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Ex-Bok analyses the concerning All Blacks trend that's cost them this year
By Josh Raisey
One of the biggest differences between the All Blacks‘ performances against England in July and this Rugby Championship has been how they have approached the final quarter of the match.
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On consecutive weekends in July England looked to be heading towards a rare victory on New Zealand soil before the hosts, largely through the exploits of Beauden Barrett, were able to snatch victory.
Only a matter of weeks have passed, but the latest Scott Robertson’s side have managed to score in a match so far after three rounds of the Rugby Championship is 52 minutes, against Argentina in round one.
Although it did not prove costly in round two against Argentina, having built a handsome first-half lead, this inability to score in the final quarter has been the All Blacks’ undoing so far this Championship.
The reigning Rugby Championship winners were leading at the hour mark in round one against the Pumas and round three against the Springboks before going on to lose both matches. If matches were only 60 minutes, New Zealand would be table toppers currently.
It is quite a contrast between the two campaigns so far this year, and while three matches is a small sample size and not enough to suggest there is any kind of deep-rooted problem, Schalk Burger recently dissected how the visitors’ game management let them down in the final quarter at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday as the world champions were able to overturn a 17-27 deficit to win 31-27.
The former Springbok pinpointed the All Blacks’ discipline as their fatal flaw on RugbyPass TV’s latest episode of Boks Office, which allowed the Boks to gain the ascendency and score 14 unanswered points in Johannesburg.
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“I would say this weekend their biggest culprit was probably going into game management too early,” Burger said.
“But then you go into game management but your discipline doesn’t go the same way. In their last 15 minutes they conceded I would say seven or eight penalties and then you’re trying to kick it early in the phase. So they kick the ball to us and we were desperate to chase the game down.
“Obviously Ofa Tu’ungafasi’s yellow card was a disaster because then our pack of forwards fronted up and said ‘listen here, we’re tucking it up under the jumper’ and our attack in the 22 was exceptional.”
