All Blacks must lower sights: Coles
RUGBY
SYDNEY: The All Blacks aim to learn lessons from last year’s World Cup and work to lower their tackle technique before their TriNations clash against Argentina, hooker Dane Coles says.
Prop Ofa Tuuangafasi became just the fifth All Black to be sent off in a test when he was given a red card on Saturday for a high tackle on Wallaby winger Tom Wright in the 2422 loss to Australia in Brisbane.
‘‘We just have to be better,’’ Coles said yesterday.
‘‘We do a lot of tackling practice in the week.
We just have to lower our sights and targets to not get those red cards again.
‘‘I suppose it’s one on the chin for us.’’
At last year’s World Cup in Japan, after an edict from World Rugby for referees to be stricter on the high tackle to protect players, teams worked on lowering their centre of gravity, Coles said.
‘‘We did a lot of work to lower our height,’’ Coles said.
‘‘We just have to make sure we get under the ball.’’
After four successive matches against the Wallabies, Coles and centre Anton LienertBrown said they were looking forward to the different challenge of facing the Pumas in Sydney on Saturday night.
Argentina has been in Australia for more than a month, but only managed to get its entire squad together last week after 13 Europeanbased players who arrived late completed their mandatory isolation period.
They have played two matches against what has been essentially an Australia A side and LienertBrown said he suspected the weeks of training together would mean they would be well prepared to face the All Blacks.
‘‘I have no doubt they will turn up ready to go,’’ he said.
‘‘They are looking sharp. We expect them to turn up like the Pumas do normally.’’ — Reuters