Scott Robertson. Photo / Getty Images
By Liam Napier in Sydney
The shine of securing the beloved Bledisloe Cup is blackened by an endemic All Blacks finishing crisis.
Coach Scott Robertson continues to project optimism after watching his men grimly cling on for a nervous escape against Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies in Sydney.
Yet the stark reality of failing to score a point beyond 52 minutes in five straight tests is fast becoming Robertson’s unsolvable curse.
The All Blacks have blown sizable leads against Argentina in Wellington (20-8), the Springboks at Ellis Park (27-18) and the Wallabies in Sydney (21-0) to collapse in the second half in each of those tests.
While they emerged with a knife-edge 31-28 victory against the Wallabies, the All Blacks claimed three points through a Damian McKenzie penalty in the final 54 minutes in Sydney.
After rocking the Wallabies with four tries, the All Blacks finishing went ice-cold.
Two late yellow cards to Anton Lienert-Brown and Caleb Clarke - increasing that tally to five in their last three tests - is another headache the All Blacks are yet to solve.
Throw in sustained concerns with the impact from the bench, and there are serious questions about whether the All Blacks are improving. They certainly aren’t addressing these major pressure points.
After successive defeats in South Africa, Robertson praised the All Blacks’ character regarding holding on at the death while defending with 13 men as the Wallabies surged back with two late tries, but he admitted the ongoing final-quarter failings must be fixed.
“Bittersweet? We’ve got the Cup. We found a way,” Robertson said.
“I’m really pleased. The last three test matches have come to a pass, a ref’s call, a moment of decision-making. That’s test footy. We’re learning quick. We’re getting the group experience to win these tight games and get some calluses so it’ll taste sweet.
“We’re not shying away from areas with our bench; finishing and decision-making we need to improve, but we’re working hard. It showed tonight, the care with our defence, but we need to start finishing games better and ride that momentum.
“I’m an optimist but I’m a realist too. We’ll show the clips where we need to be better too. We’ll be clear on that. Every test match is different. There’s so much importance on the Cup. We talked about it all week - all the people who have won it in the past and how we needed to honour it.”
After the opening blitz, the Wallabies consistently broke the All Blacks open through the middle and outscored the visitors 28-3 to leave them scrambling to survive.
“They showed a bit of grit. Any Aussie team you play won’t go away,” Robertson said. “They keep turning up. It’s a big moment for a Cup they haven’t won for a long time. We knew at some stage we would get into a fight like that. We didn’t plan to go that deep, but they’ve got some great young talent and some spirit and fight.”
With better execution, the All Blacks should have blown the Wallabies away well before they mounted their comeback. Ardie Savea was held up over the line; a spectacular 80m break-out finished by Cortez Ratima was called back for a forward pass and Damian McKenzie’s ill-advised flick ball cost Tamati Williams a gift five points.
“You do have a conversation because you want them to be instinctive,” Robertson said of McKenzie’s pass. “That’s his greatest gift - to find space, glide but put it on someone’s chest, give it maybe a step earlier but to keep trusting himself.
“Full respect to the Aussies. We didn’t quite finish those opportunities we’ve been creating all year. There were big momentum swings. When the score is like that, there’s always a bit of trepidation. You’ve got to keep going and get those final passes to stick but they didn’t.
“We got into a hell of a battle but we found a way.”
While the future is bright in the form of Chiefs duo Wallace Sititi and Ratima, Robertson grasps the importance of avoiding costly cards.
“Very disappointed. Discipline was a big focus, especially when you’re defending your own line for long periods - that’s one area we wanted to clean up. Against the Boks, that’s where they targeted us, and it wasn’t good enough tonight. We’ll assess it again.”
The All Blacks will be without Jordie Barrett for possibly the next month, with Robertson confirming he sustained a medial ligament blow to his knee in the first half.
The most pressing issue, though, is sourcing a solution to the lack of second-half points, and finishing, that continues to haunt Robertson’s All Blacks.