All Blacks can get better
6 Oct 2012
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen says the world champions still have room for improvement.
The All Blacks have now won 16 consecutive Tests and should break the world record of 18 on their end-of-year tour. They won all six of their matches in the Rugby Championship, adding the southern-hemisphere trophy to the World Cup they won last year. Hansen, though, doesn’t think they’ve reached their peak.
‘We haven’t got ourselves nailed yet but we’re getting better,’ he said. ‘We know we have some very talented players, but so have lot of other teams. The difference between us and them is that we are perhaps getting our preparation right during the week and ensuring that our players have the best chance to perform on the Saturday.’
Hansen said it had been difficult to travel from New Zealand to Argentina and then to South Africa, but that they had managed the players’ workloads carefully.
‘We went to a second time zone, so sleep was an issue this week, but we trained smart.’
Meanwhile, Richie McCaw lauded his side’s mental strength at Soccer City.
‘We had the Rugby Championship trophy sewn up last week, but the guys understood the challenge of coming to South Africa and the need to back it up. There are a few guys in our squad who have been around a while and they ensured that we kept our edge.
‘We’re reasonably fit and pride ourselves on playing for 80 minutes. Our fuel tanks probably weren’t 100% full coming into this game, so it came down to mental desire, the ability to keep getting up. It was a battle of wills today, and we got momentum that kept us going.’
The All Blacks captain has now won 100 of his 112 Tests, a record which Hansen called ‘pretty spectacular’.
‘It is pretty special,’ said McCaw, ‘but you’ve got to be part of a pretty special team to be able to do that.’
By Simon Borchardt, at Soccer City
14 Comments
6 Oct 2012, 20:58 pm
Yep, we still yet to hit our best game.
But its good to see our consistency of playing good games is starting to come about.
Our defense has been great. Boks are no easy beats when it comes to forward play and a few
times we were on the 5 meter line and defended the pressure.
Just a few things needs fixing, silly penalties need to stop. A couple of times
our players were left by themselves with ball and was easily turned over.
But overall we should be happy
6 Oct 2012, 21:35 pm
Be afraid.
7 Oct 2012, 00:40 am
Yes, we can improve but so can SA. It’s sort of like an arms race lol, you never know what the other side is developing — until they pop up from behind a bush in a great big tan k while you’re still running round with a bow and arrow.
7 Oct 2012, 01:17 am
@ Monty, 3: good analogy, and so true. This run will come to an end at some point, and in all likelihood we will have to endure a rubbish period like 1991-94 (some devastating losses in those years) and 1998-2001 (so many below par all blacks played in that period whereas the wallabies in particular had some stellar players).
I really am in awe of what this team has achieved this year. We haven’t played any easy beat teams, and whilst we have been pushed very very close a couple of times, we have managed to scrape the wins. Add to that 4!sublime wins – 60-nil v Ireland, nilling the Aussies, thrashing the argies in Argentina (that never happens) and ambushing the bokke in this game when it was meant to be us stumblinng jet lagged into an altitude ambush.
Drink it in all black supporters, this is as good admit gets, and it only happens once in a few generations of players.
7 Oct 2012, 07:47 am
Right now, its good to be an All Blacks supporter. Hansen and his group should be proud of what they have achieved this year. To beat the second and third ranked teams home and away is no mean feat. Add Ireland and Argentina to the list and you soon get the picture.
Its like the cold war. As other sides tweek their games, so too will the AB’s. This time with far greater destructive power. The game is evolving and so too have the AB;s think tank. While other teams have regressed somewhat, Hansen will be working on new tricks. The ultimate goal, is to be the first team to win back to back world cups, Dare I say it folks, no other team, I repeat, no other team in the universe is capable of such an achievement. Unless of course, the Mars rover snaps a few pictures of a Ritchie McCaw lookalike on Mars.
7 Oct 2012, 07:52 am
Carter had a blinder, especially in the 2nd half, pure class
7 Oct 2012, 08:33 am
well played AB’s .we are way behind in skills levels
7 Oct 2012, 14:55 pm
So is that a GRAND SLAM, or what, to add to the ***** ones they have in the Bleatingish and Oilyish Isles?
PS There is no up and down in our universe, but the south is clearly superior, which means on top, like my mother-in-law’s daughter.
PPS NZ is the only side to win a Grand slam in South Africa. 1995 they beat, sorry slaughtered, all four of the UK Unions, who get 52 times the votes of Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji at the IRB (Interminably Racist Brouhaha).
7 Oct 2012, 14:57 pm
@goforthegap00-7:
I don’t agree. I believe that you are just too stubborn to change!
7 Oct 2012, 19:58 pm
taking a cursory glance at the first half without giving any real, determined observation i have picked up just a few of the new zealanders infringements. of course the second half was / is far, far more littered with filthy play than the first (how else would they win):
1. driving off players without the ball.
2. hands.
3. macaw falling onto the wrong side of the ruck.
4. different players going onto the wrong side of the ruck.
5. hands.
6. offsides.
7. going off feet / to ground at ruck.
8. hands.
9. taking up position ahead of the ruck.
10. ab prop drops bind *should be an immediate penalty*.
11. disengaging early from scrum.
12. lineout distance infringement.
13. macaw blocking at scrum.
14. entering maul from side and continuing to play.
15. hands in ruck playing ball.
16. tackling support player without the ball intentionally – nonu.
17. *spear tackle* – retalick (is this even a debate…?..but i’ll bet you the citing commisioner if a saffa let it go).
18. offsides.
19. macaw slowing ball in ruck blatantly.
20. forward pass read – try.
21. sealing off at ruck.
22. obstructive running.
23. offsides again.
——————————————————–
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
this is just the first half and is by no means a full and final assesment of their filth.
7 Oct 2012, 20:58 pm
If the ref doesn’t blow an infringement, it simply isn’t an infringement.
The Laws of Rugby say so: Law 6A (4) a. “The referee is the sole judge of fact.”
So, if McCaw isn’t blown up, he hasn’t infringed. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
7 Oct 2012, 20:59 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-10: what a sad sorry individual you are, of course the Boks were not without their faults either, and I must congratulate them for no penalties in the first half, well done, but everything you have said also applies to the Boks, I mean you guys just cant help yourselves, and even when you do, you still get beat. The Boks got beat by a great team that never wilted under the pressure and then puts 4 tries on you….so answer that one my man….JDV’s pass to BH was forward, Bok players falling all over themselves at the ruck and so on and so on. Get a life mate, muscle and suck it up, the AB’s won and the Boks got they butts kicked and kicked BIG TIME…
7 Oct 2012, 21:16 pm
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-10:
Please give times these happened and i will review the game.
We can go over it together, you might need a little bit of help with the rules i think.
7 Oct 2012, 23:15 pm
@bakkies-10 That’s not healthy for you by a country mile. SA were beaten by a better team. In the first 25-30 minutes SA had control of the game but failed to capitalisen Ref or “cheating” aside
By the way the rules of the game & the way refs blow matches isn’t going to be changed just so that SA can catch up. We have horrible skills levels
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