ABs running away from smart tactics
It’s admirable this All Blacks side is willing to back its innate running ability regardless of score, occasion, scenario or opponent and never miss the chance to see if pass and catch can deliver a try.
No matter how much pressure this side comes under, they still see the opportunity to run. Their first instinct remains to move the ball into space and to see if their pace, ball skills and timing can break the defence. Other teams are prone to restricting their vision and ambition when they feel the pressure, but not the All Blacks.
They are fearless and uninhibited and it is this which makes them so difficult to beat and yet also sits as their greatest vulnerability.
After an unconvincing display by Vaea Fifita against Argentina, the lack of certainty about who to play at blindside is gripping some as the biggest problem to solve.
Sonny Bill Williams’ continued injury dramas and subsequent lack of clarity as to the best midfield combination is being hailed by others as the most pressing business to fix.
But personnel issues are not the big concern. They will solve themselves like they always do when someone makes a compelling case to be the solution. What isn’t clear, though, is whether this All Blacks side is going to learn self-restraint and be able to inject well-placed conservatism into their thinking.
At the moment, they are a slave to their DNA: they can’t resist the temptation to do what comes so naturally and attack with ball in hand.
To them, it is always the right option, and while that is admirable, it is also misguided and could prove catastrophic to their goal of winning a third consecutive World Cup.
The All Blacks don’t have their game management under control. Not the way they need to if they are to get through tense knockout games where defences dominate.
Their desire to use their runners and ball skills needs to remain at the core of what they do. Their natural instincts have to be encouraged and allowed to flourish but it doesn’t need to be all or nothing.
This is the bit they don’t seem to quite get yet. They haven’t yet shown they can balance their game: curb their instincts at times and understand it is sometimes better to be without possession deep in their opponents’ territory than it is to have the ball inside their own.
If there is one lesson this All Blacks side needs to learn before heading to Japan, it is that glory can be found in a giant hoof down the field as much as it can in a beautifully orchestrated pass and run sequence.
That should be their key finding after their first test of the year when they were four points ahead in Buenos Aires with three minutes left.
When they rolled a driving maul inside Pumas territory, they would have had total control of the game had Brad Weber or Beauden Barrett kicked high, deep into the right-hand corner of Argentina’s 22.
The Pumas would have the ball, but they would also have to find a way to advance 90 metres. The right play was for the All Blacks to back their defence but instead, they had Anton Lienert-Brown at first receiver and tried to work Barrett into the middle of the field.
It was intricate and the third pass went astray, handing possession to the Pumas, who spent the final three minutes on the All Blacks tryline.
The scenario wasn’t so different in Wellington last year when the All Blacks were camped on the Springboks’ line in the last minute needing two points to win.
The right play was the dropped goal but again their DNA kicked in and they wanted to run. The ball was dropped and the game lost.
Since the Lions were here in 2017, plenty of followers have carried this uneasiness about the All Blacks.
It has been hard to say why there is this sense the current All Blacks don’t have the same aura of invincibility as the 2015 World Cup team. But it is becoming clearer after the weekend that the source of that doubt is the current team haven’t shown the same breadth of vision to best assess how to close out a test.
They are at times needlessly reckless and maverick with their decision-making, seeing a need to pull off a miracle moment as if the percentage play is beneath them.
They haven’t yet learned the art of how to use pressure against an opponent and they haven’t built the same confidence to use their kicking game as part of an aggressive defensive strategy.
Only when this team stops running as their default pressure play will they eradicate the sense of vulnerability that has clung to them since they drew with the Lions.
It is sometimes better to be without possession deep in their opponents’ territory.