Anton Lienert-Brown, Ian Foster and Ardie Savea in the All Blacks dressing room after the quarter-final victory against Ireland. Photo / Getty Images
Anton Lienert-Brown, Ian Foster and Ardie Savea in the All Blacks dressing room after the quarter-final victory against Ireland. Photo / Getty Images
COMMENT
The All Blacks' Rugby World Cup campaign is over and while the fizz has gone out of the tournament, the fallout has been far less volatile than expected.
I have been pleasantly surprised with the more tempered reaction from the media and general rugby public than after previous failedattempts (and in particular 2007) and I put that down to two factors — the fact that we've won the thing for two of the last three World Cups and, more importantly, that there can be no doubt as to who deserved to win the semifinal.
At the same time, the manner in which the All Blacks lost was extremely disappointing.
It's not every day that the All Blacks are dominated physically and tactically from minute one as they were against the English on Saturday.
Steve Hansen and the rest of the coaching team admitted as much and I don't think I've seen Hansen quite this emotional in any previous loss.
Hansen has suffered defeat in only 10 of his 106 matches in charge — a remarkable record and part of the reason he will go down in history as one of the best — and arguably the most successful — All Blacks coach in history.
Yes, not winning the Cup this time is a slight stain on his record and definitely not the way he would have liked to say goodbye, but I don't believe he was outsmarted by Eddie Jones.
We had the right gameplan for the semifinal.
It's more or less the same one that has brought us success for a great number of years now — but our execution under intense pressure was not good enough.
We wanted to run the English off their feet, instead, we were outmuscled and had nowhere to run.
The English defensive game was probably the best I've seen this decade, and Kiwi John Mitchell deserves credit. Jones has been lauded but Mitchell is the unsung hero from that.
But enough about the English.
I believe it is time for new blood. Our game has become predictable and for the next four years, we need to hit the reset button and come up with fresh new ways to lead the pack again.
Unfortunately, I don't see New Zealand Rugby mixing up things too much in terms of their coaching appointments.
Succession planning and continuity have been a big part of their thinking for a number of decades and with that in mind, I would be surprised if they bucked the trend and appointed anyone else but Ian Foster in the head coaching role.
We have some fantastic Kiwi coaching talent around — the likes of Scott Robertson, Jamie Joseph, Dave Rennie, Tony Brown and Joe Schmidt.
If Foster does stay, he needs at least two new assistants from this group.
Personally, I would do whatever it takes to get Warren Gatland.
Warren Gatland will say goodbye to Wales after 12 years. Photo / Getty Images
What he has achieved over the past 12 years with a Welsh side with nowhere near the talent pool of New Zealand, as well as his success with the Lions in 2013 and 2017, is remarkable.
Gatland has won four Six Nations crowns, including three Grand Slams, and reached the World Cup semifinals twice.
More importantly, having coached in the Northern Hemisphere for over a decade, he will bring a different way of thinking to our game which, some would argue, has become a little stale.
Ardie Savea scored the All Blacks' only try in the semifinal against England. Photo / Getty Images
Hansen is not the only one departing - Kieran Read will take with him 11 years and 122 tests of top-level experience.
A fit and healthy Liam Squire or Ardie Savea would be my pick for the No 8 jersey and Sam Cane or Sam Whitelock would be the obvious choices to replace Read as captain.
Against that, Whitelock would be pushing 35 come the next World Cup and Cane has suffered some serious injuries recently and was — somewhat surprisingly - left out for Scott Barrett for the ill-fated semifinal.
Savea would be my pick to lead the All Blacks as, on recent form, he is one of the first names on the team sheet and can play across the entire back-row.
The days of him starting on the bench are hopefully in the past.
