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What Tony Johnson is hearing about the vacant All Blacks assistant role
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Scott Robertson reacts to All Blacks second half blitz to beat Ireland
By Ben Smith
All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson was happy with the way his team fought through a scrappy first half to lift during the back end to a 26-13 win over Ireland.
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Returning to the site of the historic 2016 victory over the All Blacks, Ireland looked the better side for the first half as they put up a 10-0 lead despite being down to 14 men following a red card to lock Tadhg Beirne.
Ireland were able to creep out to a 13-7 advantage before a final quarter blitz by the All Blacks buried hopes of a Chicago repeat for the Irish.
Robertson said it was about grabbing hold of the momentum which they struggled to do early after losing two of the Barrett brothers to injury.
“It took a bit of everything, didn’t it?” Robertson told media.
“We got a bit of momentum in that second half and executed. And just kept the pressure on them.
“We just couldn’t execute enough in that first half, you know, got into the 22 four times, gave up a few lineouts, lost a couple of Barrett’s.
“Got back to that second half and actually held the ball for long periods of time and put pressure back on them.
“It was a game of two halves, wasn’t there? It was great to get some flow and just really please everyone that stepped up.”
The All Blacks under Robertson have had trouble closing out games from strong positions. Five of their six losses have come with the All Blacks holding a lead at half-time.
Robertson said a drop in the standard of Ireland’s kicking game was a catalyst for arresting control of the game in that final quarter and a strong performance from the bench fuelled a flurry of tries.
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“If we were going to hold the ball and keep our bend and actually just keep it on them, we knew,” he said of the late comeback.
“Ireland would just get a little bit of momentum kicking, and we lost a few aerial battles, which we started to win, and then a couple of their kicks drifted long, gave us opportunities just to keep the ball alive and hold the ball for longer periods of time to put pressure back on them.
“And we’re just so pleased 20 minutes to go, the impact of our bench, just came on and did their jobs.”
The scrum became a trump card for the All Blacks as the game went on, winning penalties to help relieve pressure from their own half multiple times.
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Robertson was pleased at how the scrum has become “a real weapon” for the All Blacks.
“Just how it was refereed, really clear and legal,” Roberston said of his set-piece.
“We went first, fought first. And it’s a real strength of ours you know, starting or finishing. That’s the exciting part of whoever comes on and say, does the job.
“So a couple of key turning points were there, we got off our back fence on it [scrum penalty], and Cam [Roigard] scored one off, off the back of a beautiful scrum as well. A big part of rugby as we know.”