All Blacks overview...

only watched the game once so far, but heres my two rand on that performance and where the All Blacks should go from here...

- how sopoaga would roll was one of the main things i wanted to see and i wasnt disappointed, but not impressed either.
i dont think hes done enough to knock out carter, barret and slade from the RWC squad, but he has done enough to get another crack at 10, maybe of the bench this time in one of the bledsiloe tests.
he did just start in a test vs the Boks in the SA rugby mecca ellis park which aint easy, and that goes along way in the kudos department.

- our outsidebacks and depth there is insane, no savea but piutau keeps the domination going.

- daggs performance was pretty solid, but i would make ben smith 15 and put dagg on the wing.
ben smith at the moment is the better counter attacker, and i cant think of a player who has better rugby nous than ben smith except mccaw.

- how awesome was victor vito??? his impact of the bench was immediate and it continued that way for his entire time.
messam better lookout, cos vito can steal that bench spot of him  hes got locked down.
in fact, messam better start pulling his weight period, he was very disappointing today.

- kaino, McCaw and read are still our top 3 though.

- broadhurst, thanks buddy, try again next year.

- have to remember that many players were shaky cos this was their first test in 2015, aaron smith, ben smith, conrad smith, lima sopoaga, j broadhurst, v vito, d coles, b franks.
ring rust has been a problem for the All blacks the last few years, and we usually need a test to shake it, this could account for many of the lapses we showed with our fundamentals and decision making.

congrats All Blacks, thanks for making king richies last Bok test in ellis park a good one,

 

 Good breakdown Naru ,Sopoaga was still pretty good on debut in the Ellis park cauldron as you say it aint easy ! Still gives Hansen better options though , Messam usually lifts for these games but yeah Victor Vito is stepping up well isnt he ?Broadhurst ? maybe 1 more chance off the bench or as you say next year it is then !

 Ahhh don't be to harsh on Broadhurst, tough starting in the tight againgst SA in SA. I Thought he made some good runs, and decisions, and some bad ones lol. I think the difference between the two sides, was NZ supeior fitness levels and conditioning, and our supieor depth of the bench. Vito was outstanding, Fekitoa was awesome. Barrett was uncharacteristically quiet. But to be fair NZ were dominated in the possesion and territory stakes, and scored the try through the lineout, irony! lol. Naru I think your selling Lima short, I thought for his test debut he was outstanding. At least we know if DC goes down he is good to go. I am still in the invest in Barrett camp. Work on his game, kicking game especially, he could be the future. He just has the X Factor. Coles was the man! But for me the real reason we won this game was Richie "The God" Mccaw. His resolute defense, and Read won this game, a game we did not deserve to win. That defense for about 15 mins keeping the boks out was amazing. 

 The rolling maul turned out to be a non issue ,and yeah 3kul ironic that Maccaws try was through the lineout ,perhaps they need wee Matfield back ?

 Watching the game again. In the first half Broadhurst was a passenger he handled the ball twice & was held up twice, looked a little lost out there. No wonder he was not sent out after half time. He had his first taste of top test rugby & will need to step up his intensity, involvement & lower his body position going into contact.
Piatau looks very assured, he had a very good game, Sopoaga look good. Would have looked better if he made a few more kicks. Dagg was solid & Hansen will feel vindicated in sticking with him. A. Smith was very good, best in the world right now. Dane Coles showed his speed & try scoring ability. Fekitoa was put on after the Kriel try (was the Nonu shoulder injury a contributing factor or was it that C. Smith was rusty?). Vito did well & I agree with Naru san, i.e. he is putting pressure on Messam, won a line-out against the throw as soon as he came on.
Bismark was tough & really effective at the breakdown. Boks backs looked good & dangerous. Le Roux had some great plays & some dud plays. The Boks need him. De Allende is tough to tackle & looks good on attack. Kriel is a good discovery for the Boks he is very much needed. Koch didn't get much of a chance. Koch went off at the 61.50 mark (broken rib & head knock), Boks had a 5 meter scrum & then they went for uncontested scrums. Tough development for Boks.
Overall a good game (exciting & intense) except for the contested scrums & the fact that Boks lost 3 or more line-outs. Both teams tested players & got some answers and some injuries. If some of the Bok players don't get back from injury soon they will have a depth issue. They also need to start winning to get their mojo back. Beating the Argie would be a good start.

 Sasue
The AB assessment made by you is solid - but one aspect of their performance you avoided like a plague and that was the performance of their centers .  I thought that the combination of De Allende and Kriel would do well enough - and included both in my fantasy selections.
However, what I did not really expect was the way De Allende humiliated Nonu and the fact that Conrad Smith was also overshadowed by Kriel.  
I think they have SBW and Fekitoa - but in the Super 15 game between the Chiefs and the Stormers De Allende was much better than SBW as well.  My favourite AB center remains Fekitoa.   
I would rather have SBW and Fekitoa in the AB side if they have to face the Springboks in the WC than having the two who played yesterday in that position.     

...not so clever mike it's all very well having a couple of good centres but all the examples you give are games in which those players were part of a losing team..so as good as they may have been , that wasn't quite good enough to influence the outcome in their team's favour.. surely the objective is to actually win the game and not just look good...?

