Somehow, against all expectation, the All Blacks of 2024 have become the masters of the second-half drift –experts at knowing how to meekly retreat and hand their opposition a free pass back into the contest.
Having done it against Argentina, then twice against the Springboks, there seemed no way the All Blacks could possibly manage it a fourth time when they romped to a 21-0 head-start in Sydney after just 16 minutes.
And yet, there they were at the death, clinging on, a bucketload of potential tries squandered and for the fifth successive match, not a point scored in the final quarter.
Once again, a game that was so firmly in their grasp after 50 minutes, was almost stolen by the Wallabies at the death.
The momentum was so firmly with the home side that the final whistle couldn’t come quickly enough in the end.
And once it blew, there was no elation from the All Blacks, not even a sense of relief – more a wave of disappointment flowing over them as they realised that something that shaped as an aberration in Wellington, developed into a trend into South Africa, had become a rut in Sydney.
This was at least a happy outcome, and the narrative could be spun to suggest that falling apart but holding on to win, as opposed to falling apart and losing as has previously happened, is progress.
It’s proof of lessons having been learned: of the team developing the art of finding the resolve to win, of being mentally tough enough to produce enough key moments to survive the chaos.
Certainly, there was some brave defence by the All Blacks in the second half – some big moments such as an Ardie Savea miracle turnover on his own goal-line, a TJ Perenara enormous clearance kick and a tackle at the death to win a maul.
But it’s a narrative that would be dangerous for the All Blacks to buy into.
The All Blacks beat the Wallabies 31-28 in Sydney. Photo / Photosport
It wouldn’t quite make the Donald Trump definition of fake news, but there’s a massive difference between building a lead that couldn’t be held against the world champion Springboks, to being pushed so hard by the world’s ninth-ranked team after having them just about done and dusted 20 minutes into the game.
The story of the night, of this season, therefore, is not one of progress. Not really, or definitively. If the All Blacks have grown this season it is marginal, by such incremental amounts as to be visible only to the coaching group.
To everyone else it seems as if the record is a little stuck – that there is a systemic failure that is causing balls to be dropped, passes to be needlessly flung and simple opportunities casually squandered.
To be scrapping at the death the way they were was a sign not of courageousness but of profligacy and erraticism.
That the All Blacks managed to survive was a minor celebration, but that they found themselves in such a titanic struggle was a major concern.
It was scarcely believable just how many times and different ways the All Blacks failed to convert their enterprise into points.
But all of them had an underlying theme – the same core problem of players becoming a little jittery or sloppy.
The composure and accuracy that marked the All Blacks’ three tries early in the game disappeared all too quickly, which is a tired theme and one that the All Blacks have dutifully promised each week of this Rugby Championship to remedy.
Damian McKenzie, so brilliant in the way he frequently broke the line, was so profligate in the way he chose to make the killer pass after he’d opened up the Wallabies.
Scott Barrett chose to pass the ball – to a Wallaby – when he was a metre from the try-line and seemingly could have stretched out and planted the ball with his giant mitt.
Sevu Reece got a little too excited at a ruck and lifted his head to knock the ball on and micro errors ended up once again having a macro impact.
But the malaise that is causing this second-half drift phenomenon runs much deeper than carelessness.
The All Blacks seemed to lose their strategic North Star again. How they were trying to play in that last half hour became increasingly hard to decipher.
Their bench didn’t offer much impact, their defence started leaking, and no one really stood up to take control of proceedings to wrestle the momentum back.
The All Blacks have been in trouble in Sydney many times before in the last two decades, but so often in the past they have had a few heroes – a couple of genuine leaders who have sensed the danger and known how to avert it.
That seems to be missing from the current team, and the confused nature of their split-personality performance has become as difficult to understand as it has been to solve.
