All Blacks mustn’t overthink final tactics
19 Oct 2011
JON CARDINELLI writes that the All Blacks will beat France and claim that elusive world title if they play their natural game.
Last week’s performance against the Wallabies was a rugby masterclass. The All Blacks defended brilliantly, fielded the high ball well, and through the accurate and often prodigious kicking efforts of Aaron Cruden and Israel Dagg, they won the battle for territory. Success in these areas inhibited and frustrated the Wallabies, but it was the All Blacks’ power and precision on attack that allowed them to build momentum and ultimately a winning score.
Afterwards, Graham Henry and Richie McCaw said they would have to be just as brutal and precise against France in the grand final. The All Blacks have shown themselves more than capable of producing these well-rounded showings consistently. The statistics will reveal that they won the 2010 Tri-Nations by kicking more than any other side in that tournament. They also boasted the best defensive record, and scored the most tries.
What stands in the way of the All Blacks and a second world title is 80 pressure-filled minutes. The hype has been building since the lead up to the tournament, and the same questions have been asked over and over again. Will the All Blacks handle the pressure? There is no rugby reason why they shouldn’t win the trophy, as their record will confirm they’ve been the best team in the world over the last four years. But will the pressure of the occasion force them to play a more conservative game, because the fear of losing is stronger than the desire to win?
In an interview for Business Day Sports Monthly two months ago, former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones told me that the All Blacks are a better side when they express themselves. When they go into their shells and try to play a more tactical game, when they overanalyse and rely too much on a rigid game plan, Jones said that they moved away from their strengths. If they decide to do this on Sunday, it will benefit their opponents.
New Zealand are favourites at the scrum, and while the battle at the collisions should be brutally contested, Richie McCaw will ensure the All Blacks win the breakdowns. This should be enough to supply a strong platform for New Zealand’s halfbacks, who have shown that they have the decision making ability to maximise the advantage either by kicking into space or bringing the big and skillful backs into the game.
It is of course, not as simple as that. ’80 minutes and we’re laughing,’ said one newspaper headline over the weekend, but the truth is the 80 minutes of that semi-final against the Wallabies were anything but comfortable. From a rugby point of view, the All Blacks looked favourites to clinch it when Piri Weepu slotted another penalty early in the second half, and yet there was a strong sense in the crowd that the game wasn’t over until the final whistle. A 14-point gap wasn’t enough to calm the nerves of the long-suffering Kiwis.
There was a collective sigh of relief following the semi-final win, but there are still a lot of nerves in the build up to the grand final. Sitting in the crowd last Sunday, I obtained an idea of how much the World Cup means to this country, but I also got an insight into how that passion and desperation could have an adverse effect on the team.
The All Blacks must stick to what worked for them against France in their Pool A meeting. They must play like they played against Australia, that is, with power and accuracy, and the assurance that they are the best team in the world.
If they slip into a conservative mindset, if their coaches and players adopt a ‘we-must-not-lose’ mentality instead of ”we must win’, they will, as Jones previously suggested, give France a sniff. Forget the failures of 1999, 2003 and 2007. Check that baggage at the door.
While experience will be important in a game as big of this, the confidence of some of their young stars will also provide the necessary boost. Cruden was impressive in last week’s game, and going by what has been said this week, he will continue to play his natural game. Notably, the young flyhalf has the backing of his coaches.
‘It’s really important that you build throughout the week but that you’re not over-thinking about the game,’ Cruden told reporters. ‘You need to find a balance and that is what I will be doing this week.
‘I’d like to think it’s just the beginning of another week, just going through and doing the normal for me, making sure I’m really clear on my role and just building so that when it comes to kick-off time I am ready to go.’
The rest of the All Blacks side would do well to follow suit.
267 Comments
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19 Oct 2011, 11:57 am
Transie: I don’t know, so I’m asking you back! Lol
19 Oct 2011, 11:59 am
HG there are always the few who misrepresent the majority. e.g. surely Pdv and his comments aren’t Indicative of all SAs? ior Noakes accusiation of match fixing, pathetic as it is it is not indicative of all Saffas except looney ones like yourself.
because some idiots have begun planning doesnt mean the while nations like that. how do I know? speaking to my brother in law in NZ this evening.
