'Frustrating': Pundit weighs in on where the All Blacks struggled in Chicago

For long periods of the All Blacks‘ Test victory over Ireland in Chicago, Scott Robertson’s side struggled to wrestle momentum in their favour, and couldn’t build phases to hurt Andy Farrell’s side.

But then suddenly, with about 20 minutes to go, like the All Blacks of old, they clicked into gear with the bench making a real impact to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

This was the turning point of the encounter, after Ireland had frustrated the Kiwis in the opening half by trying to slow the game down.

Current Sky Sport commentator and former Bay of Plenty prop Ben Castle says that Farrell’s side found a way to try and slow the All Blacks down, which worked well in the first half.

“Though, when you look at this performance for Scott Robertson and this coaching team, they might be thinking to themselves, they’ll like what they’ve seen in parts, but they won’t like how teams have found out a way to slow them down,” Castle said on The Breakdown on Sky Sport.

“Kick the ball out, slow down that line out, get it into the crowd so they can’t go quickly. Slow down the defensive play. Slow down the ruck, get the ball away, make them chase back.

“So I think from an All Black point of view, we’d love to attack and love to counter attack but it’s often taken away.

“It frustrates them, and we saw in the first half, but what they will see on the other side is how good it was in that second half. There’s still stuff to work on, but how good it was in that second half, how they controlled possession, and that got the width and tempo into the game.”

Former All Black centurion Mils Muliaina believes that the bench players are starting to understand their bench roles, as well as applying the game plan effectively.

Both Tamaiti Williams and Wallace Sititi came on and affected the Test match in a positive way, scoring a try each to close out the game for the All Blacks.

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“I think they’re starting to understand, those lessons that they’ve sort of had from that not being able to finish with guys understanding their roles.

“We’re starting to build really good depth, in some cases right now, when your captain and vice captain go down, but the guys that sort of step in are beginning to become comfortable, being uncomfortable now.

“From not being able to finish guys understanding their roles, and possibly the coaches are also starting to understand what game plan they want to sort of implement around these guys, so the game was was messy, but they won in a fashion that sort of showed, hey, we have a plan and we’re going to stick to it, and everyone is aligned.”