Hansen looks for ‘nut cracker’
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen hopes he has the ‘‘nut cracker’’ in his tool box at the Rugby World Cup to burst open a defensive vice he believes is gripping the modern game.
As his side prepares to face Tonga in Hamilton today, Hansen had time to mull over the notion that teams were becoming more evenly matched across the board, ahead of New Zealand’s quest at a historic three-peat of World Cup titles.
The current world rankings are as tight as ever, and while there have been some recent high-scoring affairs or blowouts in tier one versus tier one contests, they have certainly been the exception to the norm over the last few years.
At the last World Cup the average margin between teams was 22 points, down from 25 in 2011, 30 in 2007 and 33 in 2003, as tier two sides start catching up.
And while the All Blacks managed nine tries in a topsy-turvy two-test Bledisloe Cup series this year, it was their four tries in their previous four tier one tests (excluding the Italy romp in Rome), that have Hansen wary of the game’s current style – where rush defence has very much become in vogue – and hopeful they can break the shackles when it counts in Japan.
‘‘I think there’s a bias towards the defence,’’ he said of the current style.
‘‘I think that’s definitely happened. And then because of that, everyone thinks we are closer than we probably really are.
‘‘But someone’s going to crack that defensive nut, because history tells us it will happen. And when it does, then it will open up the floodgates for the attacking game to come strong again. Then everyone will be saying there’s a bias towards attacking, and they’ll go away and work harder on what they’re going to do on defence.
‘‘That’s been the nature of the game, toing and froing both ways for a long, long time. So I’m looking forward to that nut being cracked.’’
Clearly it’s in the All Blacks’ best interests to do so. It’s not in their DNA to play a conservative style, and nor should it be, if the situation and personnel allow.
Even in the wet conditions in the the 36-0 Bledisloe Cup-retaining thrashing of the Wallabies at Eden Park three weeks ago, the men in black showed what can be done on attack, but it also involved putting boot to ball.
‘‘Our game’s about using the ball, and using a triple threat game,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘That’s the thing that pleased me the most about the Aussie game, we kicked well, ran and passed well. You can’t just do one.
‘‘Your kicking game’s about shaping the defensive lines, and if you’ve got a poor kicking game then the defence doesn’t have to worry about it, but if you have a sharp kicking game then they have to readjust how they want to defend and then that might create a bit more space.’’
The last World Cup in the UK, which was an all-southern hemisphere semifinal affair, had some striking tryscoring numbers.
Eventual finalists, the All Blacks and the Wallabies, who were the top two teams in the Rugby Championship that year, scored 25 tries in their seven tier one matches at the tournament, while the top two teams from that year’s Six Nations – England and Ireland – managed just seven between them in five tier one games.
Having taken an obvious interest in the northern hemisphere warmup tests in recent weeks, Hansen was suitably impressed, then, by England’s 57-15 demolition of Ireland at Twickenham a fortnight ago, and sees another sort of ‘triple threat’ in the form of which teams loom as big contenders.
‘‘They’re trying to play rugby, using the ball, they actually cracked the nut from a defensive point of view, they scored some great tries, and they hurt Ireland defensively, which not many teams have done in the past,’’ he said of the English.
‘‘Wales are obviously going well, and then Ireland have bounced back [to beat Wales]. So there’s three good sides up there that are playing good footy.
‘‘France always seem to find something different at World Cups, and Scotland are starting to come into their own too.
‘‘So it’s going to be a good tournament. But as I said when we named the team, that’ll bring its own expectations too, and not so many of them have had to deal with those expectations.
‘‘And we’ve seen over the last few years, some teams have put themselves in a position and haven’t dealt with it that well.’’
That looms as another job for the all-important nut cracker.