19 Oct 2011, 12:06 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-58: just curious, do you support any south african sporting teams? P.S. the little arrow adjacent to the bloggers name, bending slightly to the left(no pun intended) can be used to reference a previous comment and even types the person’s nic for you
19 Oct 2011, 12:13 pm
@BuckT(BuckTrendy)-103: he supports kaizer chiefs
19 Oct 2011, 12:13 pm
BuckT 103: I’m using my iPhone, there are no arrows today. I only follow rugby mate.
19 Oct 2011, 12:18 pm
Transie 104: lol
19 Oct 2011, 12:21 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-106: ndiyakwazi uli-Khosi 4 Life
19 Oct 2011, 12:23 pm
gee guys ease up on mpundulu. since when did the support of another national team cause so much outrage. |n football i support Spain. no i wasnt born there. my mother isnt spanish. they currently play the most enjoyable pure brand of football in the world. so as a fan of the game i might just adopt another nation based on my admiration of a particular style, and an integration of styles and influences at that like the ABs. while mpundulu might have other reasons for supporting the ABS give the guy a break! at least he is well reasoned, polite, and doesnt personally attack anyone who doesnt agree with him. this blog benefits from such broader minded souls.
19 Oct 2011, 12:30 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-89:
So you don’t sing the South African national anthem then?
19 Oct 2011, 12:33 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-108:
Bafana Bafana vs Spain. Who do you support?
19 Oct 2011, 12:35 pm
Spain. you?
19 Oct 2011, 12:40 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-111:
Bafana…
Judging by your Keo name I may have made the mistake of assuming you’re a South African. If you’re not, that would make your answer perfectly acceptable.
19 Oct 2011, 12:45 pm
Kietzphatz – you’re right. i’m not.
19 Oct 2011, 12:46 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-108: ja, you can “support” spain cos the “all whites” are sshit.
19 Oct 2011, 12:48 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-113:
Fair enough. My apologies.
Here’s the point I’m trying to make.
Your nation of citizenship (i.e. the country you call home for lack of a better description) vs Spain.
Who do you support?
19 Oct 2011, 12:48 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-108: Totally agree. What many of these guys don’t realize is that they were born with patriotism engraved in their dna, some of us were not. We we born and taught to make choices, as the country we were born to did not hold our interests at heart, it was ingrained to choose. So some of us chose and stuck to our choices.
I will never understand why Heaven’sgame and Sheriff are so devastated by the Boks loss, or Proteas or Bafana Bafana as I simply do not feel it, nor can experience it. Some of you might experience sport in SA differently to me, as a South African, but this is what is true for me.
So when you call me and Mphundu names for the choices we have made, demanding that it should not even be a choice, it should be some mysterious feeling, (that I cannot feel), you simply reminding us of a time, when we had no voice, and no choice.
Patriotism for some of us is not a natural state. Sad but true.
19 Oct 2011, 12:49 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-111: so when did you start “supporting” spain?
19 Oct 2011, 12:50 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-111: I would support Spain too.
19 Oct 2011, 12:55 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-111: I even supported Spain against NZ in the Confederations Cup. Transformation however was shouting for NZ against Spain as I recall.
19 Oct 2011, 12:57 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-119:
go N-E-W Z-E-A-L-A-N-D!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe
you’re such a skelm, you know i was shouting for the “all whites” not to concede so that bafana can go through to the semis and meet brazil!
19 Oct 2011, 13:01 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-120: You were shouting for New Zealand like a mad man! Hahahahahaha
19 Oct 2011, 13:01 pm
Supported Spain since i saw their U17 team play in NZ in the World Cup (Ghana overpowered them – Essien et ors).
While i am a very patriotic kiwi, football does not cause me so much anguish, as i cannot support our version of the game here – all endeavour and little skill –
NZ vs Spain – I would wince yet ultimately enjoy. we would get thumped. and my love of football a la the 3 wise men from Barca would simply overwhelm my nationalism – i would happily see my nation suffer at the hands of a better style frankly. could it be that the way a country plays/embodies a sport might have a small part to play in ones allegiances if there arent strong political/emotional/nationalistic reasons to support your own nations team? i live in Blues country but support the Hurricanes… ouch
19 Oct 2011, 13:04 pm
anyway, what were we saying about rugby? this is a rugby blog.
