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The All Blacks haven’t tried anything and they haven’t scared anyone.
Sure, their internal and external public relations departments have been quick to applaud Sunday’s 27-7 win over Australia, but no scores were scored and no critics were answered.
If you can take on the All Blacks, you will beat them. End of story.
Caleb Clarke speaks to the media after the successful start of the All Blacks
We have a pretty bleak view of defense in this country. We think it is negative and boring.
But that is also one of the reasons why teams like England, Ireland and South Africa have beaten us in recent times.
We look at all the individual talents scattered around our side and imagine them running over and around various defenders.
And we lament the cheats and cowardly referees who don’t allow us to recycle the ball as quickly as we would like or who let the opposition’s baselines go out of play, without learning to admire or adapt to what the player is doing. other side.
Suppose Ian Foster was the architect of the All Blacks attack in recent years. Regardless, that was certainly the man’s declared area of expertise.
Since the British and Irish Lions series, we’ve seen the All Blacks consistently fail against teams that can cope. No matter where we try to place the front pods or how deep our backs are or how many cross kicks we resort to, we still don’t have any method to combat defensive precision.
Australia missed 40 tackles against New Zealand on Sunday and we still only won 27-7. Far from being encouraged by the end result, we should all feel a little scared.
Let’s say the Wallabies boarded on Sunday. Let’s say they didn’t spin the ball 20 times either. Without those giveaways, and James O’Connor’s terrible first-fifth-eighth option-making by Australia, how did the All Blacks plan to score points or exert even a modicum of pressure?
It was very sad to see All Blacks loose-headed mainstay Joe Moody in shock during the first half on Sunday. But when he was in the park, along with Wallabies hard-headed Taniela Tupou, the All Blacks pack was toweling off.
The New Zealand forwards finished better. Nobody disputes that. But when the starting groups started, Australia was better and this in a situation where the All Blacks were said to have resented their slow exit the week before.
Heaven help us when New Zealand forwards are guilty of resting on their laurels.
We are going to count the guys who played well for the All Blacks. In no particular order, you’d say Anton Lienert-Brown, Sam Cane, Beauden Barrett, Caleb Clarke, Ardie Savea, and even sub TJ Perenara enjoyed some eye-catching moments.
Each made what might be called memorable effort plays or strong individual runs that underscored the fragile nature of Australia’s defense and erratic pursuit. Those remain the strengths of New Zealand’s broader game and the All Blacks will always thrive against suspicious defensive sides.
Just as, when they feel embarrassed, they invariably wake up to a stronger performance.
Australia was that suspect defensive end and the All Blacks were embarrassed, following the previous week’s 16-16 draw in Wellington, and yet the final score was only 27-7.
Does anyone think that shook the Springboks to the core or that Eddie Jones has suddenly rethought England’s tactics for the remainder of this Rugby World Cup cycle?
Or will the rugby world be content to know that not much is going to change about the All Blacks and that you will still be able to face them into submission?
Again, you don’t want to condemn the effort of certain individual All Blacks, but the keyword here is individual.
The Wallabies need to score rare back-to-back victories over the All Blacks to win back the Bledisloe Cup. #BledisloeCup #NZLvAUS https://t.co/U193ArYasu
– RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 19, 2020
On the right day, against the right opposition, individual brilliance will still be enough for New Zealand to win matches. The challenge for Foster and his staff is to create the game plan and cohesion needed to beat teams that don’t make the plentiful mistakes Australia made on Sunday.
We may have to swallow a bit of pride to get there and we might have to turn to foreign ideas like playing good field position and kicking our goals and supporting our own defense to win games. Instead, we are all in a mad rush to proclaim that Caleb Clarke is the next Jonah Lomu.
We remember the 1995 Rugby World Cup for all sorts of reasons, in these parts, but rarely for the quality of South Africa’s defense. So good was it that even Lomu, in his utter pomp, couldn’t break it.
Twenty-five years later, tackling is still the fastest route to victory over the All Blacks teams.
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