All Blacks flunk exam - and how

By WYNNE GRAY

Tough calls must be made by the All Black selectors, but it would surprise if the changes were anything other than cosmetic for the next test, against the Springboks.

After the All Blacks continued their spotty, 50 per cent record against major opponents lately with a 15-23 loss to the Wallabies at Carisbrook, their woeful work demanded alterations.

Praise was appropriate and delivered after Cape Town, but the Carisbrook scoreline flattered the All Blacks: they were comfortable losers.

Yet the protective cocoon which envelops the All Blacks, and the decision to keep the same squad in Dunedin for further training until Wednesday, suggests, at best, a deckchairs-on-the-Titanic rearrangement.

The All Blacks talked about this international deciding their reputation under the new regime. They could not use the regular out-clauses about inexperience or rebuilding - this was the test of whether they were any good.

They flunked the exam - comprehensively.

Out-passioned by the Wallabies in late 1999 and out-thought by them in Wellington last year, the All Blacks were outwitted again in Dunedin on Saturday. That repeated lack of rugby intelligence calls for a cleanout.

Wallaby coach Eddie Jones spent some time out on Carisbrook before kickoff surveying the showers, wind and pitch before moving back to the shed with his instructions about 15 minutes before kickoff.

"We changed our whole game plan because of the conditions just before the game," playmaker Stephen Larkham revealed. "Eddie said to put in grubbers and play in behind them because it was slippery."

The Wallabies were by no means at the peak of their powers, but at least they thought their way round the field, while the All Blacks looked like men scrubbing a driveway with a toothbrush.

They got nowhere fast and still did not change their approach.

They did not have the brawn to muscle away the Wallabies and certainly not the brains to think their way round the obstacles.

The scrum and lineout functioned steadily, but the All Blacks made no inroads at the breakdowns. They were unable to free any possession quickly and did not collect one possible restart in the match.

Against a smart side, the All Blacks foundered. That repeat meltdown is alarming enough to demand change.

If coach Wayne Smith, his assistant, Tony Gilbert, and selector Peter Thorburn have not been able to prise better responses from their first-choice group, they have to make alternative plans. There is nothing smart in being loyal.

Brave decisions have to be made, otherwise a less than flattering endorsement from New Zealand Rugby Football Union chief executive David Rutherford about their likely role at the next World Cup will have to be downgraded.

The panel's analysis should read:

* Selecting utilities does not work.

* The No 8-halfback hinge is not at all fluent.

* Bulk up the tight five.

* Attack is nowhere near matching the defence, which was also scratchy.

* Ease off on the robotic rugby, encourage more spontaneity.

* Get tough, get mean. Cut-throat calls have to be made.

The All Black panel and their squad can talk as much as they like about their spirit and enthusiasm on Saturday.

If they did not have those qualities, players should have been sacked immediately.

Talk of those attributes was a misleading distraction.

The All Blacks played poorly, they did not move out of their robotic, defensive-oriented thought process. They need a serious injection of dynamism.

Taine Randell is not a specialist openside flanker, Reuben Thorne and Carl Hoeft are looking no more than tradesmen, Chris Jack rather than Mark Cooksley is the lock to go through to the 2003 World Cup, and Ron Cribb and Justin Marshall need to reinvent themselves in the NPC.

And there must be doubt about whether Tana Umaga will ever play as well at centre as he did on the wing.

Inspirational fullback Christian Cullen is unlikely to be fit or risked against the Boks in the test at Eden Park on August 25. A squad of 22 will probably be announced on Wednesday.

It would be encouraging to see potential such as Jerry Collins, Paul Miller, Justin Collins, Chris Jack and Mark Robinson included in that squad, but history would rate their chances about as high as the All Blacks beating the Wallabies.