All Blacks v Springboks I
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@canefan kick is only as good as.the chase, and it seems players put in the effort on the ones.that are.contestable yet put a half hearted attempt on one's.they see as too long, zero pressure
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@canefan kick is only as good as.the chase, and it seems players put in the effort on the ones.that are.contestable yet put a half hearted attempt on one's.they see as too long, zero pressure
WJ kicked long and set up a try. So did BB with his 50/20. JB kicked a long pressure relieving touch finder. There has to be some balance and we just fell in love with box kicks and dinky stuff again
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@canefan said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@KiwiMurph said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@Jailbreak7 said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
If Narawa is out, who is next caboff the rank? Please dont say Reece..
I'd rather Leicester F or Clarke if fit..Just put Jordan at 14 and one of Love or DMac at 15.
Interesting that WJ didn't feature as much from 14. Probably more to do with the fact we refused to hold onto the ball than anything else
He scored a cracker try but then his confidence was shot after dropping about 4 box kicks in a row. Disappeared from the game after this. The coaches really need to work on this weak area of his game as he is a confidence player and or we are neutering our best attacking weapon.
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@pakman said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@chimoaus said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
The obvious issue to me is we could not exit our 22 with Christie or BB, we have had this issue for years. Late in the game SA in their 22 and their 9 box kicks it past half way. We have to be able to exit, its fundamental yet we still can't do it.
In fact we did exit well initially, largely via Jordie's big boot. But regressed badly in last 15 or so.
Yeah that regression in the 2nd half led to their field position and points. If it’s fresh legs that are needed at halfback, a first five that can kick long, or just better heads up plays on turnovers the ABs need to get it sorted.
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@pakman said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
Loving the balance of the loosies for once
Parker at 6 looks to the manor born.
Wally getting back to 100.
RD at 7 hitting rucks rather than the usual seagulling.
Parker and Sititi no doubt but agree with earlier poster Savea was a bit anonymous at 7 and only really had a impact on the game when he moved to 8. Is he better suited to impact off the the bench with a Lakai or Papali'i starting at 7?
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@His-Bobness said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
The problem is still the paucity of ideas or punch from the backline and the conservative selections. Love should have been given a shot in the second Argentinan test, but Robertson (worried about losing games primarily) appears to be shying away from succession planning. I wonder, too, whether they need to move JB out one to 13 and have Tupea starting at 12. It will be interesting to see whether they use Leicester F in the Wellington test - perhaps off the bench, with Jordan at 14, Love at 15 and Caleb Clarke at 11.
Bob, did you miss the first two tries? Good ideas executed well.
Hardly conditions for attacking rugby@His-Bobness said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
The problem is still the paucity of ideas or punch from the backline and the conservative selections. Love should have been given a shot in the second Argentinan test, but Robertson (worried about losing games primarily) appears to be shying away from succession planning. I wonder, too, whether they need to move JB out one to 13 and have Tupea starting at 12. It will be interesting to see whether they use Leicester F in the Wellington test - perhaps off the bench, with Jordan at 14, Love at 15 and Caleb Clarke at 11.
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@His-Bobness said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
It’s hard not to conclude that the major source of the backline’s permanent funk is BB’s late career reluctance to take on the line as he did in his pomp. In receiving the ball he’s either going to nervously shovel it out to his brother or aimlessly kick it away. This leaves the opposition secure in either monstering JB and denying him space or waiting for the shallow kick.
The AB coaches, by clinging to a past-it Beauden and refusing to engineer a succession plan, have had to design their attack around him. And that seriously constrains the entire backline.
Don’t get me wrong. He still pulls out one or two great moments per game. The early cross-field kick for Narawa’s try, the 50/22 and some of his covering defence were admirable. But compared to the BB of old he’s only intermittently great. It’s only in flashes.
The rest of the time, for a spectator, it’s like watching a concert by an octogenarian rock legend. You close your eyes willing Roger Daltrey to hit the high-note scream at the climax to ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ but it’s not the same. It’s pantomime Who.
I know Razor is waiting for Mo’unga to return, but this leaves the team in a permanent stasis in the meantime. It’s the Beauden Barrett tribute show - his greatest hits - on endless repeat. We know how it goes. The problem is so does the opposition.
Great writing His Bobness, and I think you are on the money.
However, I would say Beauden is the one 10 you know who won't go to pieces under pressure.
Not sure if Dmac could have handled the pressure of that game.
Maybe he could have, maybe he couldn't have - just not sure. -
@tubbyj said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@pakman said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@Canes4life said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
Loving the balance of the loosies for once
Parker at 6 looks to the manor born.
Wally getting back to 100.
RD at 7 hitting rucks rather than the usual seagulling.
Parker and Sititi no doubt but agree with earlier poster Savea was a bit anonymous at 7 and only really had a impact on the game when he moved to 8. Is he better suited to impact off the the bench with a Lakai or Papali'i starting at 7?
There is simply no way Ardie is going to benched so I think the current set up is the best option they have going forward with I suspect Lakai the guy to take the bench loose forward spot.
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@Frank Yes, there’s still plenty to admire about BB. And he is a quintessential professional. No argument. My point, however, is the team is not developing. They’ve risked new names in the forwards in the past year and it’s paid off - Sititi, Holland, Parker - but they’re still shuffling from the same old deck in the backs. It seems inordinately conservative. To be fair, the half-back pandemic has tied their hands.
