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‘These men have never come up against forwards that are 150kgs’
This wasn’t supposed to be how it turned out for New Zealand at the Junior World Championship, Clark Laidlaw’s U20s left nursing a painful 14-35 game two defeat to France that has left them in need of a favor elsewhere next Tuesday if they are to ultimately make the semi-finals.
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The Baby Blacks are the competition’s most titled team, winning six of its dozen editions. However, quite a leap of faith is now required to believe that this class of 2023 can somehow still get out of their pool stage jail and make the play-offs.
Having struggled in the opening half versus Wales last Saturday, trailing 5-19 before hitting back to win 27-26, the expectation was that a lesson would have been learned about slow starts.
It wasn’t, as New Zealand were behind 0-21 at the break on Thursday in Paarl and it was only after the concession of the bonus point fourth try to the French that they finally raised a gallop.
They scored two converted tries to halve the 28-point margin, but they conceded soon after to quickly quash the notion that a comeback was on and it left head coach Laidlaw ruminating about the size differential between the two packs.
The latest Tuilagi giant off the rank! #WorldRugbyU20s #FRAvNZR pic.twitter.com/bGsadPEa7Z
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 29, 2023
“Ultimately it is a really disappointing day and loads of lessons,” he told RugbyPass in the aftermath, the rain cascading down as he spoke outside the marquee that was the New Zealand dressing room. “I said last week we were here to learn.
“We want to win, let’s never forget that, but these men have never come up against forwards that are 150kgs and two or three of them all in the same forward pack, so we have got to learn how we deal with that.
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“I thought our scrum was outstanding. That was a real big plus that we can scrum, but we have got maul, we have got to (be better at the) breakdown; we have got to get those parts right too.
“They [France] scored the tries and their weight and their physicality when they got in the 22 caused us problems. It was only a couple of times defensively where we didn’t get them on the ground and they were able to get massive gainline and quick ball. That is their game and I guess the scoreline is always a reflection really.”
Particularly wounding was New Zealand’s failure to score in the first half. “It was disappointing to go three tries down. It’s fine margins. At 7-0, we had a couple of opportunities in the 22 that we didn’t take. We had chances near half-time – we didn’t take one of those and that can be the difference.
“You saw in the second half when we got the ball we were able to put it in space and we caused them a lot of problems. They were really short in defence, they went down taking cramp a lot, so maybe the conditions didn’t play into our favour, but we were disappointed with that first half.
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“There was lots of endeavour. I thought for large parts we defended really well and when we could get the ball to space I thought we looked dangerous, but ultimately in conditions like this against a team with a huge forward pack, the sort of weight at times wore us down and we couldn’t get the field position or the territory with the possession.
“In that first half we were pinned in our own third, so it was a really mixed performance. I thought France first half were pretty clinical and put us under a lot of pressure through their forward play and those big bodies.”
New Zealand will complete their pool with a match versus Rob Penney’s winless Japan. They will be expected to win with a bonus and shift their points total to 10, which would be good enough for second place in their pool behind France, but with just one best runner-up progressing to the semi-finals along with the three pool winners, they would need a major favour elsewhere to secure their progress.
“It’s not in our hands now,” accepted Laidlaw. “We will dust ourselves off and get a look at the results around the competition… If it becomes an option and points difference is still there, then we have got to go after it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
1 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
134 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
8 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
8 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
134 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
134 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
134 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
8 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
8 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to comments