All Blacks flanker Dalton Papali'i brought down by Tomos Williams of Wales. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks flanker Dalton Papali'i brought down by Tomos Williams of Wales. Photo / Photosport
After their impressive win over Wales, the All Blacks players easily identified two key reasons for the big victory, reports Gregor Paul from Cardiff.
The All Blacks demolition of Wales can be put down to smart on-field tactical management and a controlled harnessing of anger.
These were the two factorsuniversally identified by the players as the key to a victory that was achieved in a style that few imagined the All Blacks had in their repertoire.
It was a performance built on bash and crash – on relentlessly bruising ball carrying by the forwards and a directness that began in the first minute and never stopped.
Such a conservative game plan hadn’t initially been on the agenda for the All Blacks.
The intent was to look to play a little more rugby than they did – to add some creative spice to the staple ingredient of direct running.
But conditions and outcomes changed the thinking. Despite the roof being closed in Cardiff, the heavy rain and relatively warm temperature created a degree of humidity inside the stadium and conditions were heavier and wetter than they may have appeared.
“It was slippery,” says Aaron Smith. “It was dewy and it was warm. Everyone was dripping wet after about five minutes. There were a few dropped balls early on so everyone had to adjust.
“We shortened up our passes and our forwards tightened up. At times we were really dominant, getting round the corner to win the collision area, deliver good cleanouts and we were breaking into the 22 a lot.”
How easily and often the All Blacks were able to get into the Welsh 22 should be a worry for the home side, but how ruthless and effective New Zealand were once they got there should be a worry to the rest of the rugby world.
Once the All Blacks were in the red zone, they produced direct, brutal rugby that was clinical and almost unstoppable.
They recycled the ball so quickly, had runners queuing up either side of the ruck, and it was too much for Wales to contend with.
“If we get 10 metres out, we back our big boys to get that last 10 metres,” says Smith.
“When our cleans were good, we were dominant and we got some nice tries in that space. Our loose forwards and our locks are dominant carriers. It was a bit of a big boy game and we had to play that way.
“We picked a lot more because we know we had to respect the Welsh defence.
“When we tried to go wide a couple of times, the way they hold their width and come with line speed, it is pretty hard to attack around. But because they are spread out a lot little bit, there is space around the ruck to punch into.”
What impressed coach Ian Foster was the decision-making by the leadership team to be so committed to the direct approach.
It was a style that was working and so the All Blacks resisted all temptation to try to attack wider inside the Welsh 22 and instead just kept patiently hammering close to the ruck.
“Our drivers who direct our game felt like they were getting gains through that area so that was on them,” says Ardie Savea.
“I think this team when they play on instinct, and they do their prep and play what is in front of them and just do things, that’s when we are at our best and it felt like that.
“We went out of structure a little bit and played what was in front of us and it worked well.”
And the foundation to the intensity of the performance came from some serious rage in the system that had brewed on the back of the underwhelming performance the previous week in Japan.
That had been a sore point all week for the All Blacks as they prepared, the message being hammered home that they had to learn the art of consolidating and building on a big lead.
For the third time this season, the All Blacks let a good lead slip midway through the second half in Tokyo, something they were determined couldn’t happen again in Cardiff.
“We were hard on ourselves all week,” says Dalton Papali’i. “We knew we put a pretty average performance against Japan out on the field. We knew it wasn’t good enough.
“All throughout the week we were hard on each other.”
