Savea a frustrated spectator
Ardie Savea was so confused that he had been ordered off the field during the All Blacks’ 23-12 defeat to Ireland in Dunedin he was unable to concentrate on the game.
‘‘Like everyone else I wasn’t sure what was going on. I was a bit frustrated. To be honest I wasn’t even watching the game. Selfishly on my behalf,’’ Savea said.
Savea said the historic loss, the All Blacks’ first against Ireland on New Zealand soil, hurt even more because he was confined to the sidelines for most of the match following a perplexing series of events.
The All Blacks withdrew Savea to get another prop on the field when replacement Angus Ta’avao was sent off for a sickening head collision moments after Ofa Tuungafasi was yellow carded.
But they were frustrated that an apparent error by the officials did not allow them to bring their star No8 back on and have sought clarification from World Rugby.
The All Blacks felt they should have been allowed to take blindside flanker Dalton Papalii off instead. It made for a frustrating night for Hurricanes captain Savea, who said he tried his best to motivate his team-mates from the sidelines in the second spell, but admitted Ireland ‘‘were just too good on the night’’.
‘‘We just couldn’t hold onto the ball. Basic errors … they came with a game plan and put us under immense pressure and we couldn’t handle it down in Dunners,’’ he said.
‘‘That’s pretty tough to swallow.
We want to go out there and represent the black jersey and to put something out like that, it hurts. It does hurt, letting the first Irish
Ireland were able to tie the series at 1-1 to set up a blockbuster decider at Sky Stadium in Wellington this Saturday.
The result has also increased the pressure on All Blacks coach Ian Foster, whose win rate has dropped below 70%.
Savea said he had tried to ignore the criticism aimed at the New Zealand men’s rugby team following their worst home defeat in 150 tests, but that was not always easy in the age of social media.
‘‘I try to stay away from that sort of stuff but I’d be lying if [I said I don’t take notice of it]. I’ll be scrolling through the ‘Gram [Instagram] and you see stuff, but that’s just the reality of our job and what we do in the jersey.
‘‘It does hurt because we’re a family here but with everything that happened, we’ve got each others’ backs. People perceive what they see but they don’t know what goes on inside.
‘‘I back my coach, I back my skip and back my players 100%. Side by side.’’
The All Blacks’ recent record in Wellington is not great, having only won one of their last four tests in Savea’s hometown.
But he said they were determined to make amends in game three with the series on the line.
‘‘We’re very motivated. After the weekend we were quite disappointed. It hurt. A lot.
‘‘This morning we’ve taken it in, in terms of looking at the game and hopefully we can nullify a few things and get ready for this week because it’s going to be massive.’’