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All Blacks on notice as stakes rise for Bledisloe Cup clashes

By Online Editors
The All Blacks. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

By Patrick McKendry, NZ Herald

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To the Bledisloe Cup, then, and hopefully, from an All Blacks perspective, significant improvements in the team’s collective performance for the retention of the second most cherished trophy in their collection.

Nothing will focus All Black minds more than Wednesday’s squad announcement and the requirement for the 31 remaining players to farewell those who won’t prepare for the first test against the Wallabies in Perth a week on Saturday. The return match is at Eden Park on August 17.

Steve Hansen and his fellow coaches will hope that extra edge, match fitness and game understanding gained from the runouts against Argentina and South Africa will clear the way for a more cohesive attack; and the ability to actually catch the ball will help enormously with that, too.

There’s not too much wrong with the All Blacks’ defence; and credit must go to assistant coach Scott McLeod here as he received more than his share of criticism from the public and some pundits last year after succeeding Wayne Smith.

The concession of two tries in two tests isn’t a bad result and the one scored by Herschel Jantjies in the final minute in Wellington at the weekend was unlucky. Cheslin Kolbe’s speculative kick could have gone anywhere and it was unfortunate for Aaron Smith that it bounced a little high for him and into the hands of Jantjies.

Herschel Jantjies beats Aaron Smith for the ball to score in the final minute of the Springboks’ 16-all draw with the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday. (Photo by Mark Tantrum/Getty Images)

The All Blacks will almost certainly name their strongest line-up against the Wallabies for a test in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 at a sold-out stadium.

Brodie Retallick won’t feature until the World Cup at the earliest due to his dislocated shoulder, and Sonny Bill Williams will drop to the Mitre 10 Cup where he will probably play two games for Counties Manukau – possibly a pre-season match in Katikati on Saturday and the round one fixture against Taranaki at Pukekohe – in order to improve his match fitness.

But elsewhere Hansen will go with his big guns and that will provide further evidence of his thinking for the first World Cup pool game against the Springboks and following knockout matches.

Asked what he expected from the Wallabies, who lost their first Rugby Championship game against the Springboks in South Africa before edging the Pumas 16-10 in Brisbane at the weekend, he replied:”A torrid battle. We always have great games against them – it will be a fast game.”

With Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett finally finding their rhythm just after halftime at Westpac Stadium, the pace at which the All Blacks played was noticeably high. The Boks were stretched to breaking point. More of the same but without the handling errors will be the plan in Perth.

“Sometimes when you’re trying new things you’re having to think about how you’re doing them,” Hansen said in defence of his players, and in particular his forwards, a day after the 16-16 draw. “In a high-speed game when there’s a high-speed defensive line coming at you, you haven’t got time to think about it. You have to be instinctive.

“When you slow down to think about it some of your motor skills go. Sometimes your lungs go pretty quick too and then your skills go. Some of the big boys last night really felt the pinch of the speed of the game because we asked them to do a lot.”

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished again with permission.

In other news:

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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