ABS defence a work in progress

The All Blacks have been given a qualified pass mark for their efforts on defence this year, with Scott Mcleod revealing the squad needs to be prodded to take on board the lessons from a turbulent year.

The All Blacks have been up and down defensively in 2022, and while they built a black wall against Argentina in Hamilton in September they were pulled apart by the sophisticated Irish attack in July and fell back into some bad habits in the narrow win against the Wallabies in Melbourne in the first Bledisloe test.

Consequently, defence coach Mcleod offered a measured assessment of their progress.

‘‘I wouldn’t say they’re really quick learners,’’ Mcleod said from Japan.

‘‘What I will say is that whatever we put in front of mind they’re very good at adapting to really quickly.

‘‘That’s what I’m saying in terms of some of the lull moments. We’ve switched off.

‘‘We haven’t learnt those lessons, and we haven’t cemented some of those lessons. But whatever we do bring front of mind they do learn very quickly.

‘‘As coaches we’re well aware of that and we just got to keep things front of mind and turning over every couple of weeks.’’

Mcleod’s honest assessment is a reminder that the All Blacks have work to do as they embark on a four-test tour against Japan, Wales, Scotland and England.

They will face different styles over the next month, and Mcleod wants his players to be better at identifying the ‘‘cues’’ given by varied attacking systems.

‘‘Our movements will be tested [against Japan],’’ Mcleod said. ‘‘So, that’s what we’re going to be working on this week.

‘‘It’s a different style of rugby we’re coming up against then it’s different again to what we will face going north. So we have to defensively we have to be able to adapt we’ve played a lot of different styles of rugby this year.

‘‘We feel as though the quicker we can adapt and the quicker we can see the cues in what we’re looking for then we execute better.’’

There are familiar faces in the Japan coaching setup, particularly to Mcleod. He coached alongside Jamie Joseph and Tony Brown at the Highlanders and understands how they think about the game.

Mcleod’s intelligence gathering during Japan XV’S threegame series against Australia A this month confirmed rather than challenged what he expects in Tokyo.

‘‘In terms of the way they want to play the game that is sort of familiar,’’ Mcleod said. ‘‘They want to play with speed.

‘‘They’ve got a high skill level and they put the ball into space really well. If they get that space they can be very dangerous.’’