Hansen has plenty to ponder
Even with the Bledisloe Cup secured for another year, Steve Hansen is entitled to ask his All Blacks some pertinent questions.
In the wake of the dramatic 35-29 victory over the Wallabies in Dunedin on Saturday night, the New Zealanders celebrated like delirious pirates as they hoisted up the booty for all to admire at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
But how did the All Blacks go so close to losing this game, against a Wallaby outfit lampooned so cruelly around the world after being clobbered 54-34 in the first test in Sydney?
Because when Kurtley Beale split the defence to score his try, and Bernard Foley kicked the conversion to put the Aussies ahead by a point in the 77th minute, one of the great upsets seemed imminent.
Top marks to the All Blacks for refusing to go into headless chookmode during those frantic moments as Beauden Barrett scored the matchwinner in the 79th minute.
Great teams survive, and the All Blacks, as they did to Ireland in Dublin in late 2013, unleashed a king hit that almost caused Wallabies coach Michael Cheika to have a messy breakdown in the coaching box.
It was what happened earlier that should concern Hansen, when the Wallabies scored three tries to lead 17-0 in the first quarter hour. He had just scored the winning try in a spectacular game, yet Beauden Barrett could just as easily been ordering a feed at the local kebab shop.
First five-eighth Barrett, quite understandably, let his emotions all hang out when he claimed the vital try in the 79th minute of the Bledisloe Cup test in Dunedin, before kicking the conversion to earn the All Blacks a memorable 35-29 victory over the Wallabies.
But by the time he had wandered into a cold concrete corridor inside Forsyth Barr Stadium to chat with media after the epic game, Barrett had appeared to have flushed all that excitement out of his system.
When asked to give his view on why the All Blacks are able to remain so focused under immense pressure, Barrett, who contributed 20 points by scoring two tries and kicking five conversions, did a decent job of trying to say it was not really that big a deal.
‘‘It is just doing the basics well, nothing special needs to happen,’’ Barrett said. ‘‘It is just doing what we train, just being in the moment and trusting that.
‘‘There is nothing special as we saw ... We always back ourselves right to the final whistle. As long as there is seven points in it, we will never give up.’’
If Wallabies kicker Bernard Foley had been better with the boot - he missed three conversions and a penalty - the Wallabies could have recorded one of their most memorable wins in recent years. But, unlike Barrett, he just couldn’t get his radar tuned in.
When Kurtley Beale scored his try, and Foley kicked the conversion to put the Wallabies ahead 29-28 with three minutes remaining, the All Blacks’ chances of making sure the third and final Bledisloe Cup match in Brisbane would be a dead rubber looked decidedly ropey.
If the Aussies had secured the kickoff, it could have been game over. Instead a flat restart by replacement back Lima Sopoaga was batted towards the All Blacks’ ranks by captain Kieran Read and that was the beginning of the end for the Wallabies.
As the movement swept downfield, Read was again involved. His infield pass to TJ Perenara took another defender out of the line and Barrett raced up to grab the final, vital, pass.
Pandemonium broke out in the enclosed stadium and Barrett’s conversion, he recorded a clean sheet with his goal kicking, put the New Zealanders ahead by six points. The Bledisloe was secured for another year.
The crowd of 27,000 supporters weren’t in such a joyful mood as they watched the Wallabies burst out to a 17-0 lead early in the match.
Given the Aussies also scored 28 points without reply in the second half of their 54-34 loss in Sydney a week earlier, their tremendous start suggested they had taken great confidence from that comeback. How many teams can say they have scored 45 points against the All Blacks in the space of about 50 minutes without conceding a point?
No-one in the All Blacks will be looking forward to watching replays of their terrible start. Handling errors, missed tackles, an intercept pass and mis-timed transfers gifted the Wallabies numerous attacking opportunities.
Yet Barrett was adamant he and his team-mates had prepared well and were ready for a fight from the Aussies. So why the slow start?
‘‘Look, it wasn’t a team thing - we felt we were there [mentally]. It was probably just a few individual mistakes and that was basically it. We felt we had arrived, we were there to play footy.
‘‘It’s not often we find ourselves 17-0 down after probably the same minutes.’’