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@His-Bobness said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@Frank Yes, there’s still plenty to admire about BB. And he is a quintessential professional. No argument. My point, however, is the team is not developing. They’ve risked new names in the forwards in the past year and it’s paid off - Sititi, Holland, Parker - but they’re still shuffling from the same old deck in the backs. It seems inordinately conservative. To be fair, the half-back pandemic has tied their hands.
Are you suggesting they try Love?
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@Frank Not at 10 against the Boks. But he should be introduced gradually ASAP - either off the bench next week or starting as fullback
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@canefan still s bit of difference of kicking long to find space than the kick it for the sake of kicking we seem so keen on doing, often to hand.
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@taniwharugby said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@canefan still s bit of difference of kicking long to find space than the kick it for the sake of kicking we seem so keen on doing, often to hand.
Totally agree. The kicking in the second half in particular was dire. It was basically a case of giving them the ball back mostly under little to no pressure
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Christie's kicks went all of 10 meters trying to exit on a few occasions in the second. Frustrating as hell!
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Ray if your reading this Jordan needs to stay on the wing. End of.
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@His-Bobness said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
@Frank Not at 10 against the Boks. But he should be introduced gradually ASAP - either off the bench next week or starting as fullback
I disagree with this. If you’re in the squad for a position, you should be able to start against anybody. End of.
I can’t think of a Pat Howard debut by any player in recent memory. Tom Taylor, Sopoaga were both thrown in 10 vs big opposition without issue.
We’ve become so accustomed to super rugby standouts given 15 minute debuts that we think it’s the right thing to do. Why?
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@MajorRage Fair enough, too. I guess I was more predicting what Razor will do, not what he should do.
The ultra-cautious selections have been become the standard operating procedure - perhaps a legacy of the NZR’s panicky, knee-jerk mismanagement of Foster between Covid and the 2023 World Cup. -
@Frank said in All Blacks v Springboks I:
However, I would say Beauden is the one 10 you know who won't go to pieces under pressure.
He goes to pieces under pressure plenty, I really don't buy that. Have we forgotten he's the ultimate for getting caught in the backfield and shovelling a pass ( or attempted pass) to a player in often a worse position?
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I thought it was a great Test match. Normally, I’d like to reaffirm such an occasion by giving it as much time and space as possible: watching the game multiple times, comparing it to other Tests, sifting through numbers and footage before writing a (too) long review of the match at hand. But as I’m suffering (yes, suffering) from a combination of work and rugby fatigue, no such time could be afforded. Fortunately, the ABs are once again showing what to do in times like this: why slog away when it’s easier and more efficient to do things as quickly as possible?
Stop overwriting, stop overplaying
I’m sure everyone remembers my treatise written after last year’s French Test on the AB set-piece attack. It was an avalanche of information: YouTube videos with time stamps, picture frames, and words, so many words. In a way, it mimicked what was happening on the field, the ABs trying to overwhelm their opposition with an avalanche of possession, carries and passing. Against the biggest sides in Test rugby, South Africa and France, the All Blacks simply tried to do too much in 2024.
A lot of passing (186 on average), more than their fair share of 22 entries (8.3) but not a lot of purchase from those entries (2.3 points per entry): this was the story of 2024. On Saturday against the Springboks, however, a very different picture appeared.
Way less passing (125), way more kicking (34) and, most importantly, the appearance of brutal efficiency when entering the opposition 22 (4.2 points per entry). So less really is more?
The tragedy of Jason Holland
In last year’s verbose review, I tried to finish somewhat succinctly: “If the Hurricane lineout strike is going to return to Test rugby in 2025, Jason Holland will need to find a way of sharpening it, where it can finally cut through South African and French Test defences.”As if Holland took that little comment personally, we saw the set-up for the arrow attack return in the very first minute of Saturday’s Test. But rather than some elaborate midfield play, Barrett went for the simple first-phase cross-kick, directly attacking the defensively weak Willie Le Roux in the simplest way possible.
The real Wayne Smith-doctrine: play to space as quickly as possible
Things do not have to be complicated to work well. Why try to go through the Springbok midfield defence – by far the best in the world – if you can simply go around it, targeting the obvious backline weakness?
Holland has seemingly learned a lot from last year’s often overcomplicated Test campaign, as simplicity and straightforwardness are key terms in this year’s set-piece attack. 15 minutes later, with another lineout on the opposition 22, another set-piece strike embodied the same principles. Target the slower Bok seams with your best hole runners (Jordan/Jordie Barrett) and find out what happens. As it happened, the secondary runner (Jordie) wasn't even necessary to finish the play.
Not all Boks are great defenders so the goal is to isolate and target them
If Jason Holland’s main responsibility is to create strike plays, then I think it’s fair to say he’s more than earning his coin at the minute, with an increase in redzone efficiency against a side like the Springboks. Whether he'll get much credit for this is still up in the air. But as the Greek tragedies have taught us, future glory never comes from a clear and easy path.
Finishing the job
I guess I could keep going, looking at defensive patterns, some individual performances, and what may happen next week. Big occasions can tempt you like that: you want to be elaborate, give it the attention it really deserves, keep basking in its light for as long as possible.But if Robertson and his coaches have seemingly learned anything from last year, it’s that the bigger arena doesn’t necessarily require a more complex playbook. Rather, it requires cutting back and doing the simple things well: kick for territory, make your tackles, attack opposition ball. Try the easy things first before making it harder for yourself.
And since they so obviously want all of us on their journey with them, perhaps I should try taking a page out of their book. Keep it nice and simple, and just see what happens.
