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Time for the All Blacks' forwards to live up to their billing

Roar Rookie
20th August, 2014
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Roar Rookie
20th August, 2014
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1029 Reads

They say talk is cheap, and perhaps that was demonstrated no better than in the lead up to both the Super Rugby final and the first Bledisloe Cup Test.

Conventional rugby wisdom (the kind that’s found from the tip of Cape Reinga to the Bluff) said the Crusaders and All Blacks’ packs would dominate the opposition tight five, just as they had done in previous matches.

As surely as the sun rises, Richie McCaw was meant to break into that half smile over a job well done, just like the Rugby World Cup semi-final.

But despite both packs putting in some huge defensive shifts, most of the players left Sydney with bruised egos and a damaged reputation. They were bruised, battered and bloodied, and in Jerome Kaino’s case out of the next Test.

Now as the Bledisloe series heads to Auckland, the same rumblings are beginning to be heard. Slightly less vocal given the recent frustrations in Sydney, but New Zealand rugby fans are a proud lot and expect Eden Park to be business as usual.

Now is the time to put up or shut up. If the All Blacks’ forwards cannot dominate this Test there should be no more talk for the rest of the year about what they’re going to do in any Test.

Here are the issues as I see them.

1) Keven Mealamu
Sydney was the second Test in a row where Mealamu came on and made an absolute hash of the line outs, while being poor in general play.

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There’s been criticism from a lot of corners over the preordained decision to sub Dane Coles on 52 minutes when he was playing so well, but really there’s no point having a guy come on as a super sub if the impact he makes is disastrous.

Mealamu looks done. Andrew Hore wasn’t great in his final year with the All Blacks but he was playing better than Mealamu is now.

Even if Mealamu plays well on the weekend, I’m not convinced he can keep it up for the remaining Tests leading into the World Cup. If the concern over playing a young hooker is that they can’t throw or lack experience then surely they can’t play any worse than Kev has these past few Tests.

2) Owen Franks
Owen Franks played so poorly in the Sydney Test that I would drop him if we had world class coverage at tight head.

After playing so well for the Crusaders in the month or so leading up to the Super Rugby final, he has gone completely off the boil and managed to escape Sydney without too many people noticing his horrendous missed tackle count.

If Owen Franks goes missing so does the All Blacks’ pack. His hard hitting defence is a cornerstone of a good All Blacks’ performance.

3) Wyatt Crockett
Let me preface what I’m about to say by stating that I don’t think Tony Woodcock would have made much difference in the Sydney Test, but I do think his absence will be felt over the long run because Wyatt Crockett is a penalty magnet.

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Crockett has a high workrate around the park and is capable of some incredible things for a guy his size, but he is just easy pickings for refs.

You don’t see Richie McCaw or Conrad Smith sent off for killing the ball, but they have absolutely no qualms over sending Crockett off. The All Blacks’ coaches were so afraid he’d pick up a second yellow that they benched him after his sin-binning.

Unless he fixes up his game, he’s a liability, and with the All Blacks currently taking a hammering in the penalty counts we cannot afford to carry a liability.

4) The penalty counts
That brings me to my next qualm. You won’t hear me say this too often, but I couldn’t believe some of the penalties Richie McCaw gave away in Sydney.

McCaw was the difference between a loss and a draw (note I didn’t say a “victory”) with his breakdown involvements and the number of tackles he made, including a couple of try-saving ones. But the All Blacks were not only guilty of allowing Jaco Peyper to blow them off the park, McCaw gave away the stupidest of penalties.

McCaw was in the media again after the match saying the team needs to focus on its discipline and back their defence, but surely this starts with the captain.

My feeling in recent times is that the team is frustrated with its lack of possession and being unable to turn the ball over, through either counter rucking or jackaling, has resorted to an increasing number of ruck infringements.

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Not being able to turn the ball over is not much of a surprise when the All Blacks’ best poacher was Andrew Hore. Now that he’s gone, Conrad Smith is the only guy who can effectively jackal, aside from the rare occasions when McCaw forces a turnover or Sam Cane plays off the bench.

The All Blacks really need to start counter rucking to fix their ruck infringements. Or don’t infringe unless the situation is desperate.

5) Possession
If the All Blacks are going to continue giving away two thirds of possession to the opposition, whether it’s because of turnovers, penalties or intentionally kicking the ball away, their run is going to end.

They cannot continue to win arm wrestles with limited ball.

It was frustrating watching the All Blacks play for a draw because they couldn’t get the ball to mount a serious challenge on the Australian line. That’s not very All Blacks like.

I don’t know how many times we’ve talked about the All Blacks’ ability to change their game plan when things aren’t going well. They used to be able to do it after half-time, but nowadays they can’t even do that.

Watching the Test live, I thought the All Blacks were lucky to reach half-time without conceding any points to the Wallabies. From there I thought they might settle down and play some proper rugby in the second half, and begin to dominate territory and possession.

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We’ve seen how the All Blacks win a quarter in each half in recent games and after they took the opening quarter I expected they might dominate either the third or fourth quarter of the opening Test.

They didn’t, and talked about honest reviews and all the rest, though they stopped short of claiming they didn’t go bone deep in their preparation. But considering how poorly they played in the first Test against England, the precedent was there for them to again playing poorly in Sydney.

They’ll say all the right things in the lead up, but in Auckland they need to get hold of some ball and keep it. Put the Wallabies under some defensive pressure and see if they start giving away penalties. That will at least take the heat off us.

The restarts were another area where we didn’t dominate like we usually do. When you think of recent Bledisloe Tests, you think of the All Blacks claiming the ball at just about every restart, but we weren’t very good on our own ball let alone Australian ball. Aaron Cruden has never quite been able to place it on a dime like Dan Carter, though he has improved over the years.

I remember in 2008 when we needed a big win at Eden Park and Jimmy Cowan unleashed a monstrous box kick that made touch five minutes out from the Wallaby line. It may not have happened like this, but the Wallabies threw the line out to one of our forwards (Woodcock maybe) and he crashed over the line to score.

From there we never looked back. We need another play like that to make this Eden Park Test a success.

There are other points I could have made, like both Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock not playing at their best, Cane needing to be utilised more, or the opportunity Liam Messam has to remind people of what he’s capable of, but that’s enough food for thought for now.

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Please let us win and please let there be no cards. Thank you.

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