All Blacks - Is there a problem?

The following from News24:-

The All Blacks' image as surefire World Cup winners is starting to fade as not only critics but also the team's fans begin to question coach Steve Hansen's master plan.

Even Kieran Read, the stand-in captain for Friday's 47-9 win over Tonga, admitted there were problems to be addressed.

Hansen put on a bold front after the game, declaring himself "very happy" with the way things are going.

"What's happening now is irrelevant. What happens next week will be and it's about maintaining performances from here on in and winning," he said after Tonga finally folded at St James' Park.

"We had a plan and we stuck to that plan now we have to wait to see if it works."

In a relatively easy pool, the All Blacks maintained their record of never losing a game before the quarter-finals in all eight World Cups, and Hansen said they were building towards the sudden-death phase of the tournament.

But in all four pool matches in this tournament they have not once put in the full 80 minute performance that Hansen said is necessary in the play-offs.

For the last half hour against Tonga they looked thoroughly in command with precision finishing that netted five tries.   But, for the first 50 minutes they struggled.

Read dropped the ball the first three times he tried to catch it, Waisake Naholo dropped the ball with an open line ahead of him, and the scrum creaked and groaned and conceded four penalties against a feisty Tongan pack.'

"What has happened to our game," tweeted Mark S tafford, reflecting the thoughts of many other All Blacks supporters.

Other tweets included: "The All Blacks are going to have to improve if they are to win this World Cup" and "Are the ABs holding everything back or are they really not that good in this comp".

Read acknowledged that Tonga had exposed shortcomings in the All Blacks' forwards.

"They really took us on up front. I was pleased the way we just stuck at it. They put some pressure on our scrum but we held our line there," he said.

"Certainly our work up front needs to probably improve."

Among the British press, the Independent believed the other quarter-finalists would be heartened by what they saw.

"For anyone else with designs on lifting the Webb Ellis Cup - and there are a few - this was a thoroughly comforting evening. “The gulf between this, and the energy and execution laid on by Australia against England at Twickenham last week was a class apart.

"And if Australia live up to last week's highs again in their mouth-watering clash with Wales, they will surely have established themselves as the team to beat."

The Guardian said the world champions were "still to shake off their ring rust" while The Times noted "something close to panic in their ranks during the middle period of the match when they were reduced to 14 men and Tonga surged forward with confidence, strength and skill."

he Telegraph said the All Blacks' title defence was "far from being straightforward. They looked wobbly and rusty, their only real point of difference being in their finishing, admittedly a rather significant factor."

Comments

I am a bit worried abut the performances the All Blacks put up in the pool games.  As was mentioned above they seem to  be rusty and I have serious reservations about some aspects of their play - there forwards (Tight 5) in particular.

This is not what is expected from the AB team - they seemed to be struggling and come out strongly in the last 20 minutes of games.  The question is are they becoming stronger or is it a case that the opposition becomes weaker?  Most of the smaller countries have a solid starting team and much weaker bench.

The other very interesting question relates to the issue of experience.  On this site    a number of members always emphasize the experience and he need for such experience in world cups.   However, when pointing out that some of the experienced player are not meeting the necessary performance requirements - the issue of experience is set as non-negotiable as an absolute requirement.   

The issue was highlighted when in the test against Japan the Springbok team  consisted of the most experienced team that ever played for them - yet the result was atrocious.   To my mind it once again showed that experience without performance is an abomination. 

In the panel discussion last night during half time the straight question was asked -Is there not too many old (ie experienced)  players in the AB squad.  It stymied Taine Randell and John Mitchell and both ended up saying it is not a worrisome since the AB's should improve in the play-off stage of the competition.   But would they?   That remains the million dollar question.

The All Blacks go through periods of transition and they stabilise. Nothing to see here. They'll be fine. 

PS: The most experienced players against Japan were not what cost the Boks a win. The worst players were the younger, less experienced Boks or those who HD yet to establish themselves. 

 well we will see in the quarters wont we ? The pools are only a means to check stuff out for the ABs .Write them off at your peril.

 by the all blacks high standard they have not been firing at all. that being said do not underestimate them at all. 
if you content there breakdowns and starve them of the ball by attacking them they have weaknesses but there defence is the best in the world so you have to put them under server pressure before they crack.
all blacks are not unbeatable. do not kick the ball to them at all. phase play is the way to break them down

 It looks to me like the ABs are beating each other up on the training field. Same Cane , Brody Retallick, Whitelock (at last week McCaw) all looked exhausted before  the game even started. 
They need to now back off the physicality in training & save it for the games. 

 All will recall my seminal piece regarding the writing is on the wall. 
If Tonga had been fit the would have beaten the wee abs. Their pack was simply to strong for the abs. A afct even ou warped DUD cant deny!
It will from what we have seen be a surprise if the abs make the final. Their challenge might well end in the quarters. We shall see.
What is disappointing was to see the Ben Smith escape a yellow while Tongsa got a yellow for the same offence!!! One just hopes this favouring of the abs ceases.

 
I really don't know what all the booha's about.

Is it perhaps just wishful thinking??

The Tongans came at them ... wave after wave ... all for naught ... and in the end were beaten comprehensively.

What was it ... 7 tries to zip??

That's good enough for me.

Wait till they hit form.

