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All Blacks talk late-game adjustments after clutch England win
By Ned Lester
After a Rugby Championship campaign plagued by late-game inaccuracy, the All Blacks produced a final quarter 10-point swing to steal a win at Allianz Stadium over the weekend. Assistant coach Scott Hansen analysed his side’s improvement following the result.
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Hansen, former assistant to head coach Scott Robertson at the Crusaders, put the late-game execution down to a few factors including “composure” and impact from the bench.
It’s been a challenge for the All Blacks coaches to find the winning recipe in regard to bench selection, but with the return from injury of Cam Roigard and the decision to shift Damian McKenzie to the No. 23 jersey, the team has started to look dangerous with an injection of pace.
“We had our scrum that gave us some penalties and it gave us field advantage. As we came down, we adjusted our attack to be a wee bit shorter around the ruck, which caused a bit of stress and then in the end we were able to get to the edge with Mark (Tele’a),” the assistant coach told Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Sport with Jason Pine.
“I just thought from that 60-70 minute mark we showed some really good composure and growth. The impact that came on, (Cam) Roigard as an example, he put us in the right areas of the field and we were really able to put a lot of pressure on England.
“And then, when we came down to the end of the game, you see the effort when George Ford went for the drop-goal, I think there were five All Blacks off their feet showing courage and care to get to the foot and apply that pressure.
“So, really proud of the boys and some good learnings from the Test also.”
Much is made of winning moments in the game of rugby, but recognising said moments is often the challenge for players in-game. Hansen outlined how he and the coaching staff had prepared the squad for such moments, but also highlighted how it’s down to the players to make it happen.
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“The thing there is you’ve always got to adjust to what those moments are, so sometimes you’re in front, other times you’ve got to dig in and earn the right to apply pressure and get into the right area of the field and get in front.
“There’s always moments around it. Yes, we sit down with the group, we go through scenarios around that but at the end of the day, what we saw today was a lot of courage.
“I thought right through our game, we didn’t always get it right, our short-pass game at times gave us a really good advantage, but what I was proud of in particular was our ability to play. We were brave. We didn’t always get it right, but we were brave and in the end, it gave us the result we were after.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of performances at times for the Kiwis, who spilled possession and committed tackles off the ball, earning them unwanted attention from the referee.
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Hansen said the unfavourable penalty count will be one of the team’s big learnings from the contest.
“Sorry, I haven’t seen the stats but just being there live and feeling it, feeling’s not always fact but I think the first half was nine to one and that’s not a position we want to put ourselves in around a match.
“What was our accuracy like? We weren’t making smart decisions at times around where we were applying pressure.
“We put ourselves in positions where England were applying scoreboard pressure because of the penalties. We do have to be better than that.
“So, definitely, as we go through the week we’ll acknowledge, what does that look like? And get some better solutions. But, at the end of the day, Test match rugby, you can’t be nine to one in the penalty count and I think it was that in the first half.”
Watch the exclusive reveal-all episode of Walk the Talk with Ardie Savea as he chats to Jim Hamilton about the RWC 2023 experience, life in Japan, playing for the All Blacks and what the future holds. Watch now for free on RugbyPass TV
For the first time this year, the bench was excellent. Particularly DMac and Roigard, they completely changed the attack. Ratima didn't have his finest outing, and Barrett, who has his strengths, doesn't have the same capacity to ignite a backline.
Surely Roigard has earnt a start. He looks composed, quick and threatening.
Full credit has to go to Tosi and Tu'ungafasi who swung the momentum at scrum time. Tuipuloto was immense, despite his dropsies.
The only player who proved yet again he is not an impact player was ALB. He's been excellent when he's started in the 12 jersey, but for some reason never adds much from the bench.
Ratima would have never faced a rush defence like that and he did it in the hardest environment. He will have learnt a lot from that and to say Roigard, who came on when the teams were stuffed. was better is a bit much really. If Roigard had started it would have been the opposite.
That was Ratima's worst outing since his first game I think. It was noticeable when Roigard came on the extra tempo, but like Hansen says they took some width out of their attack around the ruck which sped things up a lot. Hard to know exactly what was the catalyst.
Roigard has the best boot we have had in a 9 for a very long time. It's been a huge missing piece of the puzzle for the ABs, especially with 22 exits. Add in the threat he brings with his running game and there aren't many reasons for him not to start.
ALB isn't bringing much at the moment other than he can over 12 and 13. Everyone in the backline can cover multiple positions but no one can cover 12 or 13 other JB/Reiko.
Maybe McKenzie nailing a very very difficult kick (plus another and the winning pass) also had something to do with it
Jordan has this ability to pass in a tackle... Sort of like a long range offload thingy... He did it twice in this game. And 2022 (I think) to the match winning pass against the wallabies, I think that was telea as well... Great body positioning.
McKenzie delaye that pass to Jordan... On purpose, if he pass that fast freeman comes at Jordan in higher speed, and Jordan won't be able to pass like that.
I think it's all planned and drilled in their training.
Winning pass? That makes it sound like 1) DMac actually passed the ball to the try scorer and 2) that the work he did in the lead up was 90% of the work. Jordan passed the ball to Telea. Telea then had to beat 4 defenders in 2m of space.
He was awesome when he came on, especially the sideline conversion. But 95% of the credit for that try is with Telea.