…is how poor NZ were.They did execute on an few chances gifted to them and made the easier by some poor tackling. Their lineout was more reliable than our’s and they were more effective hunting for the ball on the deck. But that was it.
For the rest they pretty much mimicked our game plan less effectively with a huge deficit in territory 40/60. They were essentially defending after minute 20 and box kicking. And Williams was far more pin point than Christie and got much better range on his clearance kicks. The lack of Mo’unga at 10 seems to be gumming up the works and their backs had none of the AB magic we have come to expect.
And then we get to the scrums. The ref never called a number of dominant Bok scrums, I think because we were dominant only on the loosehead side, so scrums wheeled a few times. If Wilco started with Ox they could be conceding a penalty in any scrum. That was apparent in the first Wilco scrum when we blew the ABs off the ball. You can’t win close matches with that flaw,
So while we have plenty of player options on the bench and in the squad, who are the players who can turn this around for NZ. Maybe one of the more combative scrumhalves would help, but who else. What happened to Clark who scored good tries last year?
But can NZ beat us again playing this tight game plan. Only if we are woeful. Playing Kolisi and Dud Toit together exposes us on the deck….always has. Persisting with Dud Allende ensures no backline cohesion. Leaving Sacha off the park may seem like risk avoidance but it’s also creativity avoidance.
Australia showed the way and it wasn’t box kicks. It was spreading the ball wide ….attacking the space behind the rush defense….and moving the 30.5 year old Bok team around the park The fact that NZ didn’t have the confidence to do this was shocking….more like the deer in the headlights AB WC teams in the 1999 to 2007 period than the teams we saw subsequently. They played this like a WC final…not to their strengths.
There is more parity at the top than we have seen in years….France, Ireland, the Boks, NZ, Oz and Argentina are all capable of winning on the day. The difference could be the coaching. And of all those teams NZ has regressed the most but expectations haven’t. NZ is a proud rugby nation
Razor has a horrible job, does he have the smarts to pull it off….it’s not clear. Perhaps NZ should pick up Schmidt if he leaves Oz this year….he is a Kiwi and a brilliant coach. He would still have enough time to get them in much better shape for 2027