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The All Blacks are comfortably the world's third best team right now
Two nations have lead the way in terms of winning and taking the game forward with enterprising play over this World Cup cycle.
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Those two Test sides are Ireland and France, both grand slam champions over the last two years in the Six Nations.
France completed an undefeated calendar year in 2022 while Ireland completed a historic series win in New Zealand before going on to complete a grand slam in early 2023.
It must be said that Ireland is more innovative than France, possessing a detailed attack unrivalled in the game. In the last chapter of Johnny Sexton’s career they have taken it to a level no one saw coming after the departure of Joe Schmidt.
France possess brutality and physicality up front and have produced some mesmerising tries through the genius play of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack.
Both of them have logged wins over all of the Southern Hemisphere powers over this cycle, France has a 5-2 record against the Rugby Championship teams while Ireland is 6-1.
Ireland’s Six Nations clash against France in February remains the best game of the year so far as the newly crowned global leaders went at it in a titanic battle.
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They are both clearly a cut above in Europe and only one challenger from the Southern Hemisphere has emerged.
The All Blacks‘ run through the Rugby Championship could not have gone any better.
Argentina and South Africa were put away before halftime. The Championship title was sealed early in the second half in Melbourne when Caleb Clarke crashed over and Scott Barrett put his finger up to signal quiet time.
But the false signal for the All Blacks is none of these opponents are remotely in the same league as Ireland or France.
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What the Wallabies dished up in the first half in Dunedin with their attack is what France will do for 80 minutes, except instead of Tate McDermott running the show it will be Antoine Dupont.
McDermott failed to finish a would-be try that would have put the game beyond reach by getting caught on his back sniping down the blind side.
Dupont wouldn’t likely be so forgiving with the strength of a back rower and the vision of a playmaking flyhalf.
The All Blacks close rivals do not offer the same challenge that shutting down Ireland requires. The intricate Irish attack is not replicated anywhere else.
The Springboks’ attack was dialled down to their caveman setting with forward runners coming around the corner in the first half. A test of physicality but nothing else. No special reads required. Even a bit of width in the second half did catch the All Blacks out down Mark Telea’s edge.
There was a lot of gamesmanship at Mt Smart going on by the Springboks, not revealing much, but even at their best South Africa don’t run a ton of screens, don’t have detailed and timed running lines and don’t have well-designed scheme to create space.
Australia showed glimpses of a destructive power game over both Tests with the likes Will Skelton, Rob Valetini, and briefly Taniela Tupou.
They bashed over the gain line to build front foot ball but only could capitalise on it for 10 minutes out of 160 over two Tests.
They wasted so much prime attacking ball, not knowing when to hit the release to the backs to take the All Blacks when they were stretched. Often they would carry one time too many and ended up turned over or held up.
They possessed some dangerous individuals like Mark Nawaqanitawase and Jordan Petaia who created for Andrew Kellaway on the occasion, but the threats weren’t sustainable. When other Wallaby players had to combine to create, there wasn’t enough chemistry or high level skill.
Despite the improvements shown, the Wallabies are a side trying to implement new systems and coaching philosophies at the 11th hour and as such, weren’t going to be a finished product.
Over the last month the All Blacks have faced nothing like what they would face should they come up against Ireland in a quarter-final or France in the opening pool game.
The changes made to the All Blacks coaching staff following the Irish series have no doubt made the All Blacks a better team.
They are in a better place than 12 months ago and you would think the gap has narrowed with the top two nations.
New Zealand will be competitive, they always are, but until proven otherwise they will head in as underdogs against France and are comfortably the world’s third best team.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
31 Go to comments