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With both the Wallabies and All Blacks having dispatched northern hemisphere opponents off to the Costa del Sol to lick their wounds over summer, now is a good time to be either Ewen McKenzie or Steve Hansen.
Both coaches are in the throes of an extended winning sequence, the All Blacks sitting on 17 consecutive wins, equal to their best, and the Wallabies on seven consecutive wins.
No matter how many credits are banked away, a coach is always only a couple of dud performances away from copping flak from the media and fans about his lack of ability. A couple more losses and the president or CEO begin exclaiming that he has the full support of the board, code for ‘start clearing your desk, son”.
Just like confident and secure players make good players, so it is with coaches. Their positive demeanour and body language is picked up on by their charges, and their selections and tactics are reflective of a genuine belief that they will keep winning.
So if McKenzie justifiably has a spring in his step right now, what will make him happiest is the knowledge that this Wallabies team is likely to get better from here.
He doesn’t have a World Cup winning side at the moment – there are still too many positions filled by players who wouldn’t make the Test sides of other nations. But then again he doesn’t need to win the World Cup right now, it isn’t up for grabs until 2015!
What he does have is a steadily improving scrum, two captains who lead and inspire through personal commitment and excellence in their play, a superb fullback and slowly increasing depth and competition for places. He is also developing a coherent and engaging style of play, if we accept the Melbourne Test was an exception, which asks tough questions of the opposition.
McKenzie will also be relishing the challenge of how best to handle his emerging players. For example, balancing the temptation to put more Test minutes into Will Skelton as a 2015 Rugby World Cup investment, against selecting what he genuinely believes is his best XV today.
To beat New Zealand, the Wallabies cannot be passive. They must bend and break the black defensive line, like Wycliff Palu did to such good effect against the French. This may encourage McKenzie to roll with the positive vibe and select Skelton, who is a similar player.
Alternatively, Palu’s form may allow him to strategically go with a different type of player at lock in Sam Carter or James Horwill.
A lot can happen in seven weeks but my guess is that, injuries aside, we will see McKenzie revert to his original selection, with the abrasive Carter a better match-up for Brodie Retallick, and big Skelton continuing to fast-track his education from the fringes.
It is every winning team’s cliché that while they’re happy to take the win, they will also take plenty of things away to work and improve on for the next match.
And so it is for McKenzie. This was not a great French side, probably not even a good one, yet the Wallabies still had long periods where their intensity waned. Question marks also remain about their play when placed under pressure – if only for the fact that France seemed incapable of providing any.
But cliché or not, McKenzie is in that envious position – wins in the bank but still with plenty to work on and improve.
The same applies to All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. He oversaw a 3-0 series sweep against a troublesome, and at times very good, England side, but there’s plenty of room left for improvement.
The All Black’s set piece is looking very strong, yet they still managed to concede five free kicks or penalties in the second half in Hamilton, either through miscommunication over line out throws, or not managing to keep their dominant scrum pushing straight.
Hansen will feel content that the raw material is all there, and with a little fine tuning, his next opponent won’t be as fortunate or treated so sympathetically by the referee.
Hansen’s own Skelton, Malakai Fekitoa, also has an impressive first starting Test under his belt and, like McKenzie, Hansen too will enjoy contemplating how best to use him in the upcoming Rugby Championships.
While the two series both ended with similar 3-0 results for the hosts, one suspects Hansen will also be enjoying one potential advantage over McKenzie.
As well as the All Blacks played with the ball in certain spells in Hamilton and Dunedin, they also spent long periods under sustained pressure. Thus it is likely that they will be better placed than Australia to cope when the heat is turned up them in defence – as it invariably is in any true Test match.
To illustrate, there was a moment in the second half in Hamilton when replacement flyhalf Beauden Barrett, with time to clear his 22, appeared to turn his body towards the sideline and pop a short kick straight into touch, keeping the All Blacks hard on defence and gifting England the line out feed.
I have no doubt this wasn’t deliberate, but it just looked a little odd and awkward. The effect was almost as if Barrett and the All Blacks were saying to England ‘here, have another go, we’re enjoying practicing our defence under pressure.’
Hansen will also enjoy the prospect of having Keiran Read fit and ready for a full Test match – safe in the knowledge that any side which has Liam Messam on the bench must be travelling pretty well.
The unknown for both coaches relates to injury over the final phase of Super Rugby. Both men are grounded and philosophical and will understand that this is a matter outside of their control. But they will also be breathing much easier if they can reassemble for the Rugby Championship with their full squads intact.
Both men also know that as happy as they will remain over the next few weeks, that landscape will change markedly for one of them at around 9.40pm on Saturday August 16, in Sydney as the Bledisloe Cup kicks off.
For the winner happy hour will extend for another week. For the loser, their selections and tactics will suddenly be placed under scrutiny.
Such is the fickle nature of coaching at the elite level. But we can be certain that both McKenzie and Hansen wouldn’t have it any other way.