All Blacks dominated the Wallabies at Eden Park, Warriors claimed a third-straight victory, another top ten finish for Lydia Ko plus more. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
Phil Gifford lists five talking points from Saturday's Bledisloe Cup test at Eden Park.
Please let there be tests with the Springboks
Given that South Africa is a Covid-19 basket case, and you feel it might take just one halfwit from Sydney to spread the disease to Perth, nothingfeels certain about who the All Blacks will get to play in the next few weeks.
But after the thrilling 57-22 win at Eden Park, who could not yearn for a showdown between the brute force of South Africa, and a dynamic All Blacks side?
The Springboks-Lions series was everything that's bad about rugby, with two sides apparently determined to see which could bore the other to death. And that's not a view just held by Kiwis. Former England player Stuart Barnes called the All Black triumph at Eden Park an "80 minute antidote to the last month of rugby (in South Africa)." Even one of the Lions' players, Scotland's first-five, Finn Russell, has broken ranks and said "we should have played a bit more rugby."
We'll know in a fortnight, when the All Blacks play the Wallabies in Perth, whether the All Blacks can consistently be as good as they were at Eden Park. If they hold their form, than two tests with South Africa would be the pinnacle of the world's rugby year.
As the Wallabies found out, you won't like playing an All Black team that's angry. In years past our coaches have used very basic ways to fire up the All Blacks. Colin Meads was once told that at training the Australians were kicking and stomping a bag of straw, and that they were calling the bag Pinetree.
In 2021 it transpires a team meeting to discuss in an adult way how the rest of this Covid-19 plagued year might pan out was the catalyst for an All Black victory that should silence, for the moment, the angry horde of Kiwis always ready to attack a sub-par performance.
It wasn't the best game I've ever seen the All Blacks play against the Wallabies. That may always be the 1996 whipping, 43-6, on a wet, slippery Athletic Park, where the All Blacks knocked the ball on just five times in 80 minutes. But given the circumstances, the uncertainty, and the pressure on the All Blacks, the Eden Park hiding was gold standard.
All Blacks win the Bledisloe cup in the rugby test match between the All Blacks and Australia played at Eden Park. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Bloodlines will out
Sir Bryan Williams once had to persuade Andy Dalton, then the CEO of the Blues, that he should sign Akira and Rieko Ioane. In a phone conversation he said to Dalton, "If you don't sign them you'll be regretting it for the rest of your life. They're from great rugby people, and they'll be dedicated and loyal."
Williams was right. The boys' father, Eddie, played for Manu Samoa at the 1991 World Cup, and in the same year their mother, Sandra, was a star of the pioneering New Zealand women's team at the first Women's World Cup in Wales.
The moment Akira and Rieko may have cemented their places in the All Blacks happened 23 minutes into the first half on Saturday.
Just inside the All Blacks' 22 Rieko, who has hankered after the position of centre from the moment he made his test debut as a wing in 2017, fired a pass to Akira that was so quick, so accurate, and judged the circumstances so perfectly, former masters of distribution in the 13 jersey like Conrad Smith or Joe Stanley would have been proud to own it.
Akira, whose grunt work throughout the game would be exactly what coaches have always wanted from a 113kg powerhouse, has the massive extra bonus of pace and skills many backs would be delighted to possess. So he stepped, ran, and, at the perfect moment, unloaded to Damian McKenzie, who had another huge man with more pace than you'd expect, Brodie Retallick, backing up to score the best try of the test.
If in France at the 2023 World Cup the Ioanes are key All Blacks, at centre and No 6, remember that sweeping 80 metres movement as where the journey really began.
It's always a good idea to rub it in
Good on Beauden Barrett for deciding that with 50 points on the board, and the final hooter echoing around the ground, it would be interesting to see (a) just how exhausted and (b) how mentally shattered the Wallabies were. He and the All Blacks discovered the answers to both questions were the same: Almost completely.
A week earlier the most disappointing aspect of the All Black performance had been the sloppiness that crept in as the Wallabies scored 17 points in the last 11 minutes. Playing out the 80 minutes has been a point of pride for All Blacks teams over decades. If the 2021 model keeps its mojo working it will hopefully now be a characteristic of their play too.
Very quiet Eden Park before the rugby test match between the All Blacks and Australia played at Eden Park. New Zealand Herald photograph by Dean Purcell.
Great game, pity about the crowd
We'll all have our theories about why Eden Park was only half full for the second round of the Bledisloe.
I'd suggest two issues. One was that the first test, as noted last week, was a tedious dog of a game. Another, and probably more salient reason, was that it's very expensive to go to a test match. I know New Zealand Rugby's pride would have been hurt, but if it's good enough for U2 and Bob Dylan to offer really cheap last minute tickets to Auckland concerts in recent years, some emails last week promoting $30 tickets to the test might have filled those huge, embarrassing swathes of empty seats on Saturday night.
