Sopoaga takes the bullet for sub-par All Blacks performance
OPINION: Lima Sopoaga did not have the best night in Brisbane on Saturday but his opposite Bernard Foley played with just as many warts and that did not prevent the Wallabies from winning.
Sopoaga is a good player but it is the fate of No 10s to carry the can for the ills of the entire team. There were overarching factors at play that should encourage us to cut Sopoaga a little slack.
The All Blacks were unusually passive on counter-attack and over-excitable on defence.
The former looked like a tactical ploy that did not work and the latter may have been an overeagerness to send out Wayne Smith with a brutal defensive display.
No wonder the master coach kept a low profile during the buildup. ‘Milestone’ or ‘farewell’ fixtures are laden with danger. The All Blacks gave up two or three cheap penalties.
The key moment in Sopoaga’s performance was the misjudged bomb to Israel Folau with a few minutes remaining in the first half. The Wallabies counterattacked and eventually scored a try that brought them to within a point at halftime.
I think it changed the game. In fact, had the All Blacks been positive from their attacking scrum, even though it was just inside their own half, they might have been able to add at least three points to their tally and go into the break at 16-7. The Wallabies may not have come back from that.
It’s hard to know who made the call for Sopoaga to go to the air but it did fit the tactical pattern the All Blacks displayed in that first half. They used the boot to try to turn the Wallabies around and then put them under pressure with their aggressive defence.
To an extent, it worked. Kieran Read and Sam Cane were outstanding on defence but they did not get the true rewards for it. Even when they won turnovers, or forced a poor kick from the Wallabies, there wasn’t the usual spark on counter-attack.
On one occasion David Havili fielded an ordinary Kurtley Beale kick under little pressure and passed infield to Damian McKenzie, who drilled a kick into touch. It was a solid play but normally this is the sort of platform the All Blacks use to hurt sides. The Wallabies would have been thrilled at McKenzie’s option.
McKenzie did not have his best game. In the second half inside the Wallabies’ 22 Beale shot up out of the line, which was an invite for McKenzie to use some of his footwork to go hard at the line. Instead, he passed early to Ryan Crotty, who was swallowed by the defence.
Sopoaga, of course, is an easy target. Beauden Barrett must be treating himself to a wry smile as he listens to ‘how much he was missed’ after months of being told he was struggling. You have to have a thick skin to be a No 10.
It may be that Sopoaga comes under increasing pressure from Richie Mo’unga and, in particular, the exceptionally gifted Stephen Perofeta, in the next two years in the buildup to the 2019 World Cup. But let’s treat the third Bledisloe for what it was - a tough night against an improving opponent as part of an All Blacks performance that was messy for far more reasons than the No 10’s execution.