Wynne Gray thinks the All Blacks surprise loss to South Africa in Wellington may have been a blessing.
THERE WERE THE ALL BLACKS cruising through the Rugby Championship-- or so it seemed in the middle of last month - and firming a touch more as favourites to take out another title at the 2019 World Cup.
They’d shifted past a messy June series with France but invested in another layer of new talent in Jack Goodhue, Richie Mo’unga, Shannon Frizzell, Karl Tu’inukuafe, Liam Coltman and Jackson Hemopo and kept that winning run through twin tests with the Wallabies and the Pumas.
The closest anyone got to them was the second test against France when the winning margin was 13 points.
The victory sequence stretched as did the margins of 25 points then 28 and 22 in the championship as Tim Perry then Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi got their first rewards and Patrick Tuipulotu returned after a lengthy form and injury absence.
The All Blacks were playing well in parts without clicking through the entire combinations but their multi-layered venom was too potent for their rivals.
As calendars began their countdown inside a year to the next World Cup, the inevitable questions began, who could stop the All Blacks and how?
There were those imbued with more bravado than sense who began talking about the inevitability of a third title and where this squad stood in the expanding history of All Black greatness.
It’s a challenge coach Steve Hansen is used to and has coped with since his appointment and work at the helm to orchestrate the 2015 victory in the UK and decision to continue at least until the next tournament in Japan.
No matter the joy and thrill of preparing and winning almost every test, sometimes I’m sure Hansen has wished he could exert a little more heat on his men to sharpen their focus and pull them back into total concentration.
As much as they all talk about going through their detailed plans each test week, reworking their drills and honing the shape of their game, the All Blacks know they are going to win most games and that can nibble at their psyche.
Sometimes that’s positive because they can play with a touch more expression and confidence but they can also be a bit careless.
As they headed to the Cake Tin for another test with the Springboks there was an overwhelming sentiment the All Blacks should wrap up the title and send the Rugby Championship trophy back to its lock-up at HQ down the road from the stadium.
The Boks had already lost to the Pumas and Wallabies on the road and had to be more vulnerable against the All Blacks who had picked all of their heavyweight talent except for the injured Brodie Retallick. The way the All Blacks sizzled out to a 12-point lead early, suggested a heavy defeat for the visitors whose defensive lines were shredded too easily.
What followed was remarkable. Ten minutes later the Boks were in the lead and stayed there to the finish as they repelled waves of All Blacks pressure in the final stages to take out an extraordinary 36-34 victory.
Extraordinary because of the way they were able to turn their game around and for the way the All Blacks unravelled and made mistakes. The best team in the world played some ordinary rugby and when they worked their way down to the Springboks’ line couldn’t find a way to make those forays count.
They spurned penalties for lineout drives or scrums and lost their shape around thoughts of a dropped goal before the Boks rush defence sprang a handling error and Nigel Owens’ full-time blast on his whistle.
In that game, all the brash thoughts about World Cup trifectas were kicked into Lambton Quay while Hansen and his staff would have been disappointed at the result and shape of the defeat but would also have got a boost from the defeat.
They always held the whip-hand about selection and ideas but this hiccup gave them more clout.
You can imagine Hansen when he got the group together again for their offshore trip to Buenos Aires and Pretoria, staring them down and asking them to evaluate how honestly they had prepared and played at the Cake Tin.
On paper they might have been a 20-point better side, maybe even more, but they’d dropped their standards and the test.
Do that at the next World Cup and they’d be toast too.
They had a range of qualities which other sides envied but those did not count unless everyone was switched on.
It was time for everyone to unpick their games, hit the reload software and push even harder through the next two months.