Structure or instinct: The All Blacks’ dilemma
It’s the rugby equivalent of nature versus nurture.
If the All Blacks’ end-of-year tour clashes against England and Ireland have taught us anything, it’s that they’re confused about their method. Their performances said as much and now hooker Dane Coles has given voice to the conflict we all see.
Speaking to reporters in Rome, where New Zealand meet Italy on Sunday, Coles confirmed that the All Blacks are battling to strike a balance between playing what they see and the things that they’ve been coached to do. Much of that on-field direction comes from first five-eighth, creating a bit more of that Beauden Barrett versus Richie Mo’unga, Hurricanes versus Crusaders, instinct versus structure debate.
As Barrett’s Super Rugby captain, Coles couldn’t really hide where his own instincts lie, as the All Blacks try to settle on a style capable of winning a third successive World Cup.
‘‘That’s a tough question,’’ Coles said when asked how the team are adapting to the new gameplan coach Steve Hansen has talked about implementing.
‘‘Like we’ve got some of the best players in the world who just play what they see in front of them. Like, in the weekend, everything we kind of did, Ireland were like there; we didn’t break them down. With previous teams, when we build pressure you make a linebreak but they were just everywhere; they played their hearts out.
‘‘You’ve got to have structure and you’ve got to have balance and we’ve got guys reacting to situations and sometimes that’s just going out of your structure and just playing what’s in front of you, and I think we’re still trying to find that balance.
‘‘It’s a tough one to ask because you definitely need that structure in the game and then you need to just react to what’s in front of you and play, so we’re still trying to find that.’’
Ireland deserve lots of credit for their 16-9 win over New Zealand in Dublin. Tactically and physically they were the superior side and people will look differently at the All Blacks now. There’s a vulnerability about the team and an apparent indecision about what they’re up to.
‘‘Nah, it’s not confusing,’’ countered Coles.
‘‘We’re all drivers out there and we can’t just rely on like the Beaudys to make all those decisions. There’s 15 of us on the field so we need to help those guys out and, if we see something, just call it and just back our instincts.
‘‘It’s just working hard to get set, see what’s in front of you and calling the right thing. If it’s the wrong decision, but you commit 100 per cent, so be it. That’s what you’ve got to do.’’
Playing ‘‘heads-up’’ footy and backing your instincts has been the hallmark of the Hurricanes teams Coles and Barrett have played for. It helped them win a title in 2016 but, in the grand scheme of things, the Crusaders have been far and away the more successful Super Rugby side.
Elements of that Crusaders game, such as playing territory, backing your defence and encouraging the opposition to play a lot of the rugby, seem to have become part of the All Blacks’ repertoire. The early signs haven’t been amazingly good, but Hansen is confident the team will adapt in time.
It’s just interesting to hear the emphasis Coles continues to put on instinct.
‘‘You’ve got to have structure and you’ve got to have balance.’’ Dane Coles
In 2013 Kieran Read was playing like one of the great No 8s of history. With the exception perhaps of stealing the whistle from the referee and tooting out the first couple of verses of the Marseillaise, there seemed to be nothing that he could not do on a rugby pitch. But now Read, crumpled by his 33 years, looks to be partly broken.
The same could perhaps be said of the captain’s team. The All Blacks arrived in the northern hemisphere, admired, feared and respected. They were expected to sweep England and perhaps Ireland aside with a terrible vengeance. It has not happened. The band scarcely got past the overture. They have looked a very mortal orchestra indeed.
The great symbol of this decline is Read. There were four moments in the match against Ireland which gave Ireland a confidence that they hoped, rather than expected to find. The first came in the opening minutes when the All Blacks were smashing through the phases close to the Irish line.
Read was stopped for the fourth time in the assault. He was isolated. Josh van der Flier and CJ Stander arched over the ball. They won a penalty. But it didn’t stop there. Ireland were determined to assert themselves physically.
Stander carried on until he ripped the ball from Read’s hands. The All Blacks captain tried to resist, but was left on his knees, with Stander standing triumphant above him. For Ireland, at least, it was a small symbolic moment, an assertion of will.
For the All Blacks it was the first penalty concession of what would be an horrendous sequence. This is a statistic that Read has led the way in before. As captain he gives away too many penalties. It weakens his authority and it weakens his team. Read finished the half by being penalised for offside in front of his posts.
But it was the start of the second half that defined the match for both Read and the All Blacks. Read began it by missing his pass to Beauden Barrett off the back of the scrum. He had also failed to control a quick heel in the first half. Then came the fateful moment.
Read leapt like the magnificent athlete he once was and charged down Jacob Stockdale’s chip kick. The desperate Irish wing shouted for Read to drop it. Read stooped to conquer. The bounce was a decent one. Jack Goodhue was steaming up on the outside. The nearest Irish players were Tadhg Furlong and Devin Toner. It was a run-in.
Then Read knocked the ball on. I don’t think that would have happened five years ago. I don’t think that before the concussions, the wrist surgery, the broken thumb and the bulging disc in the back, Read
As an attacking force he [Kieran Read] is but a shadow of his former self. And don’t think that his team won’t have noticed all of this.
would ever have spilled that ball. It was the mistake of a man who is not the flexible athlete that he once was.
Moments later we saw another manifestation of Read’s sad decline. And it is sad, because here was one of the truly magnificent players of the game of rugby, a man who used to romp down the right channel with the ball on a piece of string. Read was fast, strong, agile, skilful, intelligent. Who amongst us likes to see a human being’s decline?
So Read rose at the front to contest an Irish lineout. He went too far across and his lifters lost their grip. Read flipped. And down he went like an old nineyear-old horse tipping over at one of the big Aintree fences.
Read lay on the ground, held together by bandages.
Four seconds later, and that is a long time in sport, Ireland’s switch move arrived back in front of Read. Stockdale chipped ahead. But Read wasn’t there. Read was still on his knees and looking back when Stockdale touched down for the try. It seemed a symbolic moment.
Now five years ago I believe that Read would have struggled back to his feet and stopped that
play. But those injuries have slowed him down. How could they not? And so for the second time in the match the All Blacks saw their captain on his knees as Ireland jigged to the seething melody of the home crowd.
The fourth and final moment came when the All Blacks looked to save the game in the final ten minutes. Richie Mo’unga threw a quite brilliant long pass off his left hand to his captain. Read was in his 22 with Ben Smith and
Anton Lienert-Brown on his outside in support. Only Jonny Sexton stood in front of the New Zealanders.
Five years ago Read would have surged and passed and the All Blacks would have been away. But Read lumbered. He went for the inside gap. Iain Henderson came across, made the tackle and darn near turned the ball over. It was a terrible decision by the
captain. And it made you wonder.
Don’t get me wrong, Read is still a magnificent defender. He was one of the All Blacks’ best against Ireland. But as an attacking force he is but a shadow of his former self. And don’t think that his team won’t have noticed all of this.
They will see Michael Leitch, born in Burwood, Christchurch and three years younger than Read, captaining Japan and running rampant against England. They will see Leitch’s raging athleticism and remember that Read used to do that sort of thing.
When talking about the captaincy of a rugby team, the great Fred Allen said that the twin bases of success are respect and loyalty. He believed that a good team was a thinking team. And All Blacks fans, even All Blacks players, will be looking at Read and starting to wonder.
They will see the bandages. They will see the teeth starting to fall out. They will look at all that Sam Whitelock has achieved with the Crusaders. They will look at drop goals not taken, tiffs with refs, penalties given away. And because they are only human, they will start to wonder. They will wonder if the right man is in charge.
And that is the beginning of the end.