ABS’ RWC chances on the up
There is a rising tide of anxiety about the All Blacks’ hopes of winning a third straight World Cup and it is not without foundation.
Two scratchy test performances against Argentina and South Africa have caught the attention of the doomsayers.
But they may have missed the boat. Last year was the time to fret about the All Blacks, when it appeared they were reluctant to back Richie Mo’unga and Luke Whiteock was regarded as the better option at No 8 than Ardie Savea until injury intervened in Argentina.
No, the All Blacks are not currently perfect but the selectors appear to have recognised the danger signs that were flashing last year and have acted.
Belatedly, perhaps, but it is not too late. The All Blacks’ chances are better now than they were at the end of last year.
It still all depends on whether
the All Blacks can make the Mo’unga switch work.
Certainly, Steve Hansen’s language to describe the Crusaders No 10 has changed.
Last year, Hansen didn’t seem to be fully on board with Mo’unga. Now, he feels he is ‘‘world class’’. If the All Blacks persist with Mo’unga at No 10 when they announce their team to face the Wallabies this morning, they should be applauded for their flexibility.
They need Mo’unga’s footwork on the inside to get behind the rush defence and his passing ability to hit the outsides. Against the Springboks, Mo’unga twice produced wide passes off his left hand that just aren’t in Beauden Barrett’s vocabulary.
The other selection that appears to be on the cards against the Wallabies is the insertion of Anton Lienert-brown at No 12.
True, his best All Blacks performances have largely been off the bench but No 12 is his best position and his allround abilities should assist Mo’unga, who is used to playing beside in Ryan Crotty at the Crusaders. Briefly, Mo’unga and Lienert-brown linked up against Ireland last year and did so again during the Springboks test. The signs were encouraging.
The tests against Argentina and South Africa lacked quality but there is some context to consider.
Indeed, if you were coaching one of the All Blacks’ main rivals for the World Cup, you should regard those performances with some suspicion, rather than evidence they were on the slide.
They were borne out of the All Blacks selectors’ generosity: their determination to give every Tom, Dick and Harry their chance to impress.
There’s a longer-term aim here: to keep those on the fringes of the All Blacks squad interested because they might be needed in Japan. The shorter-term cost is a lack of fluency but we can reasonably expect improvements in the Bledisloe series over the next week two weeks. It will not be perfect but it doesn’t need to be yet.
The other factors that have largely gone unnoticed this year are the defence and the scrum.
Was formidable Springboks loosehead Steve Kitshoff just starting to creak a wee bit against Owen Franks at the end of the first half in Wellington?
That rare sight was an important pointer in regards to Franks’ readiness. There was talk, too, that some of the frontrowers had been under the weather in the buildup to the Springboks test, so Franks could go up another gear in Perth.
Scott Mcleod has the defence humming. Frankly, the Springboks ran out of ideas pretty quickly when presented with a black wall in the second half.
The general feeling is that the All Blacks are wobbling a bit. It is not shared here. That was last year’s assessment. There are reasons for Kiwis to be quietly confident if they look hard enough.