All Blacks have the strength to switch things up, says Whitelock
SAM Whitelock has warned England that New Zealand have the ability to win Saturday’s World Cup semi-final by any means necessary.
The All Blacks inflicted a record World Cup defeat on Ireland in Saturday’s merciless 4614 quarter-final victory in Tokyo.
Now the back-to-back defending champions will push their quest for an unprecedented third-straight World Cup crown to Yokohama, where they will meet Eddie Jones’ England.
New Zealand shifted star flyhalf Beauden Barrett to full-back in the summer and have reaped untold rewards of his twin-playmaker pairing with new number 10 Richie Mo’unga.
But the All Blacks battered Ireland in the tight exchanges on Saturday too, leaving second-row Whitelock purring on the all-court threat of boss Steve Hansen’s men.
“It’s the reality of playing rugby that there’s so many different styles,” said Whitelock (right).
“You can go out there and have an awesome backline and win games through them, or you can punt the ball up the tight five’s jumper and play that way.
“But I’d like to think us as a team have a few different strengths, and it’s nice to use a few of those in different games.
“It’s pretty cool to see guys stepping up on the biggest stage, it’s always what you dream of but when it happens it’s great.
“If someone puts in a big shot in defence everyone else just wants to get in there and put in one as big if not bigger.”
Whitelock’s engine room partner Brodie Retallick starred amid New Zealand’s ruthless dismantling of Ireland, and all after almost missing the tournament in the first place with a serious shoulder injury.
Hailing Retallick’s stylish return, Whitelock revealed the All Blacks are relishing the challenge to push themselves on to ever greater heights.
“It was great to have Brodie back, he put in a big shift,” said Whitelock.
“It just shows his quality that he can get back in and straight away produce performances to that level.” IRELAND: R Kearney; K Earls, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Stockdale; J Sexton, C Murray; C Healy, R Best (c), T Furlong; I Henderson, J Ryan; P O’Mahony, J van der Flier, CJ Stander.
REPLACEMENTS: D Kilcoyne (for Healy, 48), T Beirne (for Henderson 48), J Larmour (for Kearney, 52), R Ruddock (for O’Mahony, 56), L McGrath (for Murray, 60) A Porter (for Furlong, 62), N Scannell (for Best, 62), J Carbery (for Sexton, 62)
NEW ZEALAND: B Barrett; S Reece, J Goodhue, A Lienert-Brown, G Bridge, R Mo’unga, A Smith; J Moody, C Taylor, N Laulala; B Retallick, S Whitelock; A Savea, S Cane, Kieran Read (c) REPLACEMENTS: S Barrett (for Cane, 40), O Tuungafasi (for Moody, 48), A Ta’avao (for Laulala, 48), SB Williams (for Goodhue, 52), M Todd (for Retallick, 57) D Coles (for Taylor, 60), TJ Perenara (for Smith, 60), J Barrett (for Reece, 63)
Referee: N Owens (WAL)
Man of the Match: B Barrett (NZ)
IT began with the Fields of Athenry attempting to steal the show from the haka — looking back two hours later it was the only real contest of the day.
Ireland left Tokyo Stadium battered, bruised and beaten but what will have hurt most of all will be the nagging feeling that they were never in the fight at all.
Having built towards Saturday and these World Cup quarter-finals from the moment their 2015 campaign ran aground at the same stage four years ago, the end felt all too familiar.
For the All Blacks in Japan read the Pumas in Cardiff, twice in succession Ireland’s most successful coach, Joe Schmidt (below) has come to the biggest game any Irish coach has ever faced at this global showpiece and found his side blown away.
After a quarter of the game against Argentina in his first attempt, 17-0 in arrears. Against the All Blacks at the same stage, the same score.
Out of it before the game had ever found a groove. Last go around, the mitigating factors were myriad.
The side had lost their captain, their key man and three central figures in the build-up.
There were no such excuses this time around.
The week’s preparation was cited by players as among the best they’ve been a part of, to be at this stage of the tournament and missing only one sure starter in Dan Leavy will have been considered a blessing. Instead, the past 11 months have been chastening, all the more so now that, after this unprecedented period of success, there remains one glass ceiling against which this rugby team continues to bash its head.
For all the signposts, there remained belief that such an era of success could not end on a bum note. Even as the bandwagon lurched unsteadily along the road in 2019, there remained a belief, or perhaps just the hope, that this team had one big performance left in them, that England in Dublin, Wales in Cardiff, Eddie Jones’s men again in Twickenham and then, Japan in Shizuoka, were multiple exceptions to a single rule.
To use the parlance of this competition, that Schmidt had “something up his sleeve”.
If he did, there was never a platform to show it. Against the All Blacks, there is little room for anything less than perfection.
Instead Ireland’s error count was high, execution was poor and the back-to-back champions were in no mood to surrender their crown against a side so lacking in the clinical edge they know what is required to succeed at this level.
For a good side, Ireland gave a wholly convincing impression of a bad one.
Perhaps it’ll be the inevitable autobiographies in the years to come before we hear much on the root cause.
For sure the first-timers and substitutes left to face the media in the aftermath while the senior men who spoke so well during the week remained in the changing room weren’t those in the best position to hypothesise.
In the absence of answers, the question that now looms large — what next for this group?
Back-to-back championships, a Grand Slam, a pair of wins over