Rugby Direct podcast at the Rugby World Cup: What to make of the All Blacks defeat to France

The All Blacks appear to have multiple areas to work on at the Rugby World Cup following their opening defeat to France in Paris.

In the latest episode of Rugby Direct, NZME’s Elliott Smith and Liam Napier pinpoint how the All Blacks were defeated and why - with discipline, a lack of impact from the bench and poor finishing jumping out.

“One of the real frustrations was the All Blacks lack of finishing,” says Napier.

“They were dominant for large periods of that first half in particular. They had a break with Rieko Ioane straight off the kickoff ... Beauden Barrett’s cross-field kick for Mark Telea. They set up camp in France’s 22 a number of times and their decision-making, their finishing, their lack of accuracy was incredibly frustrating.

“Codie Taylor threw the ball out on one occasion thinking there was somebody outside him. Ethan de Groot, who had a night to forget, tucked the ball under his wing, charged forward and lost it. There was an image on the screen at the ground with Richie McCaw looking displeased with that.

“That period was really costly for the All Blacks, because if they had struck then, they’re up 13-9 at one point and they could have built some pressure. The home expectation, the crowd gets a bit nervous - but in the second half they faded badly. Discipline, the [Will] Jordan yellow card, the lack of impact from the bench - they just really faded badly in that final quarter and we’ve seen that at times during this four-year cycle. The nature of the result was fortunately predictable.

“The other side of it - France actually weren’t that good. They kicked a lot. What they did they did well but they will get a lot better and that’s a concern for the All Blacks as well,” Napier added.

The All Blacks had a late injury to captain Sam Cane who was replaced by Tupou Vaa’i in the starting lineup with Dalton Papalii moved to the seven jersey. While Jordie Barrett, Tyrell Lomax and Shannon Frizell were also out injured.

Smith added the All Blacks need all their players fit to be a chance at the tournament,

“If their 1-23 mix is right, especially 1-15 then they are capable of getting close to these top teams but when you make as many changes as they were forced to through injury then they struggle,” NZME’s voice of rugby said.

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