Before anyone gets too carried away here I’ll start by saying these are my thoughts on the team this year. I know we all have opinions, and the chances that mine and yours agree are probably not high so you’re bound to read something, maybe a lot of things, where we differ. By all means tell me in the comments where I got it wrong and what I should’ve said. But let’s keep it civil and not make personal attacks on each other.
That last game certainly didn’t go to plan for the ABs. It started off well enough, but before the end of the 1st half the wheels were falling off and from then on it really was a game where nothing went right. Looking back it’s not a surprise. The All Blacks are struggling at the moment, and in areas where they’ve previously been quite strong. In previous eras the ABs always finished well, and in fact used to plan for it, but for some reason this year the finishes have been the worst part of the game. The ABs are now at the stage where teams are saying “If we stay with these guys until the last quarter, then we can take them.” That’s been a huge disappointment and asks a lot of questions.
There are certainly some player issues. How anyone in the coaching team still sees Reiko Ioane as a 13 is something I struggle with. While he’s a very good player with great running skills and good one on one defence, his ability to create space for others and distribute the ball when the receiver has space appear lacking. Still a great wing, but not meeting the requirements for a 13. One of the most common posts about the ABs on all social media is questioning his abilities at 13. Now I know that we supporters have biased opinions on our support for certain players, but the wide outcry from so many, on all parts of the social media spectrum, even from people supporting Auckland, seem to indicate that the selectors are seeing something that no one else is seeing. While we aren’t part of the coaching team (or even close), the supporters of the All Blacks are mostly pretty rugby savvy people and a lot have as much, or even more, knowledge of the game as the AB coaching team. To have such a united front does question the decision.
This heads me toward where I think there are issues and they don’t all lie with the playing group. The coaching group as a whole are an inexperienced lot at this level. Sure there are some with limited international experience, but most of them are coming into this level quite new. The most often quoted statement from a player who has just completed their first international game is their surprise at the speed of the game and how little things have such a bigger impact. It feels to me that the coaching group is experiencing the same thing. No matter how many test level players there are in a Super Rugby team, there are always players on both sides who just aren’t up to that level and who take the games down a notch. At international level this doesn’t happen. Sure there’ll be good and better players in each team, but generally every position will have a player who is just that little bit better, who will play with just that little bit more skill and as such the whole game will be just that little bit more intense and quicker. This always takes a bit of time to get used to and for me the coaching group just don’t seem to be there yet.
Now while we all have our opinions on who should play in each position, even 13, on the whole the players there have demonstrated that they are mostly at that level and that they have the skills the position demands. They aren’t going out on the field to make bad decisions and are giving it their all to try and get a positive result. When you look at the current All Black team though, they don’t seem to be completely aligned and synched up. The tries that were scored in the weekend looked as though they were made by individuals doing something special rather than as a result of a team plan that created the space that could be exploited. In my opinion they look like a group of individuals playing in a team, not a team of players working together. That’s on the coaches more than the players. I don’t know the coaching crew well enough to make a comment on who or what is going wrong, but when you have a team that scores four tries without getting out of 3rd gear and then closes up and doesn’t score again except for a penalty kick while the opposition slowly catches up, then there’s something wrong with the tactics and the game plan more than the execution by the players.
When Razor came on board I thought it was the perfect opportunity to stop and reset. A new coach with a great record with four years until he had to prove himself at the next RWC and an audience of supporters who knew changes were needed and were hoping he would be the person to make them. When the first All Black team was announced there weren’t anywhere near the changes I expected. I thought OK, new year, first game so keeping with the status quo was probably ok to ensure that he’d start on a winning run. But when the squad for the Rugby Championship was announced I started to get worried. The ABs have only really got a year to develop the team. While the four year RWC cycle is something we can appreciate, the ABs are expected to win every game they play. Unrealistic for sure and certainly the acceptance of losses these days is a lot better than it has been in the past. But, the expectation is that they will win.
Razor looks like a guy more scared of losing than one working to ensure he wins. We have far too many players past their use by date who’ve been included and aren’t making the impact the the team needs. The loose trio seems unbalanced and look to be working as individuals rather than as a group. Our ball delivery has been too slow and inaccurate so that the receiving players are getting the ball standing still with the defence already on them. We need players in the backline who can create space, not just hope it appears and our reserves need to come on and make an impact, not come on and add to the decline in the game as they’re doing at the moment.
The All Blacks need to make some changes to move forward. The last 60 minutes of Saturday’s test was just not up to the standard required and the team needs to be more ruthless and more direct. The coaching team needs to sit down and go through the game plan and look at why they haven’t got the team aligned with it. If this requires changes to them, the plan or the team, then they need to make those changes and push forward. The public of New Zealand appear to be on side so far and Razor seems to be getting more leeway than Foster did. But unless we start seeing some improvements that will disappear and the calls for change will begin.
