Smith tells of All Blacks’ ruthless review
All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith has opened on the ‘‘ruthless’’ review that followed New Zealand’s semifinal loss to England at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The All Blacks were chasing an unprecedented third successive world title after World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015 but England demolished them 19-7 in Yokohama on October 27.
It was the end of Steve Hansen’s hugely successful time with the All Blacks and the bronze final a week later against Wales was the final farewell for the departing coach and veterans like Kieran Read, Ben Smith, Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty.
Smith, a World Cup winner in 2015, revealed how Hansen summoned all the players and staff to a meeting after the semifinal defeat. The All Blacks went on to beat Wales 40-17 to finish the tournament third.
‘‘The review process was ruthless. It was tough,’’ the Highlanders halfback told the Rugby Bricks podcast.
‘‘We were watching one of the worst games we’ve ever played, and you’re part of some ugly stuff. Was the effort there? It was bigpicture, there was no actual name-calling, just things like ‘We needed to be better there, here’s a big moment that we mucked up, here’s a chance that we could have made.
‘‘Steve did it with the whole room – everyone got their one minute or two minutes to say how they felt. There was a range of emotions – there were 51 of us there to start the review.’’
The 31-year-old Smith is a senior figure in the All Blacks and is the country’s most capped halfback (92) after his test debut in 2012.
Smith said the mood was ‘‘pretty sombre’’ as the All Blacks assessed their first loss in a
World Cup since the infamous quarterfinal defeat to France in Cardiff in 2007.
‘‘We had our leadership meeting with the coaches and it was tough – Steve Hansen asked right away ‘how do you feel right now?’ We all told each other how we felt – and as you can imagine it was pretty sombre.
‘‘One thing I love and hate about rugby players is we won’t take the glory either, but we love falling on the sword, and that’s what I hated the most about what I was hearing – we all wanted to jump on the sword, you know – ‘It was because of me’,’’ Smith said.
‘‘Coach was like ‘cut that – it wasn’t that, we all did our part, and we all lost’. That was what I hated hearing, some of the best players in the world saying ‘it was my fault’ or ‘If I had done this…’ But the good thing was once we all said how we felt, we all felt a bit better.’’
England’s win over the All Blacks, their first since 2012, was widely considered one of the World Cup’s best performances in history but Eddie Jones’ side couldn’t back it up in the final the Springboks won 32-12.
It was South Africa’s third global rugby title, matching New Zealand’s record, and the All
‘‘You had to sit there and eat humble pie.’’ Aaron Smith
Blacks must wait until the 2023 World Cup in France for another shot at winning the Webb Ellis Cup.
‘‘You see it count down, a whole four years of work. This is going to be the last time you play with some guys, maybe forever, and that’s sad,’’ Smith said.
‘‘Seeing how pumped England were, you couldn’t even be angry at them – they did us, they won, and there was no arrogance about what they did, they won the right way – they out-physicalled us and we couldn’t fire a shot. You had to sit there and eat humble pie.
‘‘Going into the changing room – we had come to Japan to do a job, and we’d failed. There were a lot of guys looking at the ground, a lot of tears. Bender [Ben Smith] was trying to cheer me up and I was pretty distraught, going to hug Reado [Kieran Read] and saying ‘man, I’m sorry we couldn’t do it for ya’.
‘‘People don’t know how much stuff our other people do – our extended management, our gear guys, our nutritionist, our massage guys, our physios, they’re on the ride with you and there’s no consoling – that’s where sport is cut-throat.’’