Richie McCaw lifts Jerome Kaino during training in Cardiff. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Richie McCaw lifts Jerome Kaino during training in Cardiff. Photo / Brett Phibbs
As the second half of the All Blacks' World Cup match against Namibia dragged painfully on through the referee's whistle and long stretches of inactivity, a lightbulb might have switched on in the collective minds of some Northern Hemisphere teams.
No team will want to allow the All Blacks tobuild momentum during matches, and the defending champions have made no secret of wanting to play the game at pace - building on the quicksilver hands and feet of halfback Aaron Smith and using their handling skills and fitness to ask endless questions of the opposition.
Nothing stops that like an injury break, a slow walk to a lineout, or constantly reset scrums and England and Wales, two teams the All Blacks might meet in the knockout stages, already have recent form here.
England, during their test at Eden Park last year, took an age to get to lineouts, a deliberately slow walk which allowed them to both catch their breath and attempt to take the wind from the All Blacks' sails.
And in Cardiff last year, there were farcical scenes of Welsh players dropping to a knee in apparent injury, only to bounce back up after a drink, or in one case, the use of a towel to mop sweat from a brow.
Watching the Namibia match might have confirmed for both nations that the tactic has merit.
The good news for the game, if not the All Blacks, is that their quarter-final opponents are likely to be either France or Ireland, two teams who like to play the game at pace.
The All Blacks get sweating during training. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Ireland, under coach Joe Schmidt, have made big improvements in this area. Their performance in pushing the All Blacks so close in Dublin in 2013 was built on a game played at a furious clip in the first half.
France are notoriously hard to mitigate against at World Cups but they are at their best when playing with width, and their interplay between forwards and backs can be inspirational at times.
The All Blacks, who have travelled from London to Cardiff for their third pool match against Georgia at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday NZT, will be aware of the danger of the opposition attempting to play the game at their own pace.
After saying his players were "bored" at times against Namibia at the Olympic Stadium, assistant coach Ian Foster said it was up to the match officials to keep the game going.
"We can talk as much as we like but if teams think that's a tactic that's going to work against us, they're going to keep trying it," he said.
"The referee is under instructions to keep the game moving and we've just got to keep an eye on that, but it's up to the officials to keep the game moving on.
"If they believe a team is deliberately doing it, they have to try to speed it up. In some ways, that's outside our control.
"We can ask for the game to be speeded up but that's only our opinion."
