Former national coaches liked to say success is a lousy teacher, but Saturday’s one-point victory was the best lesson the All Blacks could have hoped for, writes Scotty Stevenson.
It was a little too close for comfort in Dunedin, and that’s exactly as it should have been.
Any false notion that Super Rugby’s artistic interpretation of the sport bears even a passing resemblance to the rigours of a top flight test footy were dispelled under the roof in a match that could have gone either way and, on another night, may have gone the other.
This was the best possible outcome for the team and for its new cadre of coaches – all bar one new to the pressures that exist inside the All Blacks coaching box. Head coach Scott Robertson did his best version of a decaying sub-atomic particle, bouncing off the walls in random patterns as the All Blacks were simultaneously winning and not winning, thus providing us with a new entry in the annals of quantum mechanics: Schrödinger’s Coach.
As an aside, the post-match interview with Robertson was quite possibly the highlight of the test. It was glorious to hear a coach dive right into the weeds and freestyle his way through every answer with a genuine stream of consciousness enthusiasm. There was so much kinetic energy and wide-eyed wonder in those two minutes of television, as if Robertson was still readjusting to the wild after being cooped up in that box for the previous two hours and didn’t quite know what to do with the new-found freedom.
To sign up to Scotty’s weekly newsletter go to 1News.co.nz/subscribe
There was no such freedom for the All Blacks as the English harangued their second receivers all night and largely played the right kinds of percentages. It took two moments of individual brilliance — Damian McKenzie’s pin-point cross-kick to Sevu Reece, and Stephen Perofeta’s ankle snapper on Ben Earl — to unlock the England defence, but for the remaining 55 minutes of the test, England’s goal line remained uncrossed.
One cannot blame the home side for trying to play with the width of the field, but test matches are about making the smallest adjustments faster than the opposition. England were the better at doing so in contending with the All Blacks’ desire to circumvent the rush and find the outsides early in the phase count. That is to be expected from a team that didn’t learn the playbook last week, and has honed its defensive tactics over the previous 18 months.
Robertson was adamant post-match that the attacking strategy was on the money but did concede it requires a high level of execution. That may have been overly ambitious for Test number one, but the alternative would have been worse. Playing flat against that defence does offer chances, as long as the passes are timed to perfection and the lines are flawless. That wasn’t the case on Saturday, but the attack has to get a pass-mark for sticking to its guns.
The biggest concern for the New Zealanders will instead be in the analysis of their try concessions. Maro Itoje’s try to begin the second quarter, crashing over as he did from a subtle lineout special play, would have angered forwards coach Jason Ryan, who has a formidable record in planning goal line defence from set piece. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s unopposed finish of Henry Slade’s kick-counter was the result of some textbook manipulation of the central defence. Again, this type of lapse in alignment will exercise the collective minds of the coaches this week.
As will the display of a clock for kickers.
It is quintessential of rugby’s endlessly bewildering charms that its world governing body would institute a 60-second kick clock for penalties but deem as superfluous to requirements any display of such a clock for the benefit of the affected party. Damian McKenzie did well to own his kick clock violation but did raise the valid point that it might be handy if he could see how long he actually has to take the kick. A “hurry up” from the Georgian referee is hardly cutting-edge technological accuracy.
In the end, the test came down to a couple of calls this way and that and, inarguably, a scrappy night off the tee from England’s Marcus Smith who is not the first, and will not be the last, to have a strangely terrible kicking night at Forsyth Barr. Leaving eight points on the table is a sin at that level, however, and no one will feel that as keenly as he will. That McKenzie left seven points uncollected will do little to assuage the ‘if only’ thoughts that must live rent-free in Smith’s head.
In the end, the All Blacks won the test match. The won and they learned. They got the job done and they won’t have too many quibbles about the margin of victory. Nor should they. Their scrum was largely exceptional, and they will claim, with good reason, to have got their selection mix right on the money. This is a team that had its feet dangled in the fire and came out with its pinkies unsinged.
The desire to improve, though, that will be burning inside.
SHARE ME