BEST DECISIONS
DOUBLE HEADERS
The first two Bledisloe Cup games doubled up as Laurie O’ Reilly trophy encounters with the Wallaroos playing the Black Ferns as curtain raisers.
It worked as an entertainment package and there was an obvious sense of enhanced value for those who bought tickets.
The vibe was good and there was something special about seeing the All Blacks on the sidelines in Auckland watching the test with everyone else. It gave a test match a grass roots feel.
ALL BLACKS TWIN PLAY-MAKERS
The All Blacks struggled in their two tests against South Africa and maybe it was a good job they did because it forced them to look at how they were set up and whether they had enough weaponry in their midst to deal with teams that rushed them on defence.
The answer they concluded after escaping with a late dramatic win in Pretoria was no, they needed another trick up their sleeve and hence they brought in Damian McKenzie to play fullback and act as a frequent first receiver and decision-maker.
His presence allowed Beauden Barrett more freedom and gave the All Blacks a greater array of ways to attack. “I said coming o the field that I enjoyed having Damian out there,” said Barrett after the All Blacks victory in Yokohama against the Wallabies.
“It gave us another kicking option and took some of the pressure o. ”
TAKING 19 EXTRA PLAYERS TO JAPAN
There were accusations that the All Blacks handed out so-called ‘confetti caps’ when they called up an extra 19 players to play Japan in November.
The reason the All Blacks did it was to allow their top squad to fly to London a few days earlier than everyone else so they could get over their jet lag and be ready to train and prepare on the Monday before they played England.
The All Blacks decided they could beat Japan with an emerging group of players and rest the top men and when they won both tests, it was justified as an inspired strategy and one that Steve Hansen felt the need to put into context when he arrived in the UK.
“I think you’ve got to be careful with the word ‘experimenting’,” Hansen said. “Rugby coaches have got a job to do today, tomorrow and for the future. Some of you guys over here, I think you called them ‘confetti caps’, which I thought was pretty disrespectful to the jersey.
“There is not one of those guys who played who didn’t do the jersey credit. The job of the coaching group and management group is to create a future for that jersey and that’s what we did.
“If you look back to that game, there are some players who really put their hand up and it also allowed us to send a group over here early. That [Japan] game was about tomorrow and the future and a lot of those guys might not be involved again until 2020 but the experience they’ve had will stimulate them to go away and become better rugby players and therefore serve New Zealand rugby better than they have in the past, and they’ve been doing a pretty good job of that thus far. I think that’s important to understand.”
JACINDA WEARS A BLACK FERNS SHIRT TO EDEN PARK
Everyone remembers Nelson Mandela wearing a Springboks jersey at Ellis Park in 1995 and the eect it had on South Africans – the powerful message it sent to the world.
Well, on a lesser scale New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern sent her own powerful message by wearing a Black Ferns jersey at Eden Park.
It felt like a memorable moment to see a prime minister at a Black Ferns test played in front of almost 30,000 people.
BEN SMITH’S SABBATICAL
Apparently Ben Smith has copped heaps of grief from his All Blacks team-mates for taking four months o, but the good-natured bantering broke out because the veteran was in such stunning form.
The break did him the power of good. It gave him back that missing edge. He was sharp, lively, confident and hugely one of the more influential players in every test.
He was back to being close to his best and he certainly didn’t look like the oldest outside back ever to play for the All Blacks.