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No questions about passion, but New Zealand's stalwart forwards look like spent forces
Unlike in previous World Cup’s, the All Blacks‘ latest loss has been handled remarkably well by the wider New Zealand public.
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England so comprehensively outplayed New Zealand from start to finish that it’s hard to be too despondent.
There were warning signs heading into the competition that the All Blacks wouldn’t have quite such an easy time of it as they did in 2015 when they cantered to their second title in a row.
New Zealand fans are disappointed, that much is true, but there was no real heartbreak. The All Blacks were bested by a better team that simply played out of their skins.
Or is that giving too much credit to the English? There’s no question that Eddie Jones’ side were on the top of their game, but have the All Blacks escaped some fairly justified criticism on the back of their second loss of the year?
Continue reading below…
2019 is on track to be New Zealand’s statistically worst year since 2009 (and 2019 will work out as worse if Wales do the unthinkable and get up over the All Blacks on Friday).
A draw with South Africa and a loss to Australia during the Rugby Championship ensured a third-place finish for New Zealand – the All Blacks’ lowest placing since 2004.
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That would have likely been forgotten if Steve Hansen’s men had soldiered on and won an unprecedented fourth World Cup title, but it all fell to pieces against England over the weekend.
Yes, England’s forward pack did monster their Kiwi opposites and yes, Jones’ charges did play out of their skin, but that doesn’t mean the world’s highest-ranked team over the last four years shouldn’t have been capable of countering the white wave they found themselves facing.
It seems unfair to single out particular players as New Zealand’s pack was widely dominated as a whole. When you’re faced with such a monstrous challenge, however, it’s up to your leaders to stand up – and that simply didn’t happen on Saturday.
Outgoing captain, Kieran Read, and his second-in-command, Sam Whitelock, were the two players that the All Blacks desperately needed big games from.
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Read, once widely considered the best number 8 in the world, has fallen off the pace in a big way in recent seasons.
That’s nothing to do with his desire or his want, it’s simply what happens to aging athletes – especially ones who have suffered as many injuries as Read has.
“He’s a special player,” Hansen said of the All Blacks captain during the week. “I’ve been lucky enough to work with him for a long, long time.
“We identified early that he’d be the next leader after Richie. He played a lot of rugby in a position that’s tough; he’s a charismatic leader, the boys and the management all love him, have a huge amount of respect for him.
“People won’t understand just how hard it was for him to come back from his back injury. To come back into the form he’s shown speaks volumes for him. He was really driven to do well and have the team do well and I think you can see the hurt when he’s spoken since (the semi-final defeat).
“But the same guy’s got up and led the team really well this week, so that’s a mark of his character.”
“It’s become a PR, branding, money-making exercise as opposed to something which could add much more value if it was treated respectfully for particular occasions." https://t.co/L7HfDN1SC8 #AllBlacks
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 31, 2019
The injury that Hansen is referring to is the prolapsed lumbar disc that Read suffered at the end of the 2017 season. The diagnosis was so severe that Read struggled to walk at times, let alone play professional rugby. It kept him bedridden for New Zealand’s final Test of the 2017 year against Wales.
Surgery to fix the issue kept Read out of the game for four months, but even that won’t necessarily have fixed the long-term problem for the loose forward.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Rodney Gordon spoke to the NZ Herald at the time of Read’s injury and suggested that surgery would be an excellent short-term fix, but reoccurrences of the symptoms are fairly common.
The mere fact that Read is still playing is a testament to his character, and there are no questions concerning his ability to lead and motivate his team, but was the 34-year-old really New Zealand’s best hopes of pinning a World Cup on?
The man is still tactically as good as he’s ever been and musters the All Blacks’ defensive line well, but his physicality and presence took a noticeable hit after returning from his back injury and it’s waned even further in 2019.
Regardless, Read served New Zealand incredibly well throughout his 124 match lifetime for the All Blacks and will be well-remembered for his physicality and diverse skill-set – especially during the peak of his career. The Crusaders’ centurion will now head to Toyota Verblitz to see out his playing days in the fairly cruisey Japan Top League competition.
