What was said at the All Blacks' 'ruthless' review following their semi-final defeat to England
Halfback Aaron Smith has revealed the full extent of the ‘ruthless’ review that the All Blacks underwent following their Rugby World Cup semifinal defeat to England.
Speaking on the Rugby Bricks podcast, Smith revealed that head coach Steve Hansen got 51 people into the room to review the defeat, including everyone from management to the physios, with everyone having their say about what went wrong.
“The review process was ruthless. It was tough,” Smith said in a wide-ranging interview.
“We were watching one of the worst games we’ve ever played, and you’re part of some ugly stuff. Was the effort there? It was big-picture, there was no actual name-calling, just things like ‘We needed to be better there, here’s a big moment that we mucked up, here’s a chance that we could have made.
“Steve did it with the whole room – everyone got their one minute or two minutes to say how they felt. There was a range of emotions – there were 51 of us there to start the review.”
The review followed a meeting that the leadership team had the day before, which featured elements that Smith said he ‘hated hearing’.
“We had our leadership meeting with the coaches and it was tough – Steve Hansen asked right away ‘how do you feel right now?’ We all told each other how we felt – and as you can imagine it was pretty sombre. One thing I love and hate about rugby players is we won’t take the glory either, but we love falling on the sword, and that’s what I hated the most about what I was hearing – we all wanted to jump on the sword, you know – ‘It was because of me’.
“Coach was like ‘cut that – it wasn’t that, we all did our part, and we all lost’. That was what I hated hearing, some of the best players in the world saying ‘it was my fault’ or ‘If I had done this…’ But the good thing was once we all said how we felt, we all felt a bit better.”
Smith was on the bench as the seconds ticked down in the semifinal, and explained the emotions that washed over him.
“You see it count down, a whole four years of work. This is going to be the last time you play with some guys, maybe forever, and that’s sad.
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“Seeing how pumped England were, you couldn’t even be angry at them – they did us, they won, and there was no arrogance about what they did, they won the right way – they out-physicalled us and we couldn’t fire a shot. You had to sit there and eat humble pie.
“Going into the changing room – we had come to Japan to do a job, and we’d failed. There were a lot of guys looking at the ground, a lot of tears. Bender [Ben Smith] was trying to cheer me up and I was pretty distraught, going to hug Reado [Kieran Read] and saying ‘man, I’m sorry we couldn’t do it for ya’.
“People don’t know how much stuff our other people do – our extended management, our gear guys, our nutritionist, our massage guys, our physios, they’re on the ride with you and there’s no consoling – that’s where sport is cut-throat.”
Smith can find one positive from the defeat, saying it has given him renewed passion and drive to be better in 2020.
“I feel that the energy it has given me is out the gate. Would I be this hungry for 2020 if we’d won? It’s just the way I am.
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“On the way home I rang [partner] Teagan and said ‘I’m ok, I’m seriously ok’. I went back to the hotel and straight to my room. Teagan was there and [son] Luka – I didn’t cry, I was just so numb. She asked if I was ok and I said I was – it’s just a game, I care about it a lot, but Luka woke up, and I got a hug from him.
“I really reckon it hurts more now, a month on, then it did at the time. At the time it’s like ‘what the hell just happened?’, but you know what you did wrong – it’s very similar to the drawn Lions series, and losing to England in 2012, one game short of a perfect year.”
Despite those feelings, the leadership meeting and the review had a positive result for the All Blacks, as it provided a reminder of what type of qualities they needed to show to secure a win in the bronze medal match against Wales.
“One thing in the leadership meeting we were really clear about was the fact we did have another game – how do we want that to look, what does it mean to you to play for the All Blacks?
“We had let the country down by not doing what we wanted to do and said we were going to do, but here was chance to finish well, be humble and show them what it means – and we played the way All Blacks should play.”
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.
It may have been a harsh review following the semi-final, but the All Blacks players and coaches were in high spirits after their victory in the 3rd and 4th playoff:
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 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 …
30 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
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments