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Australian Adam Ashleigh Cooper (centre) is tackled by New Zealand's Jimmy Cowan (right) and Ali Williams (left). AAP Image/Dave Hunt
One of the shortcomings of the Super 14 competition is that there’s barely any time for the result to sink in before the June Tests begin, no time for the winner to savour their victory, no painful off-season for the losers to ponder what next.
Of course, if you’re from New Zealand and your only title contender was left scratching their heads once again over how to beat a South African side at home, then it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The Test matches bring with them the chance for redemption, or the opportunity to win at least. That is, if you’re healthy.
This year, the All Blacks enter the June Tests under a similar injury cloud as last season; a season the All Blacks weren’t prepared for and like a bad dream, never really woke up from.
The All Blacks last year weren’t prepared for the challenge that France presented and played poorly up until the Wellington Test against the Wallabies, where they turned the corner somewhat but not convincingly.
This year, there’s no excuses for the All Blacks being unprepared. Anything less than 3-0 in the June Tests would be unacceptable in my eyes, regardless of who’s in the squad.
That’s no disrespect to Ireland or Wales, who have the same opportunity as anyone to beat us if they’re good enough, but 3-0 is and always has been the goal.
The talk coming out of the All Black camp is the same. So how can they avoid the mistakes of last season?
*Injuries are no excuse*
It was pleasing to read that All Black skipper Richie McCaw didn’t want to hear about “deflections or injuries or inexperience ahead of the three June Tests.”
I’m not sure how concerned Graham Henry and his fellow coaches are about the depth of rugby talent in New Zealand; it’s difficult to judge the tone of comments in rugby articles these days with journalists trying to blow everything into a story, but presuming that the coaches are worried and this has a follow-on effect that the rest of the country are worried too, I’d like to ask the question: where is this mythical depth, anyway?
Let’s take second five eighths for example, since it was Ma’a Nonu’s knee that started this injury panic.
Ma’a Nonu may not be everyone’s idea of a great second five eighths but one thing I’ve always said in his defence is that he’s held down his position at a time when there have been numerous injuries to his outside partners.
During this period, there have been no serious contenders to Nonu’s position – not a single one. Had there been they would’ve surely received some playing time.
Since Henry took over as All Black coach in 2004, he has essentially used three different players in the second five eighths role: Aaron Mauger, Luke McAlister and Ma’a Nonu. That’s three players over the course of 6 years and 77 tests.
The reality is that there are no eligible, world class second five eighths plying their trade overseas. In fact, erudite supporters will be aware that second five eighths has always been a weak area for the All Blacks.
Moreover, if there were a world class second five overseas, why would anyone expect that player to fiddle about in New Zealand on the off chance that a first choice All Black is injured for three tests?
Benson Stanley has called himself “the last man standing,” but Benson Stanley does not have to cover himself in glory if chosen to start this Saturday.
There seems to be a lot of pining this season for the days when an All Black back would score a hat trick on debut and another star was born; you see it with all these references to “X factor.”
All Benson Stanley has to do is make sure he fits into the All Blacks’ defence systems and that he can catch, pass and attack without ruining too many attacking movements.
If he does these things well he’ll play for the All Blacks again. If he doesn’t, then he can take his one cap and make some money overseas.
But the day that Benson Stanley playing second five eighths for the All Blacks determines whether they win or lose is the day that the whole system fell over.
*Getting the basics right*
There have been rumblings from the All Black camp all season long that they’re going to focus on the rolling maul in training because that’s one area where the boogieman scares them.
While it makes sense to sharpen up your defense against the rolling maul (particularly since you can no longer collapse it), as soon as you start making concerted efforts to negate the opposition’s strength that’s when they have you by the string.
There is no doubt that the South Africans will test the All Black lineout and put as much pressure on it as possible, but if the All Black camp thinks that the South Africans are so technically inept that you can stop them by stopping the maul then I’d suggest an old favourite of Rowdy Roddy Piper: “Just when you think you know the answers, I change the questions.”
