Ex-All Blacks coach outlines concerns over Razor's tempo and set-piece

The fallout among Kiwi pundits following the All Blacks‘ defeat to Los Pumas has been dramatic, and after claiming as many yellow cards as tries, the team has drawn the criticism of a former head coach.

Laurie Mains, who coached the All Blacks from 1992 to 1995, cast his eye over a performance riddled with discipline issues, defensive woes, and more.

The ’95 World Cup runner-up was forgiving of the nature of the yellow cards, saying they came bout in “tricky situations to navigate.” He also narrowed in on the pace of the game, saying innovation is needed around the breakdown to secure fast recycles and get the ball out before the defence can set.

“The idea that the All Blacks have got to uptempo their game, not try to play the power game, is absolutely right,” the former Test fullback told the ‘Millsy & Guy’ Sport Nation radio show.

“The great All Blacks teams of recent years have played a fast-tempo game and kept the ball moving. So, where do we go from here?

“Well, let’s be fair. Argentina were a good team and probably played the best that I’ve ever seen them play. And just when the All Blacks were getting themselves into the game, they lost lineouts, they gave bad passes, they dropped the ball.

“I’m sure the players went on the field with a great attitude, but it didn’t look like it in some of the mistakes that they made. That was a big concern for me. We’ve got one or two players out with injury, and one or two just coming back that probably weren’t as fit as they could have been.

“But the single biggest concern for me was our lineout tactics. At times, the lineout calls were very good, and there were hands in clear air – that’s a term I always used to talk about, get your hands in clear air. To do that, you’ve got to beat the player on the ground, and sometimes we did it, and other times we didn’t. The lineout tactic, I think, just wasn’t quite right.”

The All Blacks’ next outing comes against their storied rivals, the Springboks, a side who have traditionally thrived at set-piece time. Although the lineout had been one of New Zealand’s strengths in the opening four games of their international season, their 100 per cent success rate dropped to 79 per cent over 14 attempts in Buenos Aires.

Mains again highlighted the lineout as key to getting the attack on the front foot, and said there are opportunities to attack the reigning world champions.

“Well, there does need to be a bit of innovation, but Australia showed us in that first Test, after being down 22-nil, how to upset South Africa.

“Now, I don’t think they’re as good as they were at the last World Cup, and I can see vulnerabilities that I’m sure the All Blacks will work to expose.

“But, again, it comes down to what you do up front; you’ve got to have good lineouts, you’ve got to have good scrums. One strong point of our game on Sunday was our scrummaging, but you’ve got to have good, clean lineout ball that you can do something with.

“And then, what I’d like to see is creating these rucks a lot wider away from the previous set play or ruck. A lot further away, so the opposition have got to work hard to get there. Now, this one-off bashing, it’s too easy to stop.

“The wider you get from the set play, or the previous ruck or maul, the less likelihood you’re going to be bashing into forwards. And I think that’s a part of our game we need to concentrate on and improve on.”