Will Jordan’s three tries – the All Blacks’ first World Cup hat-trick since Jonah Lomu’s in 1995 against England - draws him level with Lomu, Julian Savea and Bryan Habana’s eight for the most at a Rugby World Cup. By next week, don’t bet against Jordan owning that record outright.
Once again, though, the All Blacks forward pack’s dominant platform – this time at the scrum, maul and through consistently strong carries from Shannon Frizell and Scott Barrett before his second-half yellow card – paved the way for Jordan and Mark Tele’a to shine in the outside channels.
As they did prior to their inspired quarter-final triumph over Ireland, the All Blacks now have the benefit of sitting back to savour an extra day’s recovery while the Springboks and England take lumps out of each other in the other semifinal.
Such was their superiority against the Pumas that the All Blacks opted to play the final five minutes with 14 men after Barrett’s yellow card. Foster also had the luxury of emptying his bench midway through the second half to further preserve starters for next week’s final push.
Those advantages could yet prove telling in a likely tense, taxing final.
“I don’t think they’ll make a massive difference. Finals are finals. Whoever we play they’ll be prepared 100 per cent,” Foster said after his side’s 44-6 shutout at Stade de France that featured seven tries to none.
“It was an opportunity for us to make sure we look after our resources as best we could. We didn’t see a need to put Scott back on only from the perspective that if he had another yellow card incident in the next five minutes it might have made it a bit niggly. For us, it was a precautionary decision to keep him off.”
While satisfied to progress, the All Blacks will quickly move on from this performance, knowing Argentina aren’t a patch on the challenge they will confront in the final.
Close to the surface, the All Blacks will know they must regain the edge and accuracy they embraced for Ireland, too. The scoreline suggests otherwise but their goal-kicking, handling and finishing weren’t as clinical as they need to be next week.
“I’ll be watching it, probably with some popcorn, and I don’t care who wins,” Foster said of the England-South Africa semifinal. “One thing the extra day gives us is a chance to have a break mentally and not to spend too much juice.
“South Africa has been playing some brilliant rugby the past few weeks and are clearly on top of their game. We’ve also seen an English team build away quietly. They understand how they want to play and are starting to believe in that so it will be an interesting contrast in styles.”
Fourteen months ago, when the All Blacks slumped to six losses from eight tests, few predicted Foster would guide this remodelled team to this summit. They stayed tight through significant adversity to ride through successive stumbles against the Springboks and France, the latter on World Cup opening night, to maintain inner belief which culminated in the defining performance that knocked out the world-leading Irish last week.
Navigating the All Blacks through historic lows to their first World Cup final in eight years offers Foster the platform to puff out his chest at the doubters - and his employers - but with the biggest obstacle yet to come, he opted to remain humble and keep his powder dry for now.
“In regard to me, I’m part of a group. I’m proud of the group. There’s no personal agenda here. This is about the All Blacks. It’s always about the team. Things have happened to individuals in the team and clearly they’ve happened to me but it doesn’t change that the team comes first. All the decisions we make have to be about what’s best for the team. Right now we’re making a lot of those decisions together and it’s working well.
“I’m proud of the coaching group. They’re working hard and they’re linking well with the players. The players are contributing heavily to what we’re doing and there’s a nice synergy to it. I’m proud but there’s one more week.”
All Blacks captain Sam Cane praised the forward-led squeeze and the defensive efforts to prevent the Pumas crossing. Cane then turned attention to the mindset required to emerge from the depths of last year’s struggles – and the improved team performance since he, Frizell, Tyrel Lomax and Jordie Barrett returned after their World Cup-opening setback.
“Criticism and outside noise is something we’ve become accustomed to block out,” Cane said. “We focus on what’s important within the group. We trust the coaching staff immensely and trust the plan.
“We were in a different stage as a team at that point. It was a very different team we rolled out. We’ve had some guys coming back from injuries and now for a few weeks consistently we’ve had the squad in a good place in terms of health and full training. It feels like we’ve built nicely to this point.”
That stage leaves the All Blacks on the cusp of the ultimate redemption. Through the dark times to the last summit, it’s clear they have carried a chip on their collective shoulders. Whether it’s South Africa or England next week, the All Blacks will feel they are ready to prove their point.
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity,” All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane said. “We’ve had people saying things about us but as a group we’ve stuck tight. We’ve always believed in the direction. Outside of the group ... no one knows what’s really brewing in the team. The belief we’ve had as a group hopefully inspires New Zealanders back home.”
Liam Napier has been a sports journalist since 2010, and his work has taken him to World Cups in rugby, netball and cricket, boxing world title fights and Commonwealth Games.
