Bledisloe Cup: Four reasons why All Blacks are finally vulnerable to a shock defeat at Eden Park
Beware the wounded All Blacks? Have no fear, they’re wounded for a reason. And as they deal with some very Australian problems, the new-look Wallabies can now go for the kill.
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The most dangerous prospect in world sport is facing a wounded All Blacks team.
Time and again, they have bounced back from a poor result — when their rivals deemed them vulnerable — and destroyed opponents to quash the notion of serious chinks in their armour.
But there’s a different feel about 2020.
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Fears of an All Blacks decline across the ditch stem from genuine concerns regarding their coaching, selection, tactics and loss of seniority.
In times gone by, they looked to skipper Kieran Read in the big moments of big games.
Lock Brodie Rettalick could swing the physical momentum of a match. Sonny Bill Williams could produce the special play. Ryan Crotty would be at just the right place at the right time.
Rettalick is committed in Japan and the rest are retired from Test rugby, leaving a gaping hole in matchwinning smarts.
This is a new young crew, under a new coach many believe got lucky over rival Scott Robertson for the top job, and this is the most susceptible they have been to a loss at Eden Park in recent memory.
PRESSURE
The All Blacks haven’t lost a Test match in Auckland since 1994 (to France) and haven’t lost at Eden Park to the Wallabies since 1986, when none of the current squad had been born.
With that massive stretch of success comes huge pressure. The All Blacks players have spoken often in the past about not being the ones to hand over the Bledisloe Cup, or be part of the team that gives up the winning run in Auckland.
It’s clear the stress is mounting after last weekend’s shock 16-all draw, with All Blacks assistant coach John Plumtree complaining on Wednesday of rough-house and illegal Wallabies tactics of taking players out.
“That type of play on the field has got to be dealt with by the ref, there were several occasions where there was some off-ball incidents, but it’s got to be dealt with properly on the field,” Plumtree said.
“We’ve got to be able to adjust to that as well, and I think that’s probably why you’ve got a couple of senior players in particular pretty fired up about it.”
It’s a common Kiwi play; turn the referees’ and public’s attention to perceived cheating by their opposition – we’ve seen them previously call out the Wallabies’ scrumming and breakdown play – to take the spotlight away from their own.
This week’s referee, Aussie Angus Gardner, will have 47,000 screaming Kiwis pointing out every perceived Wallabies late tackle, off-side, or questionable ruck involvement.
COACHING
There were several raised Kiwi eyebrows when Foster won the race for the coaching job ahead of Robertson, after last year’s comprehensive World Cup semi-final defeat to England.
Foster had been part of Steve Hansen’s coaching team, and with the All Blacks being completely outplayed by Eddie Jones’ men, many Kiwi fans felt it was time to blood Robertson, given his incredible success with the Crusaders (four Super Rugby titles in his first four years) and ability to connect to younger players.
NZR opted for Foster, and after the disappointing draw in his first outing, a loss at Eden Park would have him under intense scrutiny.
This is a statement game for the All Blacks coach.
LEADERSHIP
As with the appointment of Foster, there was a similarly mixed review in New Zealand when the coach named Sam Cane as his captain.
Sam Whitelock is the most experienced All Black, has won more World Cup matches than any other player in history, and looked a natural successor to Read.
Meanwhile, some believe that Ardie Save, not Cane, is the best openside flanker in the country.
Because Cane was given the captaincy, it automatically made him the starting No.7, shifting Savea to No.8, a situation similar to the Wallabies when Michael Hooper was given the captaincy and David Pocock was forced to shift to the back of the scrum.
Cane’s leadership credentials are on the line in Bledisloe II.
SELECTION
So often, it has been Wallabies fans complaining of players being picked out of position, and favourites being rewarded.
Now the shoe is on the other foot.
New Zealand has not been able to figure out what to do with Beauden Barrett since Hansen decided he was a better fullback than five-eighth, despite winning the World Player of the Year as a No.10.
They went with Richie Mo’unga as their chief playmaker and Barrett at fullback, and that ultimately failed at last year’s World Cup.
Mo’unga then outplayed Barrett in the battle of the No.10s in the North vs South match, and so Barrett was again named fullback for last week’s Test before injury ruled him out.
However, it was Barrett’s brother Jordie who starred in that match from fullback, and yet he played on the wing in the first Bledisloe.
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Now there are calls to put Beauden Barrett back at No.10 and have Mo’unga come off the bench, so the two brothers are playing in their best positions.
There is also debate about whether Jack Goodhue should play No.12, outside centre, or even if he deserves to start.
And now we hear that both Beauden Barrett and Mo’unga are under injury clouds, forcing the All Blacks to call in rookie playmaker Josh Ioane, while Whitelock could be ruled out with concussion, leaving the Kiwis further depleted in experience.
These sound like very Australian problems before a crucial Bledisloe encounter.
Bugger it, let’s go and win it
Tim Horan
All the euphoria that was created by last Sunday’s first Bledisloe Cup match was just what the game of rugby needed, but the Wallabies were right not to celebrate.
I get that it was a fantastic match and anyone who was supposed to be minding the BBQ would have burnt all the sausages and the steaks because they couldn’t take their eyes off the TV, but the Wallabies and the coaching staff and their true supporters will all still be disappointed, and rightly so.
The opportunity to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand doesn’t come along all that often and the Wallabies had their chances to win, so to come so close and end up with a draw feels like a loss.
The big test will come this weekend because that will show everyone what this team is really made of and what we might be able to look forward to as we build towards the next World Cup.
One-off performances don’t mean anything if you don’t back up the following week as we all saw last year.
The euphoria was exactly the same after the Wallabies won in Perth. People were wearing their gold jerseys with pride again – running in the City to Surf race and the parks in Brisbane with their Wallabies colours on – but it didn’t count for anything when we went to Eden Park a week later and got beaten to nil.
I’ve got a lot of faith that this team won’t do that because they weren’t happy with the result last weekend and that’s the attitude they need to have.
It’s a four-match series but this match is going to be the biggest challenge of the lot because the All Blacks will be hurting.
Whenever they lose or draw at home, they don’t want to show their faces in public because their media and fans demand better and we all know that Eden Park is a hard place for visiting teams to win at.
So this is when we’ll see the true character of this Wallabies team. It’s going to be a very different match this time even though I was impressed with a lot of what I saw last weekend.
Dave Rennie has clearly made a positive difference but a lot of credit also needs to go to his assistant coaches, Scott Wisemantel and Matt Taylor because their fingerprints were all over that performance.
You could tell that even before the game when they announced the side because it was obvious they had taken a very calm and measured approach to picking the right team.
They didn’t fall into the trap of picking too many debutants based on what they’d seen from Super Rugby and the best example of that was by choosing Nic White at halfback.
There would have been a strong temptation to select Tate McDermott after the great season he had with Queensland but they went with Nic White because of all his big match experience and years of playing in the northern hemisphere, and it was proved to be the right move.
Scott Wisemantel’s influence on the attacking structures was evident. After spending years working with Eddie Jones at England, he brought a real northern hemisphere approach to the game, with guys like Taniela Tupou and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto playing the ball more.
It was the same with the defence. Matt Taylor has spent a lot of time with Scotland and he used those defensive patterns to unsettle the All Blacks.
I’ve heard some people say the Wallabies shouldn’t focus too much on the Bledisloe Cup this year because it’s a new side and it’ll be a great achievement if we can just win one of the four matches.
But I say bugger that, we should be doing everything we can to get the Bledisloe Cup back and that means draws aren’t going to be enough so we need to win.