Join host Alex Chapman with special guests Buck Shelford & Leon MacDonald as they present the latest RWC news and review the All Blacks v Canada encounter. VIDEO/Spark Sport/AP/Mark Mitchell/AllBlacks.com/Photo sport/Getty images
The All Blacks made it two from two with a comprehensive 63-0 win over Canada and we have all the post-match action in our video series, Beyond the Game.
In the third episode of Beyond the Game, studio host Alex Chapman is joined by former All Black Buck Shelfordand Blues coach Leon MacDonald, while Radio Sport rugby editor Nigel Yalden reports from Japan and host Cheree Kinnear chats with former international referee Jonathan Kaplan.
MacDonald opened the panel discussion, dissecting the All Blacks' gains following a 10-day break since their opening clash against the Springboks on September 21.
Although touching on the All Blacks' handling areas, MacDonald said they should be pleased with their performance.
"Some lovely tries created, a lot of variation to the attack and overall, other than a few handling mistakes they did, there will be a lot of positives they'll take away from it," MacDonald said.
With suspicion rising of when Brodie Retallick will finally make his return from injury, Shelford said he believes the star lock will be back on the field on Sunday when the All Blacks play Namibia.
"I think Brodie will come back, whether he plays a whole game or 40 minutes, doesn't really matter, but I reckon he'll come back," Shelford said. "They're being really cautious with it but I think he's actually a lot fitter than what people think he is."
Joining the show from Oita Stadium, Yalden probed Steve Hansen about Retallick's return, receiving an ambiguous response from the head coach.
Head coach Steve Hansen wouldn't give much away on Brodie Raetallick's pending return. Photo / Photosport
"If you want to pick the team tonight [Nigel] ... we don't pick the team tonight, you can assume what you like but there's no point telling everybody what we're doing," Hansen said, before adding, "but the obvious is the obvious."
In a special link direct from the Canadian dressing room, Beyond the Game was joined by prop Jake Ilnicki who opened up on the experience playing the All Blacks.
"It was pretty special ... there's not a lot of people who get to do that, especially tier two nations, definitely something I won't forget," he said.
Meanwhile, Kinnear and Shelfrod spoke with Kaplan via video link about the standard of refereeing at this year's World Cup.
Jonathan Kaplan joined the show. Photo / Beyond the Game
Slamming a number of controversial decisions as wrong, Kaplan feared many of the calls were "over-sanitising the game of rugby".
"I understand the concern around player welfare and I support it, but I read somewhere that there's a concern that doctors and lawyers driving the future of the game instead of the rugby men," Kaplan said.
"Everyone likes to keep falling back on the law when it suits them, but there's a lot of laws that they willingly and knowingly opt-out of."