Brycy; yes IMO SBW, Fekitoa, Carter (starters I would say) and Milner-Scudder will get some good game time if not start. Savea will start.
They also have to find game time for Sam Cane. I would like to see Vito get some more game time as well. Whitelock needs more time, Retallick may get a rest if his ankle requires it and they need to give Romano more time. We will have to see if Hika Elliot gets a run. Is Charlie Faumuina still injured? If not he will have to get game time before the RWC.

 Brycy
The poor AB centers nearly cost them the game - so I think they were not the shining lights they should have been.  What is wrong with me pointing it out and suggesting a different center combination?  

Can't say for sure Kriel and De Allende outplayed Nonu and Smith. They play on opposite sides of the field. Indiviudally yes De Allende and Kriel stood out more, but it is not like other then Kriel try, Nonu or Smith was stepped or smashed in a tackle or anything. Nonu and Smith were just a bit rusty, first big game since the Super 15 final, partic for smith. Experience wins world cups. So at this stage I would still go with the reliable Nonu/Smith combo over any other combo. Although Fekitoa/SBW not a bad back up. 

 Luke
With respect Nonu was poor -very poor.  A month lay-off would not cause that kind foi rustiness.   I hope you did not have him in your fantasy selection.  He got 45 points in Test Rugby and we know that that indicates a very poor showing.       

Unfortunately he did lol. Dropped to 6th I think, I was 3rd last week. Only get so many trades, Kriel and De Allende were an inspired choice however .  I almost took Kriel out thinking oh he is up againgst the old firm lol, nek minute he goes through Nonu like a knife through thin butter. 

 Luke
Don't worry - you were in bad company in this case.  Sasue took De Allende and Conrad Smith - who scored 70 points, not much better than Nonu did.  Why he stuck with Kriel as outside back - we should ask him.    Kriel was the choice of most members, so they all scored well.  Probably because of the cheap price.
This is a longer term problem for all of us  as well.  Kriel and De Allende will be bloody expensive in the Super 18 comp on Foxsport and NZ Herald comps next year.  
Wonder whether Foxsport and NZ Herald are going to run fantasy comps in the WC? 

 The boks' center combo is being very hyped.
It's normal in defeat times to look for something to rely on and console. De Allende and Kriel have all to be this consolation and to allow to dream in better times. They form a new and young combo, they are outstanding prospects and the only decent backline players that SA has produced in the last years (the rest is really poor and lack of ball skills). But till the moment they are just that, prospects, with a great future ahead of them if they do the right things but just prospects.
The AB centers didn't have their best day and this contributed a lot to the hype but the SA centers didn't do nothing special if you don't take into account Kriel's try which was very lucky. Nonu left him all the way free coz he was injured and left the field after the try.
Appart from that there were some de Allende's tackle busts but that was all. The way de Allende got, and usually get, these tackle busts is quite astonishing. Last saturday he made most of them when he was almost stopped or at least at a very little speed. In this situation any player, even players bigger than de Allende, are easy tackled but de Allende is like he had some grease or oil over his body (and I'm not implying that he puts on anything, it's just a simile). The tackles seemed to be very easy but he managed to bust them and it happenned several times last saturday but also in many other of his games.

ive watched the game three more times now and heres a few things i noted,,,

- All Blacks didnt have the same hunger the Boks did when it came to the breakdowns and while the All Blacks have faced that many times before against the Boks and other teams, the options the All Blacks were taking on the field indicated they didnt identify this at all.
its lucky the All Blacks superior fitneess and conditioning proved too much for the Boks, cos had the Boks maintained that pressure the whole 80 minutes, it could have been a different story.

when the All Blacks are under that much pressure at the breakdowns, they need to stop carrying the ball forward without adequate support.
there was far too many times our ball carrier were getting isolated and the Boks would nearly every single time have 3 players ready to pounce and pilfer.
smarter ball carrying options from our players were needed, but i can give an uzumaki pardon considering the number of players playing their first test of the year and the number of debutants.

- codie taylor, i am loving this dude at the moment. hes ticking all the right boxes IMO.
hikas still the NZ form hooker and i wish he had been given All Black gametime, but codies going very well with his tests to date.

- aaron smith had a brain fart when he tapped the ball quickly from a penalty which was right in front of the sticks.'
he passed it to snake who was in  the middle of signalling to take the three and he knocked it on.
i was very annoyed with this as teams seem to be turning away the easy three pioints far too often IMO.
king richie agreed with me, cos he gave aaron a right royal telling off lolz,

- i thought broadhurst was bad when i watched the game once. turns out he was actually worse.
his two notable contributions was getting beaten half to death byb the Bok pack, and getting eatne alive by the Bok pack. both resulted in a turnover to the Boks, o_O

- does anyone else think lima sopooaga should start a test vs the wallabies???
i think he should, i want to see what he can do against a team who knows how to play attacking rugby.

- All Blacks need to dedicate more training time into their rolling mauls. its effective and the boys know how to execute it, but still dosent have that cohesion that other teams have when they execute theirs.
we will never be as good as the Boks at rolling maul, simply cos rolling maul is the main source of trys for all saffa teams, and or preference to score via ataacking. but we can still improve our rolling mauls by at least 50%.

- i am not happy with the goal kicking performances of all or flyhalves.
hansen should put all our flyhalves under the pump, flyhalf with the worst goalkicking percentage after the two remaining tests finishes gets left out of the RWC squad.

- NZ best player after the three test matches is,,,Richie McCaw.