Whitelock, Read’s understudy for the All Blacks, is also going to be spending more time in Japan once the World Cup concludes and will turn out for the Panasonic Wild Knights in the Top League.
Unlike Read, Whitelock will be back to play for the All Blacks in 2020.
The 31-year-old signed a bumper contract in May which will see him give four more years to New Zealand rugby, until the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Whitelock will spend the first part of next year in Japan, sitting out Super Rugby, then return for the Test season.
The contract was initially considered a great coup for New Zealand Rugby, but there must be a few executives around the country nervously thinking back on Whitelock’s underwhelming season.
Hansen and his fellow coaches obviously have the utmost respect for Whitelock, instilling him as match-day captain when Read has been absent, but they’ve also seemingly cordoned on to the fact that he’s not the force he once was.
Twice this year, Whitelock has been pulled from the field when New Zealand have been chasing a lead: against Australia and against England. The last time that Whitelock was subbed when the All Blacks were behind on the scoreboard, prior to this year, was in 2014. It’s only happened three times since Hansen took over as head coach.
The fact that the All Blacks have had an overall worse season obviously makes it more likely that Whitelock’s visits to the sideline will coincide with losses, but that overlooks the fact that Whitelock also simply wasn’t up to standard in both those fixtures.
Gone are the days of the big hits and rampaging runs from the man who was New Zealand’s answer to France’s Sébastien Chabal.
Whitelock, like Read, still has a massive engine and is busy around the park, but the physical dominance just isn’t there – which is why the All Blacks weren’t able to compete with England on Saturday.
Simply put, he looks like a tired, tired man.
That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Whitelock has had one of the busiest workloads of any Southern Hemisphere footballer over the last four years and whilst he may not yet be past his best, he certainly looks like he’s in need of a rest. It was no more evident than in 2018 when Whitelock was out on his feet after the All Blacks’ loss to Ireland at the end of a long season.
Despite the less taxing demands of the Top League, Whitelock is still going to be running around the field each week-in, week-out next season.
Richie McCaw, the world’s most capped rugby player, also built a clause into his contract when he hit 31 that would let him spend some time away from New Zealand, but McCaw used that time to rest his mind and body.
When Whitelock returns for the All Blacks’ Tests against Wales and Scotland next year, will he come back a rejuvenated force, or will he be in much the condition he’s in now?
If it’s the latter, then the new All Blacks coach would be better pressed finding a new locking partner for Scott Barrett, who will be New Zealand’s only premier lock playing Super Rugby next season as Brodie Retallick will also be in Japan.
Whitelock isn’t down and out, but he looks significantly off his best and it would be a major surprise at this point if he made the next World Cup simply based on his current form.
If Whitelock doesn’t pick up his game then we will be looking at similar situations to when the likes of Rodney So’oialo and Julian Savea signed long-term, big-money contracts with New Zealand then spent the latter parts of their deals representing provincial teams due to significant losses in form.
New Zealand were comprehensively taken apart by an English side that played the game of their lives, but that doesn’t mean the All Blacks couldn’t have done better. New Zealand’s experienced, battle-hardened forwards were absolutely dominated by their counterparts and nothing will change in the future if reviews don’t identify the physicality that the All Blacks were completely lacking compared to the pack they came up against.
Former All Black Justin Marshall has lifted the lid on what goes down during a bronze final week:
Comments on RugbyPass
Exciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
11 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
3 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
3 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
3 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
11 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to commentsThanks for that Marshy, noticed you didn't say who is gonna win it. We know who ain't gonna win it - your Crusaders outfit. They've gone from having arguably the best Super Rugby first five ever, to having a clutch of rookies. Hurricanes all the way!
1 Go to commentsGeez you really have to question the NRLs ability to produce players of quality. Its pathetic. Dont the 25mil in Aus produce enough quality womens players. Sad.
1 Go to commentsBulls fan here, and agree 100% with the conclusion (and little else) of this article. SA sides should absolutely f-off from the champs cup until we get fair scheduling, equal support for travel arrangements and home semis. You know, like all the european teams get.
26 Go to comments