All Blacks won't desert expansive style, says MacDonald

11.15am - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

The All Blacks will continue to play an expansive, if risky, style despite the urgings of former captain David Kirk to tighten up in tomorrow's rugby World Cup quarterfinal against South Africa at Telstra Dome.

Unhappy by what he saw in last Sunday's 53-37 pool win over Wales, Kirk has called on the All Blacks to play tight, precise rugby.

"They can't play airy fairy, helter-skelter, throw it around the backs and hope the opposition get less than 30. That won't work from now on," Kirk told The Australian newspaper.

Centre Leon MacDonald said the All Blacks were committed to playing with width and pace, even if it meant opening the door for the opposition.

"The game's changed a little bit since he (Kirk) played," MacDonald said.

"It's worked well for us this year, we feel it suits the style of players that we are and the type of team that the coaches are picking.

"We want to win games by scoring tries and not relying on other teams giving away penalties. Playing against disciplined teams, they can go a whole half without giving a penalty away. We're trying to make the result ours by controlling what we do.

"If you're going to play an open game and move the ball around, it's always going to expose you a bit."

Usual fullback MacDonald had found the early adjustment to centre a challenge because of their up-tempo game. He played most of his early first class rugby in Marlborough at centre.

"With the style of game we're playing, the game is a lot faster. When I played at centre a few years ago it was quite a different role," he said

"Now you're a lot more of a playmaker I suppose. You're right in the middle of the defence as well so it's a very busy position.

"There were a lot of times out there when I was gasping for air, I think everyone was."

Although most observers believe South Africa will attack through their powerful forwards, MacDonald suspected South Africa would add further to the speed of the game by using the ball. They did it most effectively in their last pool game, the 60-10 win over Samoa.

"They've been trying to get the ball a lot wider, I've been noticing the fullback has been running into a lot of space, which means they're doing something right in midfield," he said.

"They seem to be attacking with their backs a lot more than they did at the start of the year.

"We still know they've got a strong forward pack and if we don't stop them, their backs will have plenty of space.

"It showed at the weekend that if we don't stop the forwards going forward, we're going to be in trouble."

MacDonald believed Wales could have scored another two or three tries if they had taken advantage of all their half-chances.

He has tomorrow's kicking duties again and will be hoping he can have the same influence on the result as first five-eighth Carlos Spencer in the two teams' last clash, won 19-11 by New Zealand at Carisbrook.

Spencer kicked five from five for 14 points while opposite Louis Koen missed a number of shots, including three dropped goal attempts.

- NZPA

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