All Black captain Kieran Read and head coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Getty Images
All Black captain Kieran Read and head coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Getty Images
COMMENT:
Hidden in plain sight against Tonga was the All Blacks' World Cup gameplan. Not all of it by any means, but the essence; the foundation of what they hope will set them apart in Japan.
What defines this All Blacks team is their basic skills and their ability toexecute them with a consistency and intensity that few, if any other, teams can match.
And bringing sharp pass and catch to Japan is going to be the All Blacks' big play. That's essentially how they are going to try to win a third successive World Cup – by using their core skills to create and exploit space.
It's been a bit of a struggle for them this past 10 months or so to connect with the soul of their game, but with Tonga really not up to much, it gave the All Blacks the perfect opportunity to remind themselves as much as everybody else that they can be quite brilliant at pass, catch, run.
Most, nearly all, of the great victories throughout the ages have been built on the basics and not much more. The All Blacks legacy is not shrouded in mystery but founded on the rather less mysterious fact they spend hours honing each and every core skill.
Which is why the picture in Hamilton will be a little, but not substantially different in Yokohama on September 21.
When they play South Africa in their opening World Cup game, they will kick more than they did against Tonga.
They will have to work harder to get on the front foot; be prepared to be more patient before they push the ball wide and of course they will have less time and space in which to operate.
But what won't change is their desire to run straight lines, commit defenders with the timing of their pass, support the ball carrier on both sides and trust that with so much innate rugby talent, if they use it, they will open up teams.
South Africa will be a much harder nut to crack, but the method in which the All Blacks go about trying to do it won't change.
Why be clever when simple can be so effective? Why bring a level of intricacy and detail when they can do so much damage by fixing the defender and passing in front of the man as they did relentlessly against Tonga?
Why get drawn into an arm wrestle when they have so many natural athletes and ball players who are lethal when they can roam wide.
All Black Ardie Savea in action against Tonga. Photo / Dean Purcell
And that's the other part of their game that is not being hidden – they have stacked their team with players who have vast skill-sets and a desire to use them.
No one hid in Hamilton. The starting props made their tackles and threw a few passes. Kieran Read showed he remains an attacking force, albeit not as a wide ball runner but a close-to-the-ruck clever distributor.
The backs, to a man, know how to take one metre and turn it into five and the speed and flow which they generated shouldn't be underestimated or attributed entirely to the weakness of Tonga.
The All Blacks have produced some stunning footballers over the years, but none quite like Savea, whose range of attributes hasn't been seen in just one man before.
When he wasn't winning turnovers, he was winning miracle metres with that ferocious leg drive of his and in between times, he popped up on the wing as a support runner to finish things off as if he was a wing rather than a blindside flanker.
There's clearly more to come from the All Blacks – stuff they will hold back until October. But most of their hand was on view in Hamilton.
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