Kiwis are just as far ahead
exposed by the bouncing ball that led to Malakai Fekitoa’s sole try. It was amateur stuff.
With the Blues scrum, which lost Charlie Faumuina prior to kickoff to a back complaint, under pressure, their lineout also shaky with James Parsons battling to hit his targets, they couldn’t win any decent ball and build any form of continuity. When they did have a glaring lack of on-field direction. Decisions around whether to take a shot for goal or go for a try took an age to make, and other than George Moala’s direct approach the backline shuffled across field all game.
Some of their returning All Blacks also looked underdone.
Umaga, like so many before him, sure has a job on his hands.
AIN my Super Rugby season preview a few weeks back I suggested the Australian teams could see the heels of the Kiwi teams and, just maybe, they might close the gap this year.
Well, I have to rethink that statement. The gap is as wide as ever. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen some good skills from the Aussie teams in games during the past fortnight.
But it’s not happening enough, in contrast to the skilful Kiwi teams, who are putting opposition teams to the sword every time they play.
The thing is, it’s becoming the norm from our Pacific neighbours and it’s becoming incredibly frustrating as an Australian supporter to watch but, by the same token, you have to sit back and clap.
So why are they pushing themselves that little bit more?
What is driving them to even greater heights this year?
I understand there’s always jockeying for positions in any national team. Then it dawned on me. The massive carrot dangling in front of those players in New Zealand this year is to make sure they take part in the British and Irish Lions series. That has to be it. Northern hemisphere teams only arrive on the shores of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa every 12 years, and after the 3-0 drubbing the Kiwis handed out in 2005, not only do they want to emulate what happened last time, I’m sure they want to better that performance.
Dan Carter’s sublime display in the second test would’ve been watched by an impressionable Beauden Barrett as a 14-year-old.
The Kiwis know their history, and keeping that impressive record going against the Lions pushes these blokes at Super Rugby level.
Another subplot for this series relates to what I wrote last week about England’s domination of world rugby without having played the All Blacks.
No doubt when the Lions outfit is selected, coach Warren Gatland – who knows a thing or two about Kiwi rugby – will look predominantly to blokes wearing white shirts, with a scattering of blue, red and green.
So I’m sure in the back of their minds, those English players will see that it would be just reward for a dominant run, getting a shot at beating the All Blacks in their own backyard.