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Respected New Zealand writer Gregor Paul suggests that the All Blacks have an “endemic discipline problem” that has made them the “angry pub drunkards” of world rugby.
On Saturday, Argentina scored its first victory over New Zealand in Test 30 between the two teams, while condemning the All Blacks to their first consecutive Test losses since 2011.
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Reacting to the outcome of the commotion, after a match with a series of altercations and complaints from players, Paul writes in the New Zealand Herald that there are problems that the All Blacks can’t seem to solve.
The All Blacks had nothing. Nothing really and rarely in the last 10 years, maybe even in the last 20, have they played with such a feeling of being nervous and so badly outmatched. Argentina nailed every little and big part of their game. They were extremely brave in every respect and perhaps a defensive effort like the one they gave will never be replicated.
That won’t matter to them. All they know is that they have finally defeated the mighty All Blacks. They beat them, in fact, and reduced them to a chaotic, unimaginative and uninspired corps of players who couldn’t catch, couldn’t pass, couldn’t win their lineouts, and worst of all, couldn’t bring the same passion and intensity. like the Pumas.
“The All Blacks have such a proud record, for so long, and this performance will have to be regarded as one that shamed the legacy. They didn’t look like the All Blacks. Not even for five minutes and five tests in Ian Foster’s coaching reign, the All Blacks have done what they haven’t done in nine years and lost back-to-back tests and what they have never done: lose to Argentina.
“What’s out of the question now is that the All Blacks have an endemic discipline problem. They have a problem with just about everything they’re doing, but it’s the way they can’t get their heads into the game that has to be the most concerning. ”
Paul added that recent performances have shown that New Zealand were now the “hotheads of the world game.”
They have become the angry drunkard in the pub, mistakenly thinking that everyone is looking at them the wrong way or spilling their pint. It is a problem that they cannot solve.
“A problem they won’t solve if Shannon Frizell can’t find a better way to channel her frustration. A problem if Dane Coles is going to be dumb enough to slap people in front of the referee.
“And it’s a problem that illustrates that there is something almost fundamentally wrong with your mental readiness right now.”
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Photo: Getty Images
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