John Drake: Full steam ahead: All Blacks need to get stuck in and ruck

It's time the All Blacks stuck to their No 1 combination and started building some momentum at the World Cup.

I fear that they've just gone off the boil a touch, become distracted by issues such as injuries, and have lost the edge they gained during the Tri-Nations.

They only have to play one game a week so there are no issues about having to rest players.

So it's got to be full steam ahead, cut out the rotation, and play the blokes who are in form right now.

One thing I don't understand is what is happening at ruck time. We had all this stuff last week about how we weren't going to ruck.

Yet the Canadians rucked, the Poms rucked, the South Africans rucked, but we looked pretty ordinary at ruck time - we just stood there. That's a concern for me. The All Blacks have got to get their drive back. Play their top team and get them in the firing line. They'll be very disappointed themselves that they didn't play as well as they liked against Canada.

Brad Thorn, though, really impressed me - he seems unfazed by the fact that Norm Maxwell is holed up in a hotel down the road, ready to take his place. It's full steam ahead from Thorn, and that's how I'd like to see the whole All Black campaign go.

Everyone in New Zealand basically knows what the A team is. We need to get momentum and confidence against Tonga and Wales. Otherwise it could just slip away.

But who would know if the All Blacks will do that. It's very hard to pick what they are going to do - but that's what I would do.

As for the English, you've got to be very impressed with their performance against the Springboks, especially their defence. The TV coverage wasn't that flash so it was a bit hard to tell - but they must be offside at times, the way they can smother attacks. They did the same thing against the All Blacks in Wellington this year.

They use a sort of rugby league umbrella defence, coming from the outsides. It is going to be hard to outflank England with normal moves, they are so well organised. It would be interesting to see what the French could do - they've got backs who can make space.

The Springboks didn't do themselves any favours by using a sort of backline pattern used by the All Blacks in the 1960s.

It's undoubtedly caused by the presence of Louis Koen, who likes to operate back in the pocket and means their backline is parked about 30 metres behind the advantage line. It must be very frustrating for their forwards.

But the Springboks must have gained plenty of confidence from that showing.

Corne Krige said something to the effect that the Springboks believe they can beat anyone on their day, and fair enough.

We thought this tournament might be different from the last three cups, but going on the Springboks-England game, it is again going to come down to defence plus penalties and drop kicks.

In line with the full steam ahead policy I'm advocating, it might be time to sort out who is our best goalkicker and cement him in the side. You have to have a goalkicker you can rely on. We're getting to the stage where Dan Carter is playing pretty well.

John Mitchell says the philosophy is to pick the best playing team first, and then pick the goalkicker. But they may have to review that.

Put it this way: If Jonny Wilkinson had been playing for South Africa, they may have beaten England.