Beeno, desperately throwing wee Lood into the RWC, digging up old half backs & resuscitating wee Matfield are not good signs for Bok rugby. I won't even comment on the mid-field other than to say keep it in the forwards.

 wee cc we have been waiting all world cup. Not one convincing perfromance. Hence the questions being raised. 
Wake up oak and how about you supporting the Boks for a change. 
Has cc crosed over to the dark side!

CleanCut showing superior rugby knowledge & leading the way for the likes of Beeno. One can only hope Beeno sees the light, perhaps an electrical charge to the lonely brain-cell would do the trick. It's worth a try

 Here is nice avatar for wee ccc 
Birds of a feather etc.

 Beeno: the Administrator has wisely blocked your unseemly image of daffy.

 Try this one 

 However this is the one I can fully recomment fro wee ccc

 We shall have to stick with what we have.

 DF
As per normal you blame individual players - but that is not where the problem was in the Japan game.  the problem was a seriously defective performance by players like Pienaar, Matfield, the Du Plessis Brothers and even the ball-fumbling Burger and De Villiers.  None of them showed anything of substance and played like they were in a trance.  
Beside that Matfield refused to accept the instruction to use rolling mauls - a phase of play he is really defective in.  
You blame Lambie - but his game was satisfactory and to blame Kriel for missing that a tackle is like any other individual player is to be quite frank silly. 
It basically was a failure by our more experienced players and the fact is that it has been evident that at least some of them are not up to standard anymore.  The main failures insofar as experienced players are concerned were Matfield and Jannie.  We subsequently did much better without them in games.        

 Mrs Beeno having a friendly chat

 For what we've seen til the moment there could be some minor problems (e.g. Woodc0ck out of form) that can be adressed coming the finals (hope Woodc0ck injury is not that bad, it would be a sad way of finishing an extraordinary career).

And a very positive issue for the AB is that they have been tested in handling pressure. Argentina is one of the WC contendres with a very phisycal team while skillfull and they put pressure on the AB. Georgia and Tonga are also very phisycal teams and their only possibility of shining in this WC was going through beating the AB which would have given them the opportunity of having the world attention for some days. They put all they have in their match against the AB and succeeded in putting pressure on them.
In all the 3 matches the AB were able to handle this pressure and winning which is very important coming the finals and in the cases of Georgia and Tonga they ended up winning confortably.
Unlike some other teams who couldn't handle that pressure and ended up losing against tier 1 nations (like England) or coming into panic and losig against tier 2 team s (boks)

 Ou maaaikie the great failure was tactical. Pap matfield is always ahuge liability and Pienaaar too passive. 
For the rest the guys were off the pace and the wee Blossums got very lucky.

 The wee abs didnt handle the pressure. Minnows like Tonga are not fit. If theywere the wee abs woudl have been minced. Tongoons were dominating the pap wee ab pack.
It was only when the Tongoon
It was only when the tongoons faded that the abs coulkd get going. The yellow also was falterring to the score.
It had nothing to do with the wee abs handling it.The tongaans were also extremely unlucky in thayt a penalty try shodl have been given to them. Also wee ben Smith was not yellow carded.
Nothing yet to suggest wee abs are serious RWC contenders. No wonder hansen nz fans and scribes are all so worried.Saying the wee abs handled it is laughable really ab ass! Georgia also drilled the wee ab pack until running out o f steam'Top sides wont run out of ste am.Put two and two together ab ass!! Bwahahahahhahaahahahhahaah

Beeno, since the humiliating defeat to Japan Boks seemed to have papered over the cracks but the problems remain. Weaknesses in the pack, still not sure who their starters should be. Resorting to the historical Bok game plan after years of trying to diversify their game. But who knows they could get lucky.

 

 

 
Japan lucky?????

Yeah, Beandip ... you keep telling yourself that.

From where I sat cheering the Brave Blossoms on, I saw an arrogant, cocksure Goats side being dismantled at every turn.

They were still getting ready to destroy the Japanese in the scrums and when they looked again the ball was half down the line on route to the wing.

Nah ... face it, the Japanese outplayed you chumps in every aspect of the game.

Me and my house went ballistic when that final try was scored.

Shan't forget it any day soon.

 Wee cc you are a hopeless turncoat.
Blossums will not repeat this result in decades. As Mallet said Boks were way below par and Blossums had a sublime day.
Watch what happens next time these two meet. Boks will win by 30.
An aberration is of little value when considering matters.
I leave that up to you and the Kbbs!  

Michael, the halfbacks were comprehensively outplayed. Kriel was outplayed. Steph was outplayed. Bissie had a bad test, as well as Jean. Vic and Schalk were two of our most productive players. The back three were also sound with Mvovo being very passive and the farthest thing from threatening on attack. These were our primary problems. 

Oh, and being totally burned for a match winning try is not a little thing! To be the final nail in the biggest upset in WC history is quite a big thing, in fact.

 Mr. Been,

"Top sides wont run out of steam."

Georgia and Tonga did exactly what the boks usually do, handle the AB for 50-60 minutes putting pressure on them and then when the AB put the top gear, bend their knees.
It's been the perfect training for the finals.

 BP I see Moody was already heading to the airport halfway through the game .Pity Nepo leualua wasnt a loosey .

 Mike you could have phrased you post heading more carefully and gained focus on the replies.You should have said  - is there anywhere re the wee abs where there is not a problem?That that should get the oaks scratching their heads! 

no more fa tuous remarks please ab ass. Its been a long day!

Cloudy I am sure its just because mcaaaw is missing. wee abs cat do withiut him and woody woodcock!