All Blacks are good but their dominance isn’t
Hansen blows whistle on Cheika claim
Is it time to start being concerned for the state of World Rugby? The All Blacks outclassed the Wallabies 29-9 in Wellington on Saturday, highlighting the gap between New Zealand and the rest of the world.
While Saturday’s scoreline may not look as impressive as last week’s, it was more concerning.
The Aussies looked desperate. Adam Coleman’s persistent off-theball play was a sign of a team lacking ideas of how to be competitive.
The All Blacks played well, but it was not their best. Yet they barely broke a canter to pick up the win.
It took until the final five minutes for the Wallabies to even look like scoring a try.
Michael Hooper and David Pocock were ineffective. Scott Fardy, once regarded as a rising star of the world game, was pulled before halftime.
Will Genia showed glimmers of his former self, while Israel Folau, several standards above his teammates, was unable to find a way into the game.
Meanwhile, the All Blacks trudged out yet another debutant in Anton Lienert-brown who was leaps and bounds ahead of his opposites. His performance and composure should ensure we see What a load of rubbish, says All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.
He’s dismissed reports out of the Wallabies camp that he held a secret meeting with referee Romain Poite, ahead of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup test in Wellington.
Just as he says there’s no foundation to allegations New Zealand prop Owen Franks eyegouged Australia’s Kane Douglas.
Franks has not been cited for the first-half incident, in which his left hand made contact with Douglas’ face during an All Blacks lineout drive. Wallaby coach Michael Cheika said on Saturday Franks’ actions were blatant, before Australia’s media contingent were tipped off about an official complaint to World Rugby.
That related to reports Hansen and an assistant had met with Poite ahead the test, without Cheika being
plenty more of him in the black jersey.
And Israel Dagg may have played his way out of the fullback jersey by his performance on the wing. It was one of his best in an All Blacks jersey. informed. That would have contravened World Rugby’s regulations, had it happened.
Hansen’s adamant it did not. However, he did meet with Jaco Peyper in Wellington, who’d refereed the previous Saturday’s test in Sydney and was a touch judge at Westpac Stadium.
‘‘It’s quite sad that that’s come out, because it’s not true. Unless you say ‘g’day Romain’ in the morning [constitutes a clandestine meeting], he stayed here at this hotel,’’ Hansen said yesterday.
‘‘But I did have a meeting with Jaco Peyper this week, at his request.
‘‘Crono [All Blacks scrum coach Mike Cron] and I both got asked by him to review some of the stuff that he had seen in our game and I’m a firm believer that we’re here to support the referees and help them,’’ Hansen said.
‘‘It’s a difficult game to ref, so why wouldn’t you have the meeting?
‘‘But certainly didn’t have one with Romain Poite. We don’t meet the ref, haven’t done for about 18 to 24 months because it’s just a waste of time.’’
Asked where the story might’ve come from Hansen said ‘‘I’m not sure, you’d have to ask Mr Cheika.’’
But his best response came when asked if it had been upsetting for a false allegation to surface.
‘‘Oh, terribly, terribly. I’m shattered. We’ve got to be able to talk about something better than that, don’t we?’’
As for Franks, Hansen said the fact Sanzaar had deemed there were no incidents from the match that warranted further review or sanction meant there wasn’t a lot to be said about that either.
‘‘I’ve seen the footage and I agree with the independent person who said there’s nothing to answer for,’’ said Hansen.
‘‘I mean you’ve got to be really, really careful until you see all the views and social media were the people who alerted everyone to it, so they certainly don’t all the views. There’s a process and that process has been followed and whoever the citing commissioner was has obviously seen all the angles and believes there’s nothing to answer for.
‘‘In the same game you can go to two or three other lineouts where they’re driving and the same thing happens. It’s an unfortunate byproduct, I think, of the mauling rules that we have, because the only way you can get there [to the ball] is through clambering over the top and then that creates a response.
‘‘People try and pull them out of the way and the only thing they can use is the head area.’’
Poite viewed the incident from point blank range and no action was taken.
However, Cheika suggested that it was obvious and that some sort of post-match sanction would be likely. seems to be a formality rather than a challenge.
Yesterday, South Africa added a loss to Argentina to their 2016 record, which already contains a loss to Ireland, adding further question marks to their ability to be competitive against the men in black this year as well.
Exactly how to fix world rugby is the impossible question.
But it is something that needs to be addressed by World Rugby and the national unions.
The All Blacks being great is nothing new, but the lack of competitiveness in the world game is.
Let’s hope, for the sake of the game, that the British and Irish Lions can give the mighty men in black a run for their money in 2017.