Did anyone notice the brilliance of ABS attack?
The three horsemen of misery, rage and despair are galloping around the land and the odd thing is that New Zealand seems to rather enjoy it. Many good citizens of this country invest so much in winning a rugby match that it is almost a relief when the All Blacks finally suffer defeat. Losing is a safe place. No need to worry about being beaten anymore. It’s already happened. What a relief.
And so, with many apologies, I am not going to keep jabbing at this soft psychological pin cushion, or at least not yet. I’m going to begin with some good stuff because, what seems to have gone unnoticed amidst all the points that Australia scored, is that this was the best All Blacks attacking performance for more than two years.
Every time the All Blacks had possession, which admittedly was not all that often, they looked capable of scoring. Time and again in the second half, despite being down to 14 men, they got Ardie Savea or Dane Coles into space in the wide channels. The playmakers really began to identify the moments when they could use the width.
And despite some extraordinary comments that I have read, and I suggest these people review the match without emotion and a flagon of beer, the Mo’unga/barrett axis was a roaring success. The obvious example was when the team went through 23 phases before Barrett scored off Mo’unga’s pass.
The build-up was magnificent. Mo’unga, Barrett and Rieko Ioane all made half breaks in the preceding phases. Savea broke a tackle, Kieran Read kept the momentum with a pick-and-go. And Mo’unga orchestrated with a series of miss passes that were spot on the receiver. And maybe that is why Barrett found that little bit of room at the finish. The Aussies were stretched, looking to the outside, perhaps expecting another miss pass, so when Mo’unga came shorter and Barrett cut, the space was there.
This was just one of many attacking highlights. The back three set up a series of promising counter-attacks, one which initiated New Zealand’s first try. Ioane was effective at first receiver on a few occasions. The short pass had Ngani Laumape smashing well over the gain line.
Mo’unga, who made three trysaving tackles and was New Zealand’s best player on the night, demonstrated just what the All Blacks might do with accurate distribution. It was Mo’unga’s loop behind Read that created the space for Jack Goodhue’s chip ahead and the opening try.
Time and again the Crusaders’ first-five found the space in a good Australia defence, that had
10 different players (six in the pack, plus 9, 10, 12 and 13) and two positional changes to the team that lost 12 months ago. Australia were literally a different side.
Mo’unga still had a couple of glitches. There was one in particular in the first half when he had a huge overlap inside his 22 and decided to try to draw in the defence. Mo’unga over-egged it. The defence knocked the ball clear and the All Blacks had to scramble to clean up what might have been a dangerous turnover.
But the All Blacks were not just about what Mo’unga did at the line, they were also about Barrett and his use of pace coming from deep. He is already starting to pick some fabulous lines and with his pace they are a nightmare to defend.
The All Blacks got hardly any turnover ball but, boy, when they did they were a threat. One spilled ball and there was Barrett, coming from deep and signalling to Aaron Smith who threw a magnificent long pass. A cut-out to Coles and, a couple of passes later, Ioane was in at the corner.
So, it may be hard news to accept, but the All Blacks attack, despite a paucity of first-half possession and despite being a man down for the entire second half, was superb. Heavens, with all those disadvantages they scored 26 points and they left another 10 out there.
So celebrate all that promise, even if they are cutting it mighty fine in terms of World Cup preparation. And now you can be miserable. Now you can be angry. Now you can wallow in despair.
The defence was atrocious. Physicality was low and so was line-speed. Every time the Aussies cut back or went from the breakdown, New Zealand were vulnerable. Their close-in defence was the worst I have seen. There were holes everywhere.
The guards on the close-in fringes had gone walkabout and the back-row played confused. Certainly Savea has not found his positioning yet and that prompted uncertainty from Read. Savea badly missed Reece Hodge in the first half and Read twice missed Christian Lealiifano. They also both missed Samu Kerevi.
There were plenty of individual mistakes on defence. Ben Smith twice came in on the ball instead of covering the man and that led to two tries. Anton Lienert-brown also went for and missed an easy interception, enabling James O’connor to put in Hodge for Australia’s opener.
Individual mistakes also plagued the attack. Scott Barrett, Sam Cane and Ben Smith all threw away attacking possession by losing the ball in contact with no excuse for doing so. Patrick Tuipolotu was intercepted and Read lost two lineouts with poor hands.
The captain did some magnificent things but he missed tackles, lost ball at lineout and made a bad decision in either half. The first one came when the All Blacks were a point behind
and he did not kick at goal and the second when he took a tap penalty when the All Blacks needed to quickly pen Australia in the corner and lay siege. Read needs a big game.
And then there were the daft penalties. Coles, Savea and Owen Franks were each involved in two of them and need to be roasted by Steve Hansen. They were stupid penalties and not good enough at this level. And so what to say to Scott Barrett.
At the end of May I wrote: ‘‘A [refereeing] leniency is creeping in that could get the All Blacks into bad habits ahead of the World Cup. In consecutive weeks Scott Barrett, who is currently giving away far too many penalties, has cleared out a ruck with a shoulder charge and not received a yellow card.’’
Barrett was an accident waiting to happen. You can blame Lyndon Bray, the head of Sanzaar refs, for presiding over a culture that did not enforce World Rugby’s laws around shoulder charges and head contact. The northern hemisphere refs have long been doing it, just as Jerome Garces correctly did, but Super Rugby has allowed all sorts of nonsense. It was a permissive society that was going to lead to trouble.
So suck it up. Surely it is not a coincidence that two of the four red cards that the All Blacks have received are on Hansen and Read’s watch. Too much violence in an All Blacks shirt has been let go or excused by those at the top. It’s enough to make you despair.