19 Oct 2011, 13:06 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-121: like i said, that those plonkers mustn’t concede!
and you know what they didn’t hehehe
19 Oct 2011, 13:06 pm
Kietzphat: do you read through my entry in response to your question? It seems as though you presuppose an answer and then ask a question leading to that, and invariably you don’t get your answer then you try another way to get it. I keep telling you this is not bingo, you asked a question I answered you now let it go. Accept that you won’t trap me I assure you.
19 Oct 2011, 13:18 pm
@mpundulu – mate, Kietzphat is done. you have eloquently explained your AB connection. To him it may seem treason, but I am sure memories are hard to eraze and goes some way to expalin why your rugby loving DNA may not be Bokke. |Nice to see some broader opinions out there, and rugby for rugby’s sake – not just drawing national lines all the time…. and yes, transfformation’s right. AllWhites may have gone through unbeaten but they are still ****… bit like the English.
19 Oct 2011, 13:18 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-124: You would have had to be plain nuts to think that the All Whites would have beaten La Furia Rojas!
19 Oct 2011, 13:35 pm
Texasnz126: thanks mate, him and Katman refuse to get it! No answer but what they want will do, bizarre way to engage.
19 Oct 2011, 13:45 pm
@texasnz(texasnz)-126: quite right…i know rossoneri does not support the nz cricket team led by vittori but i can safely tell you she does not like the proteas either
19 Oct 2011, 13:48 pm
Transie: kandibukelele umdlalo we bola ndihlala kwi extra strong section nabantu bam! Lol
19 Oct 2011, 13:52 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-129:
there is a suprise.
19 Oct 2011, 13:57 pm
@Gunther(gunther)-131: I like the Warriors tho.
19 Oct 2011, 14:09 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-104:
oh shame
19 Oct 2011, 14:12 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-130: uyaxoka, uhlala kweza-suite noJessica Motaung!
19 Oct 2011, 14:42 pm
@mpundulu(mpundulu)-125:
I have read your answer and I’m sorry, dude, but I don’t agree, and I fail to see how you disconnect the Boks and being a South African citizen.
The Springboks are the South African rugby team, just as Bafana Bafana are the South African soccer team and the Proteas the South African cricket team. They are made up of South African citizens or at very least holding a South African passport. They are in some way linked to this land.
Like it or not, they represent you as a South African, and the rest of South Africa. They are chosen as this nation’s best to play against other nations’ best (and why the national anthem is sung).
I can fully appreciate another teams’ skill and marvel at how they play the game. I can wish for a South African flyhalf in the mould of Dan Carter or a South African striker with finesse and skills of Messi.
But one thing I can never condone, is supporting another country against your own countrymen To will a compatriot to lose is something that will always be foreign to me.
19 Oct 2011, 15:05 pm
@Kietzphat(Kietzphat)-135: Hey like I said. Patriotism for some of us is not a natural state, in fact, it is very foreign, and a concept we actively have to, teach, and restore in our children as it was actively and with noble purpose extracted from our very core. It’s a noble idea, but some of us Saffas just don’t feel it. Sorry.
19 Oct 2011, 15:07 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-136: rider, when it comes to rugby?
19 Oct 2011, 15:29 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-136:
I don’t understand what you mean by “with noble purpose extracted from our very core”.
Are you being ironic?
Look, as a white male in his mid twenties, I won’t be able to empathize with coloureds or blacks who grew up in Apartheid South Africa.
I can fully understand any non-white supporting anybody else against the Boks pre-1994 as the team did not represent them. Hell, why would you support a team that would not accept you?
I can understand the extreme bitterness and anger.
What I don’t understand, is why there is continued support for teams against the Boks 17 years later, especially by people who did not or had very little experience of apartheid.
Maybe patriotism does come very easily to me. But its got a lot more to do with than rugby.
