Ex-All Blacks question the one strategic hole left by Razor

Blair has been brought in as Rennie’s attack coach, someone he has worked with over the past decade in several different roles.

The attack coach is Scotland’s most capped halfback, and has been apart of Glasgow’s coaching staff previously, while most recently acting as Rennie’s assistant up in Japan at the Kobelco Kobe Steelers.

Throughout former All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson’s two-year tenure, it was widely publicised that one of their biggest struggles was dealing with the high-ball, something in which the Northern Hemisphere has approached differently.

For Marshall, the attacking kick strategy will be one of the biggest tasks for Blair, an area the All Blacks will have to improve on heading into the Greatest Rivalry Tour with South Africa and the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Marshall explained on the Sky Sport show The Breakdown, that Blair must adapt the thinking of the All Blacks squad when it comes to the high-ball.

“An area that we have struggled, and there’s no doubt about that, is the aerial contest, and it’s been very evident their thought process in the way that they think about kick strategy, that is also attack,” Marshall said.

“So you don’t just look after ball play. You look after kick strategy and attack on how to win the ball back and I think that’s where we’ve been deficient compared to the rest of the world.

“Whereas the northern hemisphere have a different mindset and are technically better at it. They think differently about where you box kick, how you box kick, when you execute and all that sort of stuff.

“So that’s a part of attack as well, which I think will open our eyes up a bit, because I think we’ve been a little bit narrow in our thinking in that regard.”

“And if it brings counter attack back into our game, something we’ve lost, I believe, over the last couple of years, maybe even a little bit longer of that intent around, okay, a kicking strategy, which gets us a second kick again,” Wilson said.

Donald explained that when watching the All Blacks of late, it seems like kick strategy and the attacking play is separate things, rather than connecting the two.

“Absolutely they are, the two go hand in hand. But if you watch the All Blacks recently, I do believe that attacks been sitting over here, and the kicking game’s over here, and as you’re saying you intertwine them, and then it leads to counter attack opportunities,” Donald told The Breakdown.