All Blacks v Irish: Continuity on many levels

The first test after the failed World Cup campaign was always going to be acidic. Those wetbacks who couldn’t put the past behind them and have been on the All Blacks selectors’ cases ever since they were reinstated, no margin of victory over the Irish would be likely to convince them that the correct decision was made.

As to whether it WAS made, I found it was not my place to comment once those entrusted with such a decision had made it. I said what I said beforehand, that Graham Henry’s reapplication stood in the way of Steve Hansen’s rightful elevation, and there were certainly others with strong credentials, but it was not my decision and I was actually glad it wasn’t. Who needs that responsibility?

What I don’t hold with is slating the reappointees personally. There are those, and God knows how they keep their jobs as columnists considering they’re drunk or asleep at their desk most days, who rail against the current administration in the most strident tones. They question not only credentials but integrity, and I imagine it takes every ounce of tolerance on the All Blacks selectors’ parts to stop themselves walking down to one particular newsroom and kicking a certain loudmouth’s teeth out.

Of course they stick to doing their talking on the field, and last Saturday’s test against Ireland was an opportunity for them to make a statement.

One man who you’d forgive for not being on fire from the opening whistle was Richie McCaw, who’d played more minutes of rugby than any other All Black during Super 14… and those minutes at the sharp end of some very bloody battles, Saturday after Saturday, playing the hotly contested breakdown under new laws. If he’d come out and played cautiously because an English referee was ruling under the old laws it would have been perfectly understandable.

Not McCaw. From the opening minute, with a barrelling turnover tackle on veteran Irish pivot Ronan O’Gara, the All Black captain signalled his intentions. By the time eighty minutes were up he had answered any of his or the coaches’ critics fairly emphatically.

He was at the very point of play the whole game, digging for unsecured Irish possession at every breakdown and separating man from ball pre-emptively wherever possible, while also leading from the front, straight over the advantage line and beyond, every chance he got.

The referee seemed blind to many Irish mistakes and especially harsh on some pretty positive efforts by the home side. As a result the game was tight from go to whoa. Many times in the miserable conditions there were moments when the match could have turned against the All Blacks. Each time McCaw was there to lead in the old-fashioned style, and once again proved not only his courage and versatility but inarguably his greatness.

The first try went to the All Blacks when ball from a messy lineout was recovered. With a driving maul penetrating well and the Irish back-pedalling, first McCaw then Dan Carter sent it wide. The blizzard they were running straight into the teeth of hardly lent itself to creative handling, but it doesn’t take too much actual razzle-dazzle to be effective. The All Blacks were confident and had chosen their moment correctly.

With the ball in two hands to keep the defenders from committing, centre Conrad Smith straightened and then drifted wide again at the very instant his marker faltered. It was a glorious piece of skill, reminiscent of Bill Davis at his best, and recognising the danger once through of being overrun Smith sent the long pass early to his left, where Sitiveni Sivivatu was ready to switch on the afterburners and go in at the south-east corner.

It was not only a fine piece of finishing and a classic piece of All Black rugby but also an authoritative statement in the wet.

The Irish, of course, have a well-documented problem with authority. Ironic then, that some friendly rulings gave them some much-needed continuity and they found themselves inside the All Blacks’ twenty-two soon afterwards, where they pounded away with their best attacking rugby of the night and created a hole on the blind side for their midfielders to exploit. Paddy Wallace went in for a timely reply.

Though stung, the All Blacks carried on with their patient recycling. Their scrum was dominant and they seemed to have parity or better in the slippery lineout battle, but the metres they were making around the fringes were what allowed them the most territorial leeway. From the tidy secondary phases Carter was able to smack the ball behind the Irishmen with great effect, which in turn led to their set pieces being under so much pressure.

Patience was rewarded when the Irish began to infringe regularly. The All Blacks had a fitness edge and were able to exhaust the fringe defenders with a constant driving barrage. Field position meant the Irish errors were punished by Carter and the scores were levelled at 11-11.

Then while Carter was kicking the All Blacks into a 14-11 lead halfway through the second half, McCaw was telling his troops that the time was right for twisting the heel on the throat.

The next few minutes saw the Irish defenders looking increasingly desperate as the All Blacks engaged top gear. Carter eventually broke through cleanly, running twenty metres as the cover converged, and when swamped he cleverly made the ball available but still protected it to give his chasing support an extra half second to close the gap.

As the Irish tried to regroup haphazardly the All Black forwards smashed into them, and if it hadn’t been props in possession when the pass to Ma’a Nonu was made, it may have been more sympathetic. As it was he received it flat-footed, but showed tremendous pace off the mark and once his thick trunk was moving forward he proved impossible to stop. He slid over dragging Irish defenders with him and the referee needed to check upstairs, but the TMO confirmed what the crowd already knew, that the match-winner had been scored.

Special mention is warranted by prop Neemia Tialata, who played eighty minutes and had to swap sides to cover when John Afoa was injured, and Carter, whose goal-kicking accuracy and almost mystical sense for the big moments once again proved crucial. I have already praised the modest McCaw as highly as he is probably ever prepared to accept.

But this 21-11 win was really most meaningful for the team-building skills of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith. They are acutely aware of the pressure they are under this year (and probably next)… so long as the journalists react properly and give credit where it is due, this win will have done wonders for their self esteem.

No, scratch that… there were plenty who thought last week’s almighty Super 14 final lacked whatever it is to be called a good game (some even called it flat), so we won’t rely on them recognising what a fine test victory this was in Wellington. Anyway, Henry, Hansen and Smith will be looking neither to assist their comprehension if the reports are negative nor to gain any confidence from any positive assessments.

This was one for the team and its loyal supporters. The black jersey’s stock just went up.

Thank you to all those who enquired after my next book. I had intended to release one after the 2007 World Cup, like I did in late 2003 with From Twickenham to Homebush: Four More Years. That was a selection from four years’ worth of newsletters.

It was fatally flawed: reprinting newsletters as a collected edition was either a repeat read for the initiated or a dated introduction for anyone else. I resolved on the advice of a close friend that the next book would (for the sake of context) contain a sequential narrative thread running between the excerpts.

The failed 2007 World Cup campaign wasn’t what caused the delay to this next edition, it was the retention of the coaching staff that left me at a loss. There was no clear interval. It was a giant comma or elipsis rather than the full stop required. I had settled on a title immediately after the loss, Grown Men Wept, but then the story I thought I was recording simply didn’t end. I wondered about adding a subtitle, Grown Men Wept: This Is Not An Exit… it had a nice ironic double meaning, but I couldn’t refer to Henry’s continued tenure while exercising any actual perspective about it… being unable to do so, because the tenure wasn’t yet a finite entity.

I now plan to release the book as a collection when his tenure does conclude. Hopefully it will have a happy ending and the book will be called something positive, like Mana Restored: Defending Our Backyard… then again, sport is cruel, and maybe the title currently in limbo could have added meaning with yet another loss… no, hell, if we lose again in 2011 I might as well call it Beta Chimps.

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