Loss sent All Blacks into major tailspin
England do not realise how badly they scarred the All Blacks when they knocked them out of the 2019 World Cup. It was not just that Eddie Jones’ side ended New Zealand’s dream of winning a historic third successive World Cup, but they also confirmed the All Blacks had developed a vulnerability to opponents who build their game on confrontation.
New Zealand had become fearful of the best Northern Hemisphere sides, in awe of their power, unable to cope with their intensity and size, and with no answers about how to build their attacking patterns against the supremely organised rush defences favoured in the Six Nations.
Throughout their history the All Blacks have had relatively few galling episodes, and England’s 19-7 victory in Yokohama would rate as the most defining of the professional age, due to its shocking and comprehensive nature.
The cracks that had developed were hard to see because the period between 2011 and the start of the 2019 World Cup was a golden age, the All Blacks losing just 10 tests. Their brilliance was confirmed not just by their 90 per cent win ratio, and the World Cups they won in 2011 and 2015, but also by the 496 tries they scored, which was almost double England’s number in the same period.
But Ireland had exposed a possible frailty when they beat them in 2016, and again in 2018, with a lowrisk game. The All Blacks had no workaround against this direct, physical onslaught, a blueprint the British and Irish Lions borrowed to draw the series in 2017.
It ate away at the All Blacks and forced them to innovate, most notably switching Beauden Barrett to fullback to operate as a second playmaker. This was a departure from the norm for a team who did not usually base their selections or strategies around the opposition. It became apparent just how flustered they were ahead of their semifinal clash, when they picked Scott Barrett, a specialist lock, at blindside flanker, out of nowhere. It highlighted that head coach Steve Hansen was wary of England’s power and spoke of the respect he had for Jones. Hansen, who was famously good at belittling rivals with cutting one-liners, took an entirely different approach with Jones. It was one of deference and heightened this idea that the All Blacks were starting to develop an inferiority complex about the north. New Zealand’s mental skills coach, Gilbert Enoka, who remains with the team, said: “You think of how he treated [Michael] Cheika. Think of how he treated [Warren] Gatland and he responded to all the other coaches that he’d come up against. When it came to Eddie, he said rather than treat him as an adversary, he would bring him right in close to his circle.
“They have a mateship that is still strong today, but I think in the end that did de-power Steve a little bit.
“Eddie got access to information. Not from Steve but through that relationship over time and that came to hurt us that day.
“There was a mutual respect, but at the same time I think he was played a bit.”
Ian Foster, Hansen’s assistant, was promoted to the top job, and he brought in a new coaching group in 2020 with the express aim of toughening up the All Blacks, rebuilding their set-piece, hardening their ball-carrying, bringing their defensive line up faster and equipping them to cope with the physical approach of Six Nations teams.
But two years after his appointment, the problem has only got worse.
The All Blacks were beaten up by Ireland and France at the end of last year. When they were confronted by the direct, bruising, confrontational work of those teams, the pack again surrendered and their attack game became lateral.
How seriously the All Blacks were in trouble became apparent this July when Ireland went to New Zealand and won the series.
Such was the state of panic, Foster was forced to fire his two assistant coaches, John Plumtree and Brad Mooar.
Jason Ryan, who had spent six years building a formidable pack at the Crusaders, was brought in to do the same with the All Blacks, saying on his first day in the job: “There’s no hiding from it, the All Blacks pack has been dented. It really has been.”
What deepened the sense of hopelessness was the impact of South Africa shifting their clubs to play in European competitions when Covid forced the break-up of Super Rugby.
Super Rugby Pacific in 2022 was fast, skilled and entertaining, but without any South African influence it lacked focus on set-piece, no one kicked much, no one used a rush defence and it was as if New Zealand’s best players were being asked to play club rugby on Venus to prepare for test matches played on Mars.
When the All Blacks followed their Irish series loss with defeat in Mbombela against the Springboks, New Zealand Rugby began talking to Scott Robertson, the successful Crusaders coach, about taking over from Foster.
NZR asked him if he could find space in it for Joe Schmidt, the former Ireland coach who had joined the All Blacks after the July series.
When Schmidt said he could not work with Robertson, it saved Foster, because NZR’S board saw the former Irish coach as the king-maker. Since Schmidt’s arrival as attack coach in August, the All Blacks have won six from seven and, critically, they have beaten Wales and Scotland.
“Joe Schmidt has been really honest about trying to create opportunities through clean-out and speed,” halfback Aaron Smith said.
And while the All Blacks were under pressure for 60 minutes in Edinburgh on Monday, the fact they were able eventually to subdue the Scots and scrap their way to victory hinted at their growing confidence about facing northern sides.
New Zealand feel they are losing their inferiority complex and are building the physical resilience and mental resolve to confront and beat the best of the Northern Hemisphere.
But, of course, the real test of whether they have laid the demons of Yokohama to rest will come on Sunday morning at Twickenham.