19 Oct 2011, 15:38 pm
@Kietzphat(Kietzphat)-138: As Trans says. When it comes to rugby, and no I was not being ironic. I was taught to detest everything the Sprinboks are and stood for. My progress is that I don’t any longer, but that doesn’t mean that I now gush with joy for them either. You feel like you are cheering for your country when you wear the Green and Gold. To me you could be wearing a Man U T- shirt, and I hate Man U. Nothing emotional and certainly nothing to do with my love of the land. Unattached.
19 Oct 2011, 15:39 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-137: Ofcourse when it comes to the Boks. Not rugby per se.
19 Oct 2011, 15:44 pm
@Kietzphat(Kietzphat)-138: “What I don’t understand, is why there is continued support for teams against the Boks 17 years later, especially by people who did not or had very little experience of apartheid.”
you have expats who gleefully rubbish south africa all over the world, are they less south african because they do that?
get it straight, mandela may have worn the no.6 jersey in ’95 but he wasn’t representing all people of colour, it was mainly a symbolic/political gesture (one which to a large extent unilaterally took as he veto-ed a motion by his comrades to SCRAP the springbok emblem). people HATED the springbok emblem and 17 years later some still do.
19 Oct 2011, 15:44 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-139:
Oh right.
I read it as the apartheid government “nobly” extracting it from your core.
Baby steps then with the progress.
19 Oct 2011, 15:48 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-141:
You misunderstand, Transie.
I’m talking about schoolboys, who are afforded the same opportunities as everyone else, 14 and 15 years of age supporting the All Blacks.
And as for ex-pats overseas who rubbish this country. Yes they grate me just as much.
19 Oct 2011, 15:49 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-141: on top of that, the people who ran SARFU like Louis Luyt were slimy unreconstructed racists who were only happy to agree to association with people of colour as long as it meant they would be allowed to participate internationally again, they had NO genuine desire to transform the sport from the bastion of Afrikaner triumphalism that it symbolised to a game that can unite millions.
19 Oct 2011, 15:55 pm
@Kietzphat(Kietzphat)-143: their parents are to blame. most kids support the team/s their parents support except for stormersboy whose son is a guppy_lover
when people say “rugby is a culture to afrikaners”, they usually mean, that they grew up around boisterous rugby games, discussions, vociferous provincialism amongst Ooms, fathers and grand dads. it is the same with some of the youngster you refer to, their parents/grand parents recall stories of the all blacks/british lions moering the bokke with fervour and those stories form a basis for affection towards the sport.
19 Oct 2011, 16:01 pm
@Kietzphat(Kietzphat)-138: Mate 17 years isn’t such a long time. Some of our wounds will take a very long time to heal, and it’s not just about what happened then but also about the continued consequences today for the children of the people who have lived through it. After the Roman occupation of Britain, it took generations for the resentment to abate. Expect no different here.
And don’t take it too personally. You can’t really do anything about it anyway.
19 Oct 2011, 16:03 pm
Eenie meenie mynie mo
I just happen to support the team at the top
This doesn’t mean I’m not a real supporter
Well, okay it does, but fck it anyway
19 Oct 2011, 16:06 pm
@Kietzphat(Kietzphat)-143: I just want to correct something. Some of us were born in the 70′s, and were children through the worst of the 80′s.
But the real effect we see is on our parents. Just like yours have moulded you in one way or another, so have everyone elses.
19 Oct 2011, 16:06 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-145:
My dad is a stormers_boy and I’m a guppy_lover
Yes, I know this country has deep racial wounds that will years, decades to heal. But I refuse to accept that they will never heal.
Yes, I fully agree Nelson’s gesture of allowing the Springbok to survive and wearing the no 6 jersey was a major political ploy and not based on any love for the brand. I do believe though that he has grown to love the Springboks now.
As for the parents, it saddened me to see a family arrive at the test match in PE, clad in All Blacks material with the two sons, about 5 and 6 years old with black ferns painted on their faces.
At the same time, it made me chuckle to witness a group of black supporters chanting and marching outside with a huge banner in the front that read “All blacks love the Springboks!”
I thought that was bladdy clever.
19 Oct 2011, 16:08 pm
@rossoneri(rossoneri)-148: @Transformation(Transformation)-145:
Anyway guys, I’d dig to continue this conversation, but I’ve got a deadline to attend to.
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