All Blacks assistant coach on recent third-quarter slumps

When Codie Taylor cynically played the ball on the ground during a ruck in the 41st minute at Twickenham, it proved that the All Blacks have still not figured out what goes wrong at halftime, for the opposition to have an upper hand coming out of the changing sheds.

Then it was Sam Underhill’s try, barging over the line from close range in the 42nd minute to completely change the complexion of the game.

In that same third-quarter period, England struck again, this time through 26-year-old midfielder Fraser Dingwall, who was on the end of a slick backline move to go in close to the posts.

That was England’s momentum shift, but it wasn’t the first time on this end-of-year tour that the All Blacks had struggled in the 40-60 minute range, with both Ireland and Scotland frustrating the Kiwi side in the previous weeks.

Assistant coach Scott Hansen, who spoke to media on Monday afternoon in Cardiff, says that during the halftime break at Twickenham, they spoke about composure coming out of the break.

“I think around the early yellow card, so what do we talk about at half time? Composure, well, the first is our self control around a hand in a ruck going somewhere we didn’t need to and then what does that mean for England, now they’re coming down the field and they’ve got a set piece,” Hansen told media in Cardiff.

“Where’s the adjustment around that because you saw earlier us not going to the to a line out, because we felt in that moment we didn’t need to bring the hooker on. So what’s the adjustment there, because we ended up playing and shifting the ball and kicking it away anyway.

“So some of those challenges around how we adjust to those moments, the key thing for us is, when we’re in control, what does it look like, and how do you get it back? Against England, they got a bit of momentum and we weren’t able to stay in front of it.”

During the first 20 minutes against England, like the week before against Scotland, the All Blacks’ game plan seemed to be getting some reward as Scott Robertson’s side were able to put pressure on the opposition in their half.

But when Hansen is asked about whether it’s being executed correctly by the players, he explains that the All Black game plan must be able to be adjusted to what the players can see on the field at any given time.

“I think it adjusts, your game plan should be one that adjusts. So if you look at the first the start of the game, we felt we weren’t as good as we needed to be to start the game. So we’ve addressed that, around what that looks like and then we had a nice moment near their line with some pressure, where we built some good pressure on England, and we had some nice responses around where the ball went.

“Then England adjusted, and then there was a couple drop kicks. What put us in that position? What we acknowledged there, was some of the kicking wasn’t on our own terms.

“It didn’t allow our defence to get set. So how do we adjust during the game? I think when you talk about a game plan, for me personally, it must be one with the All Blacks that allows them to adjust, see what’s in front of them, and play the obvious.”

Team Form

Last 5 Games

0 - 73

26 - 52

24 - 23

28 - 52

22 - 31

26 - 52

33 - 19

17 - 25

13 - 26

14 - 28

2

Wins

4

2

Streak

1

15

Tries Scored

21

-113

Points Difference

47

2/5

First Try

4/5

2/5

First Points

3/5

1/5

Race To 10 Points

4/5

It’s fair to say that one of the main talking points surrounding this All Blacks team is the current on field leadership and whether they are getting the right messages across from the coaches, to the leadership group, and to the rest of the on-field players.

Hansen insists that not only do they trust their judgement, they trust their experience and how they make their decisions out there.

“Massive amount of trust on the experience, the leadership, and the guidance that is out there, there’s a lot of Test matches out there. At the end of the day, all that captain and the leadership group, they’re out there, they’re feeling it, and there’s full trust in their decisions, and they continue to grow those decisions.”