The panel on Sky Sport’s The Breakdown continue their search for NZ's Greatest XV, this week looking at the best ever All Blacks locks. Video / Sky Sport
OPINION:
There's a growing sense that the Springboks have become the big bad wolf of world rugby.
They were the darlings of the rugby fraternity when they won the World Cup on a ticket of unity, inspired by the adversity many in the team have faced growing up in anation where life is cheap.
But the feelgood has gone and the perception is deepening that the Boks have morphed into an unlovable beast, roaming the international landscape with a giant pack, a crushing defence, a goal-kicking first-five and a director of rugby who, when he is not running the water, produces hour-long character assassinations of match officials and posts them on social media sites.
What is seemingly upsetting everybody is the simplicity of the Boks game-plan, as if developing a hugely muscular pack and relying on a contestable kicking strategy is the tactical equivalent of failing to observe a dress code or having the telly on while eating dinner.
The validity of this objection hinges on the hard to make stick argument that test teams have an obligation to entertain the masses – that test football comes with big ticket prices and huge broadcast contracts that need to be justified.
It's a grey area argument as winning, it could be said, ticks the entertainment box.
There's also a strong case to be made that Super Rugby is in the entertainment business, not test football, and international teams carry just one obligation, which is to play in a style that produces victories.
The Boks certainly don't buy into any notion of test football having a new stylistic mandate and they are unrepentant, citing their victories and domination as the only validation they need to continue pursuing such a limited and basic gameplan.
What's making the Boks yet more unpopular outside of South Africa, is that they are winning the big moments in the big games and have taken a Lions series to add to their World Cup triumph.
They have made winning ugly an art form and the strangest thing has happened in the wake of the Lions series, which is that the All Blacks have become the great hope for rugby fans everywhere other than South Africa.
The noises coming out of the UK suggest that the All Blacks, derided and hated for much of the last 10 years when they were sweeping aside everything they met in a blaze of pass and catch rugby, are now the global community's champion.
The world needs someone to slay the Boks and the All Blacks are the designated St George it would seem.
Not so long ago the rest of the world was bemoaning that the All Blacks had made test rugby boring – not in style but in outcome given their propensity to win – and here we are now, with those same haters having jumped into New Zealand's corner, willing them to win and prove that it is possible to simultaneously produce style and substance.
Rugby, if you believe those now protesting the Boks' success, stands on the edge of the abyss – one into which it will fall if the catastrophically dull football produced in the Lions series becomes the norm.
What makes this scenario yet more complicated is that the most significant tactical finding to come out of their review of the first Bledisloe Cup test, is that the All Blacks need to be prepared to tighten their attack for longer periods and kick more.
There was an over eagerness in the first half hour to play fast and wide – a plan that produced limited, if any rewards against a Wallaby defence that had the ability to read where the All Blacks wanted to attack.
All Blacks first five Richie Mo'unga in the New Zealand and Australia rugby test match at Eden Park. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
It was only when the forwards produced sustained telling bursts of ball carrying closer to the ruck early in the second half that the All Blacks built the momentum and subsequent space they needed to play wider.
What effectively came out of that 33-25 victory is confirmation that the All Blacks need to strike a better balance in their game and understand that an investment in hard yards up the middle of the field early in the game, can pay rich dividends later.
What's clear, or should be, is that while the Boks have their attacking compass set exclusively to go North to South, the All Blacks can't beat them by having theirs exclusively set on going East to West.
The rest of the world will have to accept that the All Blacks can be their pass and catch champions, but almost ironically, they will have to emulate the South Africans to some degree if they are to deliver the sweeping rugby they feel best suits their athletes.
The world is egging them on to play faster and wider and yet such a path is not one they can follow if they are to succeed.
