The end of the All Blacks season summoned a friendly argument I enjoyed a few years ago with a Springbok supporter met in the pub. For some reason I cannot explain, we ended up having a philosophical discussion during which he refused to accept the idea there was norhinoceros in the room with us.
There could be a rhino here, went the nub of his argument, we just can’t see it. I was reminded of this odd encounter when the All Blacks finished the season with one of the weirdest tests ever.
England played superbly for 10 minutes but politely declined the opportunity to win, kicking the ball out instead. The All Blacks played superbly for 70 minutes but didn’t win.
It encapsulated the All Blacks’ up-and-down season in one game and it was only afterwards that I finally saw what my South African friend’s rhino was all about. Watching Ian Foster at the after-match press conference, it dawned on me: the All Blacks might be the best team in the world. We just can’t actually see that.
Foster was better in this press conference – disappointed and making it clear (without using the exact words) that the All Blacks should have won. In too many previous appearances after things had gone wrong, he has persisted in trying to dwell on positives the rest of us were having trouble seeing.
He admitted there was work to do closing out test matches and put us all straight on how the All Blacks shouldn’t have played the clock down by holding onto the ball and frustrating the English: “I don’t think you can wind the clocks down for two minutes these days. The breakdown is too officiated and, if you try to seal off the game for too long, you’ll concede a penalty.”
This was a reference to TJ Perenara’s lame kick out of defence that England grabbed and turned into a try. According to Foster, Ardie Savea called for Perenara to kick it but got in front of the kicker. The inference was he couldn’t therefore put pressure on the receiver.
I’m going to call rhinoceros on that one. Savea would have had to have been a bolt of lightning to have put anyone under pressure. Perenara’s kick lobbed lamely into the arms of the English. In that situation, even outside the 22, the kick has to be long or high and preferably both. This was neither.
Foster may have a point about potential penalties resulting in the All Blacks not winding the clock down. At this juncture, let’s introduce French referee Mathieu Raynal, once again the central figure in an All Blacks test.
Raynal was the man who lost patience with time-wasting Wallabies first-five Bernard Foley, essentially gifting a topsy-turvy Bledisloe Cup match to the All Blacks.
Referee Mathieu Raynal. Photo / Photosport
World Rugby sent Raynal to ref a match between Romania and Samoa, before hauling him back into the light after the original England-All Blacks ref pulled out.
Raynal responded by penalising everything that moved, seemingly trying to prove he was a worthy whistler.
There are, as Foster says, good things for the All Blacks to build on. The 12 issue is solved (belatedly); the forwards have finally shown direct driving play. There are depth problems at lock and halfback, and you just know he is going to replace the best No 7 in New Zealand with Sam Cane, but Foster’s right - the All Blacks have come on since the losses to Ireland.
However, they still remind me of the time when the late Queen was touring the US. Officials realised they’d better educate raw Americans on etiquette, but the British protocol was predictably stiff and stuffy. One of the newspapers decided to translate it – if you are to be presented to the Queen, it said, don’t rush up to her. She will eventually be brought around to you, like a dessert trolley at a good restaurant.
If the All Blacks can be called rugby royalty (and they probably still can, just), then the 2022 season has made it perfectly clear that we should not rush to the dessert trolley of victory too quickly. We can’t yet believe that, just because this All Blacks team lead by a lot of points, they will win the game.
