1
‘That’s the exciting part’: What France loss did to All Blacks’ confidence
By Finn Morton
An injury to France flyhalf Romain Ntamack seemed to change everything before the World Cup. Les Bleus lost the ‘favourites’ tag as many bestowed that moniker upon the All Blacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
New Zealand became the bookmarks’ favourites to hoist the Webb Ellis Cup in late October after a series of eye-catching victories in The Rugby Championship.
With coach Ian Foster at the helm, the All Blacks charged towards their fourth TRC crown in many years after clinical wins over Argentina and South Africa, and a Bledisloe Cup sweep against Australia.
The men in black won every trophy on offer during their first four tests, but nobody expected what happened next. The Boks inflicted a record defeat upon the All Blacks at Twickenham.
Having lost 35-7 to their arch-rivals, the All Blacks looked to bounce back in their World Cup opener against France, but instead fell to their first-ever pool stage defeat at the sports showpiece event.
But write the All Blacks off at your own peril. Ahead of their must-win clash with Italy in Lyon, centre Rieko Ioane spoke about the confidence within the squad.
“From my point of view, our mental state is real good,” Ioane told reporters on Wednesday. “Our confidence doesn’t waver off a loss.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We knew where we went wrong, that’s the exciting part, that we as All Blacks get a chance to try to rectify. We know how good we can be and we are looking to show that on Friday.”
The All Blacks are eager to make amends, and after a 71-3 demolition of Namibia in Toulouse, they’ll face the Azzurri in a must-win Test this week.
If the All Blacks are successful at OL Stadium, and can avoid a first-ever pool stage exit, then a potential clash with world No. 1 Ireland looms in the quarter-finals.
“People can talk about teams all they want but at the end of the day, we say performance is king,” Ioane added.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s not so much making a statement, we are focused solely on performance and we know how good [we can be] when or if we can get it right. You guys can talk about all the teams you like.”
Ioane will start at outside centre against the Azzurri, and will be joined by returning teammate Jordie Barrett in the midfield.
Barrett has missed the entire World Cup campaign so far with a minor knee injury. The 26-year-old hasn’t worn the black jersey in the international arena since that disastrous defeat to the Boks.
“Obviously it’s awesome to have him back,” Ioane said.
“We’ve formed a pretty good combo in the past. The last couple of weeks have been about him getting his body right and training has gone real smooth this week.
“It’s going to be exciting to see him back in the World Cup again.”
Not surprising, if the rest of the team is like him and their confidence hasn't taken a knock then they don't stand a chance against Ireland. Reiko is probably the most brash in the team so lets hope thats not the case, they will need a much harder sort of fuel than confidence to surpass Ireland.
Looking at Kirwan and co interview after the IRE/SA match they see this as a huge result for NZ and a new lease of life in the competition. Not suprised but if they don't treat the QF as a massive massive hurdle they will fall down the same hole as SA and a lot earlier.
‘That’s the exciting part’: What France loss did to All Blacks’ confidence..
Wow thats a strange comment to be coming out of camp..has it got that bad with Foster & Co that losses are acceptable and we get confidence from that..
The NZ fans have known for over 5 seasons the main problems that contribute to our losses are Fosters arrogance in playing players out of position, a weak ageing forward pack and having his favourites play regardless of form, yes Beauden, You,
We have a weak defensive system and that is 100 % on Scott McLeod and Foster, Ronan O Gara in an interview on the BreakDomwn highlighted that perfectly. We are leaking too many points with our defense usually over 20 pts in last quarters of games and McLeod is using outdated system to try and stop this.
Our best turnover players and game breakers like Fainganuku cant even get a start same with Roigard for this game and sadly we will have a team selected that is full of favourites not form or positional players
Reiko can't play center the problem is the coach still thinks he can, put him on wing he's awesome there.
The Razor era will be instructive. Will he persist with the Ioane 13 experiment or just pick him at wing and lay it on the line. "Play where you are told"
Let's hope that this ABs team is not just a minnow thrashing team, there is no doubt they'll cruise past Italy with some flash stuff, but can they front up to the big boys? I have my doubts.
well reiko less hui more do- ey dont do any peacock struttin yet ok cold man ice cold like michael jones ice its the only way to serve payback to those who glee at the all black misfortunes of late it is time to gouge a path thru those who doubt the remorse the all blacks can inflict on anyone anywhere anytime goodluck flick the switch cuz
I don't think relying on being able to beat anyone anywhere anytime will work against Ireland or France who are better and can also beat anyone anywhere anytime. Ireland won't be having an off day.
Are you on drugs?