Sometimes I like to imagine that Robbie really is a master tactician playing the long game for the ultimate prize. We already know that ‘play what's in front of you’ is just a guise for Robbie does whatever he wants whenever he wants and doesn’t have to tell anyone about it. So what has he really been up to?
In year 1 he saw our greatest weakness as fitness and commitment in contact, so in year 2 we played helter skelter, hold the ball and play with lots of width rugby. Increasing our fitness and attacking ability while avoiding the commitment to contact. This finally got us over the Boks but composure at the finally moments against the AB’s was still required. We would be needed to play 80 min and trust in each other particularly in defence. Large leads were not advantageous as a young team sought to simply outscore the opposition not beat them with defence and attack.
In year 3 we continued to hone our attack despite Robbie knowing that World cups are won by defensive effort because he also knew that the All Blacks greatest strength outside of world cups was also their greatest weakness during. That is because they always lead the world they are constantly writing the play book, their game evolves to keep them in front of the pack it very rarely undergoes a major overhaul as it is not required. Most teams know how the AB's will play but can't do anything to stop it. While the All black don't really need different tactics against different teams as Plan A works so well.
Being a Kiwi Robbie also only understood Plan A but being a big picture man he knew that playing a better version of plan A against the ABs before the world cup would in fact give the advantage to ABs. He knew that an improvement on Plan A would only be beneficial for a short while as the other teams would quickly read the play book. He knew he could only reveal the ultimate plan A and the 11th hour. So he continued to make the world fear our attack, make it our opposition's sole consuming thought. All the while he kept working on the commitment to contact the desire to meet your opposition and get over the top of them.
Year 4 held at its end the potential for the ultimate glory but wise Robbie knew that breaking from the pack to early would see the Wallabies chased down and over run before the finishing line. So Robbie cunningly banned set moves from the backline, changed the pattern to same way every time and installed some big hearted centres who would tackle all game. He has know all along that behind his back creative types like Cooper and Co would continue to use set plays (they can't forget can they?). He may have even accidentally on purpose not been paying attention when calls where subtly made during training.
To start the year as the ultimate red herring he sent out a team without any plan, despite its on the nose effects to his followers Robbie knew that nothing good came without sacrifice and so some where thrown into fire. The cat almost jumped out of the bag after 40 fantastic minutes in Brisbane, so to aid the smoke screen of "jet lag and the tri nations didn't matter" and to fuel the fire of "the forwards are soft" he "rested" some key players and through another match all the while keeping is mind firmly focussed on the big prize that awaits.
Finally as time came to meet his maker and face sudden death, through his earlier cunning he had found the ultimate in 1 dimensional opposition to perfect committed, contact loving aggression coupled with a strong defence and self belief (Plan A, red shifted) while totally lacking vision and direction in attack. After many deposits in belief he had a team that could win without the flashy stuff indeed with barely any right to at all, they had reached the opposite end of the spectrum of to the all out attack of Plan A, blue shifted. Now as the Wallabies face their ultimate test between the ever entwined forces of light and dark, Gold and Black he awaits to see the full tecni-colour display laid out across the pitch mostly in hues of deep red but with the occasional flashes of electric blue.
On second thoughts maybe this belongs in the positivity (delusional) thread.