tele’a on the wings and this back three still looks to be the one best equipped to give the team what they need on both attack and defence and if all three are fit, is likely to become the preferred trio throughout 2024.

The return of Cam Roigard will give the All Blacks more potency to hurt teams, more ability to up the tempo of their attack and a focal point for the forwards to run off.

By the time the All Blacks arrive at Twickenham they will likely also have Cam Roigard back at half-back and his running game, huge left boot and ability to break defences close to the ruck will change the attacking dynamic.

Against England the All Blacks weren’t able to break England open through the middle of the field and it meant the visitors’ line-speed remained a dominant factor in both Tests.

The return of Roigard will give the All Blacks more potency to hurt teams, more ability to up the tempo of their attack and a focal point for the forwards to run off.

As for the forwards, there may be two key, longer-term personnel changes there, too. The All Blacks lacked presence in their ball carrying and blindside Samipeni Finau didn’t have any punch or impact.

He will most likely make way for the rugged Ethan Blackadder whose game may lack a little pace and softer skills, but comes with the guarantee of relentless crunch in his ball-carrying and tackling.

And on the openside, Sam Cane will be returned to the starting XV. Cane has been training with the squad for the last three weeks and forwards coach Jason Ryan is eager to get the former captain back into action to give the All Blacks another heavy hitter on defence, a seasoned turnover exponent and a player who can carry in the heavy traffic.

These probable personnel tweaks will potentially make a huge difference to the all-round ability of the All Blacks to play a more direct, confrontational style of rugby.

But the bigger difference between the All Blacks England met in July and the team they will likely encounter in November, is the depth of understanding they will have built in how to play the way Robertson wants them to play.

England were able to suck the All Blacks into a prolonged arm-wrestle in both Dunedin and Auckland and while the home side were able to fight their way through it and win, it’s not their intention to be lulled into playing a style that is not naturally theirs.

Sometimes Test matches aren’t pretty… We learnt some lessons. We’re lucky we won and learnt, not lost and learnt.

As Robertson admitted, the All Blacks’ primary challenge for the remainder of this year is to learn how to impose their will on opponents and get the component parts of their game right to ensure they are playing the higher-tempo, freer-flowing style of rugby that brings fatigue and unstructured defences into play.

“We have got to finish what we start,” said the head coach. “We are creating those opportunities. A couple of lineouts we took the pressure off and that is not part of our DNA. We will nail those normally so we have just got to be honest and being on tour is a great way to do that.

“We have been together for a while now and we need a lot of honesty and to make sure people are accountable for knowing their own areas.

“Everyone who knows their rugby knows we can grow parts of our game and be way more efficient. I’m not sure [assistant coach] Scott Hansen slept all night. He came out of the box and said, ‘we’ll take it but we’ve got to be better’. That’s our mindset.

“Sometimes Test matches aren’t pretty. You just got to find a way, think on your feet and come up with the next plan. We learnt some lessons. We’re lucky we won and learnt, not lost and learnt.”