Yes, the All Blacks have to focus on taking the high ball under pressure. They must also focus on clearing their line under pressure, securing their own lineout ball, negotiating the rush defence, and a litany of other issues, but they can’t expect the Springboks or any other country to play the way they did last season anymore than they can predetermine what will happen in a test match.
To my way of thinking, the All Blacks should focus first and foremost on the breakdown. The reason for this is that when Graham Henry All Black sides have been successful it’s largely because they’ve controlled the breakdown offensively and defensively.
The breakdown is an area where the All Blacks struggled last year before settling upon their most effective backrow and an area where the New Zealand Super 14 sides lagged behind under the new interpretations.
While it’s debatable whether the new interpretations have changed the game dramatically, all it takes is for one referee to decide that he doesn’t like the All Black method of breakdown play for the All Blacks to find themselves in a jam.
Allowing for the referee, it’s important for the All Blacks to decide how they’re going to play the breakdown because it’s clear that the South Africans in particular are committed to playing the breakdown a certain way and the All Blacks will likewise have to implement their own plans.
If the June tests follow the trends we saw in the Super 14, then knowing when to fan out and when to commit numbers will likely be the dominant theme in this year’s Tri-Nations now that counter rucking has replaced the annoying “fetcher” style turnovers.
*Fixing the attack*
One of the most frustrating aspects of All Black play in recent years has been the lack of quality attack. More often than not, the All Black backline has failed to fire, leading to a lack of tries and uglier than expected victories.
I would argue that this is a result of the All Blacks no longer being able to counter attack from turnover ball and Wayne Smith not moving fast enough to combat this set plays, but it has also been compounded by the ridiculous amount of law changes in recent seasons which have seen the game lose its shape.
Add to that the All Blacks’ long standing troubles with rush defence and there hasn’t been a lot of vintage rugby in Henry’s second reign.
It took the All Blacks 14 matches last year to play anywhere near the level that we expect from them and to an extent that’s okay – it was a bad year and the team struggled mightily to win most of its matches – but after Marseille the template is there.
I expect more performances like that from the All Blacks this year just as I expect them to not lose any home games.
A few blips were acceptable after such a long winning streak had been broken but it’s time to get serious and put a marker in the sand for next year’s World Cup.
The key to replicating that Marseille performance on a more regular basis is by dominating the opposition forward pack and taking the sting out of their defensive patterns.
A lot of rugby sides operate as brick walls these days. If you keep bashing into the wall it saps your energy and eventually the opposition will enclose you. Rugby, more than ever, has become a pressure game where matches are determined by mistakes and desperation plays.
The way to avoid that scenario is to dominate up front as the All Blacks did against the French scrum in Marseille.
The All Blacks understand this all too well as it’s been the bedrock of many an All Black success over the years. Once the platform is there, it appears that offloading will be the big talk of the season.
Curiously, an offloading game was one of the first strategies that Henry implemented as All Black coach back in the June Tests of 2004 as a means to link the forwards with the backs and punch holes in the opposition line.
Over time that strategy was replaced by counter attacking and limited phase movements, but with possession being king once more we may see a return to the offloading game.
Certainly, the All Blacks need to create space because they haven’t seen a lot of it in recent years.
The backline that plays this Saturday will probably not set the world alight but so long as they attack with a measure of common sense they ought to be effective.
There won’t be a lot of strike players fronting against Ireland but so long as the backs delay the pass, look to put the open man through the gap and support the ball carrier good things will happen.
Where they will struggle is if they try to make stupid passes or wind up isolating themselves from their support.
Another problem area for the All Blacks in recent seasons has been looking to go wide from slow or static ruck ball, allowing the defence to drift laterally and bundle them into touch.
Hopefully, the All Blacks will only go wide after punching a hole in the defence through some nifty little interplay.
Hopefully.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.