ABS ‘have to be hungrier’
Happy memories aren’t always helpful ones.
It’s natural that the All Blacks look back upon last September’s 57-0 win over South Africa with fondness. After a fairly ferocious opening salvo from the Springboks, New Zealand ran in a series of superb counter-attacking tries to go into halftime 31-0 up.
Hardly a pass hit the deck, as the pace, skill and vision of the All Blacks left their old foes for dead.
Rieko Ioane went in from a deft Aaron Smith kick, a Beauden Barrett flick pass put Nehe Milner-skudder over, before Barrett cross-kicked for brother Scott to score. By the time Brodie Retallick rumbled over, from a counter-attack that featured Damian Mckenzie, Beauden Barrett, Ioane and Dane Coles, Albany’s QBE Stadium was going mental.
‘‘I remember the excitement of big Brodie’s try and how we all felt after that and what it meant to see him go [all] the way,’’ Beauden Barrett said yesterday.
‘‘But I remember the week itself. It’s probably the best week’s prep we’ve had for a long time and there was that genuine edge around it.
‘‘We knew we were in for a big battle and it was a big battle. I remember the first half, although we were up by heaps on the scoreboard, we felt we had to work for everything and it didn’t come easily.
‘‘Yeah, there was a lot of positives in that game.’’
Few that are too helpful now, though.
Barrett was asked directly for his memories of that game and gave them. Quite well too. But as much as he and the team know that the 57-0 win is way in the past – and potentially an aberration – it would be hard for them not to think back to how much fun they had and how good some of their rugby was.
And when you do that, it’s only human nature to forget the bad bits and the tough slog. To think you can rattle points on like that all the time.
With the teams to now reconvene at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium on Saturday, it will be fascinating to see how clinical New Zealand can be. Whether they can actually prepare in the genuine, bone-deep way head coach Steve Hansen regularly refers to.
After all, the margins between an amazing night at the office, and a rather more disappointing one, are quite fine.
‘‘It’s just about taking our opportunities. It’s as simple as that,’’ Barrett said.
‘‘We know that we have to turn up with the right mentality. We know that they’ll be coming every time we play them, so we just have to be ready to take our opportunities because in test matches you don’t get that many and we know how desperate they will be this week so we have to not just match them, but be hungrier than them.’’
‘‘I remember the excitement of big Brodie’s try and how we all felt after that and what it meant to see him go [all] the way.’’