Phil Gifford lists seven talking points from the weekend’s remarkable rugby tests.
Yuck indeed
All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock summed up the mood of his team when he said it was “a yuck feeling”, as an All Blacks win spiralled down the drain into a 25-all draw with England. Manyof us may have used stronger language, as the harsh reality is a late-season All Blacks renaissance stumbled.
For 70 minutes they’d basically answered their critics. Now comes the summer of our discontent. The verdict on the All Blacks overall is mixed. If 10 minutes from the end at Twickenham England hadn’t started playing like the All Blacks, there could have been nothing but praise for a gutsy recovery from the Irish series nightmare.
There were touches of the same lack of ruthlessness in the All Blacks’ win over Scotland last week, but this time it was much more dramatic.
Beauden Barrett being yellow carded was a massive blow, but just as devastating for the All Blacks was TJ Perenara kicking possession away near the death. The all-conquering All Blacks of 2011 to 2015 would have cherished the ball like the Hope diamond.
Brain fades have been an feature of the 2022 All Blacks season, and how Ian Foster and his coaching team deal with them will decide how New Zealand fare at the World Cup next year.
No. It’s too late for a switch, and, given the improvements after the disastrous start to the season, the mood at New Zealand Rugby won’t favour a change. If Scott Robertson was going to be given a fair shot at the 2023 Cup he needed to be appointed back in August, after the loss in the first test against South Africa.
Mastering the dark arts
One area where there should be no criticism of the All Blacks has to be in the vast improvements in scrummaging and defending the maul.
Take a bow Jason Ryan for a scrum that stopped the English in their tracks, and bravo too for mauling that mastered an English pack full of gym monsters who live for physical contact.
At the start of the test season coach Foster was firm in his belief that Jordie Barrett was too raw in the position, and had technical problems (mostly that he was too upright when he ran) to be moved from fullback to second-five. His change of heart has proved the right decision. Barrett is so big and strong he can match any midfielder in the world, and his rugby smarts see him looking totally at home at 12.
Choosing to kiss his sister
Given that England were on fire, it was a strangely limp response from Marcus Smith, usually a daring runner, to boot the ball out and end the game. England coach Eddie Jones, whose stocks were becoming about as shaky as cryptocurrency, was quick to say he had nothing to do with the call. I’d go with the Twickenham crowd who booed the decision that a guaranteed draw was better than a possible miracle victory.
France produces the best wine, the best cheeses, some of the best movies, great literature, and, with Paris, the most beautiful city in the world. Pity about their rugby referees.
Mathieu Raynal was the latest in a run of French referees who don’t seem to have a feel for the game. Technically the 30 penalties he blew at Twickenham were probably correct. But wouldn’t it have been great if he’d been less afflicted with a bad case of premature resolution, and more inclined to play advantage?
Which coaches edged to or away from the exit door?
In a dizzying weekend of autumn internationals in Europe the biggest coaching winner was Australia’s Dave Rennie, whose Wallabies played a blinder against the No 1 ranked Ireland, who scraped out a 13-10 win. Runner-up was Eddie Jones. That amazing English finale will have papered over how many of Fast Eddie’s starting players are past their best.
The biggest loser was Wales’ Wayne Pivac. Losing 13-12 to Georgia, ranked 14th in the world, the eighth loss in 11 tests this year, Pivac was realistic about his future. That, he said, rests with other people.
