All Blacks attack coach explains 'freedom' behind France performance

All Blacks assistant coach Mike Blair has reviewed his team’s attacking performance against France, where they created a bunch of opportunities through an instinctive style of play.

Dave Rennie’s buzzword prior to the first Test was “optimism”, and the All Blacks showcased that in abundance on Saturday night, even though the head coach thought at times they overplayed their hand.

Blair, who was appointed as the All Blacks assistant coach back in March, has been Rennie’s designated attack coach for a couple of seasons now.

Blair and Rennie won a Japan Rugby League One title together back in June with the Kobelco Kobe Steelers, which meant the coaching staff had only ten days to apply a game plan for the first Test against France in Christchurch.

Speaking to media in Christchurch the day after the first Nations Championship Test match, Blair admitted it was a start, but they won’t rest on their laurels.

“I was pretty pleased. We created a lot of opportunities, some of them we didn’t take. That’s a bit of rustiness, a bit of cohesion, with the players,” the attack coach said.

“It’s not a huge amount of time we’ve had together. We’ll build on that next week. It’s time in the saddle, training together, working together to get that cohesion.”

His first of the evening was an acrobatic finish in the right-hand corner, before his second, was being in the right place at the right time, as Luke Jacobson got his arms free for an offload.

Jordan sits behind Doug Howlett as the all-time leading try-scorer for the All Blacks with 49, and has the chance to break the long-standing record at some point during 2026.

On the attacking structures that Jordan benefited from, Blair said they started to look threatening in Christchurch.

“We think we’re dangerous with ball in hand and we can stress opposition with that.

“We probably could have kicked a little bit more to have a bit more balance to the game. But kicking isn’t a negative thing.It can be used to break a game up, to create unstructured turnovers and counter-attack.

“We need to get the balance right with that but I love the mentality to go after the French team, hold on to the ball and create stress on their defence.”

“We’ve talked about momentum and how you can play with that. We’ve talked about multi options and everyone being alive. It’s giving the players a bit of freedom and not being really structured, letting guys express themselves. They’ve got huge natural ability, so letting that be at the forefront of our attack.

“Did they enjoy the speed of the game? I’m not too sure. They worked really hard and they’re feeling it this morning, but we’ve shown the players where we have to be to play that type of game. We’ve got a good idea of it now, and some hard work ahead.”

“When you coach a team, you look at how the game is being played, the direction it’s going, the quality of player you’ve got, the skills they’ve got and then try and mould and formulate a plan to get the best out of them.”