Don’t rush to judge All Blacks’

At some stage this year, the All Blacks are going to hit on the right way to deal with the obligatory rush defence they will face.

Whether it was Ireland last year, the British and Irish Lions or a combination of the two, the rest of the world has become convinced the All Blacks are vulnerable if their attack game is blitzed by a defensive line that charges off the line and hits the decision-makers.

Actually, what’s more accurate, is the rest of the world is convinced this is the way to beat the All Blacks — that a rush defence is effectively Kryptonite.

Come at the All Blacks hard on defence and they will become much like every other team and make mistakes, run up dead alleys and struggle to generate width and tempo.

There’s truth to that, of course there is. But not as much truth as there may appear.

What’s becoming apparent is rival international coaches have suddenly perked up, believing, based on results and performances, the All Blacks are enduring some kind of slide.

They don’t appear to be as commanding or as fluid as they were last year and observers are beginning to wonder if all is not well inside the camp.

There are a few things to consider, however, to balance the picture. The first is that last year was an anomaly.

The All Blacks played a tired and jaded Welsh team in June. Australia were poor. South Africa were worse and the Pumas were exceptionally vulnerable.

Between the four of them, none fired a decent shot at the All Blacks. None of them built any kind of sustained pressure or asked tough questions for more than 20 minutes.

The All Blacks were able to look considerably better than they really were. Of course they could build their attack game because they were allowed to. Give the All Blacks space and they will score.

Perhaps they were guilty of thinking the All Blacks were going to struggle given the experience and quality they lost after the World Cup, and they turned up expecting it would all happen for them.

Whatever, a young and relatively inexperienced New Zealand team were given an easy ride in 2016.

They weren’t as good as they looked, the proof of which began to