LONG READ Are the All Blacks refinding their groove as the world's No 1 team?

In defeating the Springboks 24-17 to stretch their unbeaten record at Eden Park to 51 tests and tighten their grip on the world number one ranking, the All Blacks once again showed they have this rare ability to use the pressure of the occasion to get the best out of themselves.

It’s incredible the number of times the All Blacks have responded to pressure situations with high-quality performances that are passionate, accurate, innovative and resilient.
Some countries tend to crumble on the big stage – find that they are crushed by expectation, but not the All Blacks. When they are squeezed by intolerable pressure it tends to produce a diamond, as was evidenced at Eden Park.

It wasn’t emphatic or breathtaking the way the All Blacks went about winning that game – but it was dogged, brave and at times genuinely innovative.

The depth of their pre-game research was apparent in the way they picked apart the Boks’ lineout and used their aerial supremacy to disrupt the driving maul.

The first two All Blacks tries also came from first phase strike plays that were well thought through and perfectly executed, and the All Blacks, while far from perfect, delivered what was easily their best performance of the year, and maybe even their best performance of the Scott Robertson era.

But as impressive as the All Blacks were, it was apparent immediately after they had won, that they are determined not to remain locked in this pattern where they continually put themselves under pressure through inconsistent performances.

Too often in the last five or six years they have found themselves in must win encounters because they have not been able to maintain their standards and back up big wins with big wins.
To be able to consistently play at that peak level is the holy grail of high-performance and Robertson’s All Blacks have rarely, if at all, produced back-to-back outstanding performances.
There were signs of a breakthrough at the tail end of last year when they followed a convincing home win against the Wallabies, with victories against England at Twickenham and then Ireland in Dublin but then came a loss to France and an error-strewn victory against Italy.

The longest consecutive run of victories Robertson’s All Blacks have produced is five. That compares with the great All Blacks side of 1987-1990 who went 21 games undefeated and the brilliant 2010-2016 team, which twice won 16 consecutive tests, and then managed a world record 18 consecutive victories.

What made these teams great was that they were governed by their own demanding culture. It didn’t matter to these two teams who they were playing or what was at stake, they both had a way to create their own pressure and play to the standards they had set for themselves.

I think keep bringing the pressure. You guys [media] do a great job building that pressure. I think as a player you thrive on that and it makes you want to do better.

Ardie Savea

And this was a point Ardie Savea made after the Eden Park win. “I think keep bringing the pressure. You guys [media] do a great job building that pressure. I think as a player you thrive on that and it makes you want to do better,” he said.

“That’s what the people of this nation deserve and that’s what we’re expected as All Blacks to do. So for me, I love it. It gets the knots in the gut going and makes me want to perform for the people.

“Every stadium in New Zealand is our home and that’s the mindset we should have. We shouldn’t wait until Eden Park to get up and put in a performance like that.”

The question is how to build that culture? How do the All Blacks go about creating that intensity of environment to ensure players hold each other to account and demand more of one another to ensure standards don’t slip as often as they have in recent times?

Jerome Kaino, the fearless, bruising All Blacks back-rower who was an integral member of the World Cup winning teams in 2011 and 2015, wrote in his biography that he was once punched in the back of his head by his own team-mate at training to serve as a reminder around expectations.

Kaino had come into the team in 2006 and hadn’t learned the lineout codes – a point that had become obvious to senior player Jerry Collins who whacked Kaino then sprayed a few choice words to get his act together.

Similarly in 2010, after celebrating before he’d scored a match-winning try against South Africa, Israel Dagg was reprimanded by both Brad Thorn and Richie McCaw.

Both players congratulated him on the try and then told him to never prematurely celebrate again.

It was an amazing feeling and then I remember the review of that game…we won and then Steve is into the leaders around what they did wrong and I was sitting there thinking, ‘But we won this game by 30 points’.

Aaron Smith

The culture of that 2010-2016 team was shaped most dramatically by the constant influence of head coach Steve Hansen, whose ability to get under the skin of his players and needle them into giving more became legendary.

Aaron Smith, the brilliant halfback who won his first cap against Ireland in 2012 – Hansen’s first as head coach – recalls feeling pretty chipper about the 42-19 win.

“That first game I thought we had played pretty well,” says Smith. “McCaw and Carter and co just dominated the game and Ireland were in it but not really.

“It was an amazing feeling and then I remember the review of that game…we won and then Steve is into the leaders around what they did wrong and I was sitting there thinking, ‘But we won this game by 30 points.’

“He was just ruthless in role, in detail, getting stuck into anyone who missed an assignment or a cleanout. That was the first of many reviews where I thought he doesn’t miss a beat and he really pushes it hard even when you win.

“He had this ability in a review to belittle you to the point where you would never do that again. Or you get the message clearly in the sense that’s not good enough. Our reviews were brutal but humorous.

“He could make you laugh and make you cry within a minute. I remember McCaw missed a couple of tackles in that game and Steve was into him about it…’If you weren’t trying to cover everyone else…just make your tackle, that is all we need.’”

This relentless messaging that no performance was ever good enough rankled the players at times, but they all, also say it was a key part of their success.

Robertson talked a little bit last year about the impact of former captain Sam Cane when he rejoined the team midway through the Rugby Championship.

Having been lukewarm on Cane when he first came into the head coaching role, Robertson came to understand the value of the veteran openside.

“He is one of those guys you have got to get to know,” Robertson said in October last year. “From afar, you have got an opinion but then when you see him and meet him, what he is in and around the environment, he’ll say things that others won’t. I don’t say that lightly.

Cane has retired and so the onus to drive the All Blacks into better habits and achieving consistent performance levels sits with the likes of Savea, captain Scott Barrett and his brothers Beauden and Jordie as well as the likes of Tupou Vaa’i and Codie Taylor.

“He is a bit of a sheriff. He’s got it in the holster and then bang, he’ll fire and says this is how it is. I am going to call you out, or this is the All Blacks standard.”

But Cane has retired and so the onus to drive the All Blacks into better habits and achieving consistent performance levels sits with the likes of Savea, captain Scott Barrett and his brothers Beauden and Jordie as well as the likes of Tupou Vaa’i and Codie Taylor.

Robertson, while he hasn’t yet found the formula, is acutely aware that the core part of his job is finding a way to instil standards that are consistent and enable the All Blacks to play at their best regardless of the occasion.

“The big thing for us is the acknowledgement of it. You’re up here and you’ve got to get back up there,” he said.

“What’s it going to take internally for us? What’s those drivers that get you there? And you’ve got to be there on Saturday.

“That’s the key thing, the timing of it, how you’re emotionally connected to this game.”

And after the clash with the Springboks in Wellington, they meet Australia twice, Ireland in Chicago and then Scotland and England which is the perfect schedule for this All Blacks team to start showing they can consistently play well.