Mike Blair names one 'great stat' and one likely change to the All Blacks' attack

All Blacks attack coach Mike Blair says his focus in the final week of the Greatest Rivalry tour, as his team seeks a series-levelling win in Baltimore, is on converting pressure into points more effectively.

Despite trailing in the series 2-1, New Zealand scored more points and tries than their opponents during the South Africa leg of the tour, signalling their new attack is on the right track, even if it hasn’t produced more than one win against the world champions.

Blair told reporters in Washington on Monday that his “key messages” to the group were “really positive” thanks to the wealth of opportunities he says the team have created. However, while the conversion rate once inside the Springboks’ 22-metre zone has been “excellent”, the coach felt the team were still leaving too many points on the field.

“I mean 12 line breaks is a great stat for us. Four tries against South Africa (In game 3) isn’t a bad stat; 13 tries in three games,” he mused after a swelteringly hot training.

“We are scoring tries, we are creating line breaks; we certainly want to convert another couple of them, but we’re also aware that you can’t convert them all. But we don’t want them to finish in a turnover, because if it finishes in a turnover, it goes to a set piece. It slows the game down a bit. It feeds their strength.

“So our balance between finishing our opportunities and keeping the pressure on through a multi-phase is really important; build scoreboard pressure, and that might be through kicking a goal. I think we may have had one penalty in the three Tests. So our ability to convert pressure into points is important as well.”

Indeed, New Zealand’s one penalty kick attempt in the Test series was pushed wide by Ruben Love in Johannesburg last week, with the team seeking to break a 12-all deadlock early in the second half.

The coach added that communication would be a big part of recognising opportunities and “pulling trigger”, and he’d be empowering his players to come up with solutions, as has been the case all year.

“Obviously, there are things as coach that I’ll drive, and I’m really keen on, but we’ve got brilliant intellect within the team; within the backs and within the forwards. And so for me not to use that intel would be naive,” Blair said. “So you know, there’s some framework that we’ve got, but there’s definitely freedom within that.”

One thing Blair and head coach Dave Rennie have been emphasising since taking charge of the team is the breakdown, a defining feature of Rennie’s coaching. Ironically, the only game New Zealand hasn’t owned the better ruck speed in during the tour was their round-one win.

“There’s a balance with gain line and ruck speed: You don’t want one without the other,” Blair explained. “We’ve improved our gain line through the three Tests, which has been excellent because, as you know, South Africa has a very strong defence and is very collision-based.

“So we’ve got our gain line up there, but our lightning-quick ball was a little bit slower from the weekend, so they were able to slow a little bit of our ball down.

“So we’re comfortable with what we’re trying to do: our balance of manipulation and, I guess, brutality and winning collisions to set up opportunities. We’re pretty good in that area. And as I said, with the opportunities we’re creating, there’s a lot of stuff we’re doing well.”