Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Sure, the All Blacks were a bit lucky to beat England 24-22 at Twickenham. And, no, it wasn’t the most convincing performance of all time.
But New Zealand won and that’s all that counts. I could itemise all the All Blacks’ deficiencies and sound the alarm bells about the injury-enforced absences of Beauden Barrett and Codie Taylor for this week’s clash with Ireland.
But, again, the All Blacks are in the winning business and, on Sunday morning, they won. That’s what the good teams do.
And I say good because, for all the pissing and moaning I’ve done about the All Blacks, winning is the benchmark.
The great All Black teams of my lifetime weren’t always the prettiest to watch. They weren’t superb from first minute to last, but they found ways to win.
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They struggled at times, they committed errors and conceded penalties and sometimes had to rely on the bounce of the ball going their way. But they’re revered years later because they won more often than not.
So congratulations to Scott Robertson and the team. Twickenham is a tough place to play, England a spirited opponent and the All Blacks overcame it all. That encourages me immensely.
With Damian McKenzie likely to be the starting flyhalf against Ireland and Asafo Aumua presumably being tasked with throwing the ball into lineouts, everything could turn to custard in Dublin. We’ll see.
But I saw enough desire and vigour from enough players at Twickenham to suggest this All Black team might be developing the substance required to prevail in trying circumstances.
That’s what I’ve hated about the last six or seven years of All Black rugby. I’ve thought the team insipid. I’ve thought them to be a group that gives up when the going gets tough. That takes soft options and blames external factors, rather than themselves.
Wallace Sititi of New Zealand runs with the ball whilst under pressure from Marcus Smith of England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
England, in many regards, performed the role of recent All Black teams, at Twickenham. They moaned and waved their arms about in frustration and no doubt felt hard done by at the final outcome. Well, boo hoo.
There are no moral victories in Test rugby. You do what you have to do to win and you move onto the next match.
I will always have reservations about McKenzie and I don’t think New Zealand’s midfield backs offer a lot. In fact, you might argue Rieko Ioane and Jordie Barrett, with Anton Lienert-Brown chiming in off the bench, were the least effective All Blacks on the park.
And not for the first time, I might add.
Aumua either can’t throw – or doesn’t know where he’s meant to throw – Tamaiti Williams is an occasional scrummaging liability and Sam Cane is on borrowed time at No.7.
But there’s a team in there somewhere, with an increasing ability to get impact from its bench.
I liked the loose forward trio that finished the game, with the outstanding Wallace Sititi on the back of the scrum and Ardie Savea and Samipeni Finau on the flanks. Once Ethan Blackadder gets back in the mix, there’s a quality group to work with there.
The tighthead propping rotation of Tyrel Lomax and Pasilio Tosi is excellent, Tupou Vaa’i is making huge strides at lock and, his replacement on Sunday, Patrick Tuipulotu just produced the most robust performance of his career.
Put Mark Tele’a on the wing where he’s best suited and guess what? Good things happen. Caleb Clarke didn’t have huge involvement, which isn’t rare for anyone playing outside Ioane, but we know how damaging he can be with ball in hand.
Mark Tele’a of New Zealand scores his team’s third try. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Cortez Ratima and Cam Roigard could be a great one-two punch at halfback for a decade and Will Jordan oozes class at fullback.
I don’t love how the team plays, particularly the predictable, inaccurate and, frankly, outdated use of no-look passes from forwards. I mean it worked for Des Hasler and Canterbury-Bankstown for a while, but it was past its shelf life in the NRL a decade ago and doesn’t seem any more productive in rugby now.
The All Blacks are – and certainly were at Twickenham – at their best when men such as Sititi, Savea, Tuipulotu, Aumua and Clarke simply carry hard and straight. All this farting about with cross kicks and inside balls might seem like an effective means of combating a rush defence on the training paddock, but it’s no match for a strong carry on Saturdays.
I shouldn’t quibble – and don’t particularly want to, for once – it’s just that we, rightly or wrongly, expect quite a lot from this side.
Most of all, though, we expect wins and that’s what we got against England.
Even I can’t really complain about that.
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