By WYNNE GRAY
The All Blacks have switched to the more unpredictable style of the Blues, Wallaby coach Eddie Jones said yesterday, describing it as a move which offered both risk and reward.
They had moved away from the patterned Crusaders' approach to try to build power and pace into their game,
and that made the All Blacks more capricious opponents.
But it would also mean more counter-attacking chances for the Wallaby backline.
Jones felt the All Blacks had the most pace of any side in world rugby and had also "segmented" their play to allow backs to challenge backs and forwards to deal with forwards again.
He suspected tomorrow's opening Bledisloe Cup test would be a high-velocity international, following the pattern of both sides' matches against the Springboks.
The Wallabies had created enough chances to beat the South Africans, but did not finish as well as they had hoped.
If tomorrow's referee, Tony Spreadbury, let the tackled player release the ball without interference then the game would be high-paced, Jones said.
He and his All Black counterpart, John Mitchell, met Spreadbury yesterday, and Jones also watched him officiate a Sydney club game last weekend at Coogee Oval.
Jones has been getting advice from everywhere about fixing his side's faltering run of two defeats, the last coming from his local BP station attendant who suggested some backline hints while filling up Jones' car the other night.
As the coach pointed out, he had made just three switches, one of them enforced with Lote Tuqiri filling in for the injured Joe Roff.
The other two, George Smith and Stephen Larkham, were top players and had to be included.
"Larkham at his best is a world-class player and when he carries the ball to the line he puts defences in two minds," Jones said.
Matthew Burke was given another chance at fullback where he was an excellent goalkicker and organiser. It was not his last chance, as some commentators had suggested.
All Blacks test schedule/scoreboard
