Rugby World Cup: All Blacks need a tougher time

All Blacks keen to meet Argentina. Photo / Getty Images

Despite the insistence that they don't care, the All Blacks will be hoping Argentina beat Scotland today and secure a Rugby World Cup quarter-final berth.

It has become apparent that this tournament is going to be won by the team that can sustain their intensity at the collisions; squeeze opponents in the scrum and give nothing away on defence.

The big games so far have shown that space is at a premium and any side whose forwards show the merest hint of vulnerability will be severely punished. The All Blacks need to be exposed to more of that relentlessly brutal stuff.

That is particularly so because of the way the draw is potentially shaping up in the latter rounds (if they can make it that far). there is the prospect of a semifinal against South Africa or Australia and, if they win that, a final against one of England, France, Ireland or Wales.

Regardless of whether it is the Boks or Wallabies who progress, the All Blacks will need to be physical in the extreme. The Boks, playing late at night on a ground they haven't won on for more than 80 years, are hardly going to be the kings of adventure.

The deeper they go into the tournament, the more they will revert to type. While they may be ageing and not the force they were, they remain formidable. Add in the pressure of the occasion and it will take a massive effort by the All Black pack to hold their own against the Boks.

If it's the Wallabies, then it is even more important the All Blacks are prepared to smash and bash relentlessly through the forwards and scrummage the life out of Australia.

It was obvious in the second half of the final Tri Nations game in Brisbane that the Wallaby pack remains vulnerable to all-out warfare. If it turns nasty - a contest of courage and raw power - then the Wallaby forwards don't have what it takes.

They can't scrummage and they are a pack that plays off the momentum of their backs. The Irish in bludgeoning the Wallabies at Eden Park have confirmed exactly how the big boys should go about taking on Australia.

"They've issued a blueprint for rugby in showing that nothing changes," says All Black assistant coach Wayne Smith. "If you win up front and you win the gain line and you win the collisions, then you're probably going to win the game."

Tempting fate as it is, if the All Blacks are to reach the final it will most likely be against one of the four Northern Hemisphere sides who see brutality as a staple requirement. Even the Welsh, the most expansive and progressive of the four, have arrived in New Zealand with a desire to put themselves about.

Everywhere the All Blacks look they can see they will be confronted with brick walls; foaming mad men are going to want to take them down dark alleys and slug it out. Neither Tonga nor Japan offered any great resistance. The Canadians will no doubt give all they have got but it won't be at the level required, which is why the All Blacks will be keen to encounter the Pumas rather than the Scots in the quarter-final.

The All Blacks need a stiff quarter-final challenge - one that tests them, forces them into their best form but one that they can win.

It needs to be high intensity so they can get a handle on what level they will need to be at both physically and mentally.

That physicality and intensity was missing in the last All Black World Cup campaign.

They didn't encounter it at all during the pool round and were then accosted by a rampant French team playing off adrenaline.

This campaign isn't offering much more than last time round and it is a nagging concern for the coaches.

The All Blacks want to be part of the real World Cup - not running up cricket scores against the emerging nations.