'He should never captain the All Blacks again': NZ leadership guilty in numerous late collapses
The final nine minutes of the All Blacks vs England match have motivated endless criticism from Kiwi pundits. Broadcaster Brendan Telfer has labelled the closing minutes of the All Blacks’ season the worst in decades and called for Sam Whitelock to never captain the side again.
Telfer has three decades of sports broadcasting experience and leaned on every moment of it to blast the All Blacks, calling out their mental fortitude and leadership as the key issues in an underperforming season which featured several historic losses.
The one positive note Telfer agreed on from the performance was that it would remind the Kiwi faithful that all is not well despite the run of more positive results to end the season.
Telfer spoke to Martin Devlin on The Platform:
“After a lot of thought and consideration,” Telfer started. “And casting my mind back over the last god knows how many decades, I’ve come to the conclusion the last nine minutes of that match on Sunday morning was the worst nine minutes of rugby the All Blacks have played since 1999 in the meltdown against France in that semi-final down in Cardiff.”
That match saw the All Blacks winning 26-13 with just over 20 minutes to play, but once the 70th minute rolled around, France had scored 26 unanswered points and went on to win 43-31.
However, the final minutes of the Twickenham Test isn’t the only example of the All Blacks dropping off and letting their opposition back in the game this season.
“We’ve seen it a few times this year, haven’t we?” Telfer continued. “They were up by 18 points against Australia, they conceded 23 unanswered points against Scotland, they allowed the Japanese back into that match a few weeks ago in Tokyo and against South Africa, so it’s not a physical issue with this All Blacks side… it’s the mental capacity.”
The All Blacks’ leadership was then called into question, as the composure of the team crumbled when Beauden Barrett was sent off and England’s attack picked up the intensity.
“Well he should never captain the All Blacks again, I’m sorry. All due respect to Sam Whitelock, great player that he’s been for the All Blacks, fantastic lineout jumper, fantastic player around the field but where was he in those last nine minutes?
“It brings up an interesting question doesn’t it – would they have played out a different nine minutes of rugby if Sam Cane had been on the field?”
While Cane was present and captain for the Bledisloe Test in Melbourne where the Wallabies launched an epic comeback only to concede a famous timewasting call and have the All Blacks win at the death, the flanker has been absent on the shaky Northern Tour which made up the majority of Telfer’s aforementioned list of 60-70 minute All Black performances in 2022.
The Debate over Cane’s influence as captain was quickly undermined by a more prevalent debate over whether Cane was deserving of a starting role on the team, with Dalton Papali’i impressing throughout the tour.
The in-form Ardie Savea was the next name to feature in the captaincy debate but reports that it was Savea who called for TJ Perenara to box kick late in the Test called into question the dominant No 8’s decision-making.
That decision to kick was seen by Telfer as symbolic of the lack of proper leadership within the All Blacks’ camp.
“I mean I’m still scratching my head and trying to answer this question, why on earth did TJ Perenara put that crazy kick into no man’s land? 78 minutes gone on the clock, you’re up by seven points, it’s on halfway – yeah, I understand what people are saying, they didn’t want to give away a penalty, this guy (the referee) was pinging every maul and every ruck and England (could) get a penalty, kick it down into their 22 and dial up one of their rollover tries from a rolling maul.
“Okay, but if he’s going to kick, why didn’t he kick it deep? So they’re saying to the Englishman ‘you’ve got 100 meters, you’ve got to run some way or another to win this match.’
“(Instead) he gives them a little kick in the middle of between 22 and halfway, (England) runs into open territory, not a black jersey in sight, 30 seconds later they score. It’s the mental decisions they’re making.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to comments