Storm gain pass marks but ABs fail
Steve Hansen should sit his All Blacks down this week before the test against South Africa and make them watch a replay of rugby league’s Grand Final.
‘‘You want to know how to pass, lads? Watch Cameron Smith. The guy may be 34. He may lack a few tats. He may look like a short-back-and-sides early morning commuter. But he could unlace your boots and peel them off your feet, and you wouldn’t know it.’’
Passing is the one glaring weakness of this All Blacks team. It is the frailty that has been exposed by the rush defence. Against Argentina the men in black passed as badly as any New Zealand team in history.
They dumped 18 passes on to the turf. In the whole of the Grand Final the league boys from both teams only grassed eight passes. And they throw a heck of a lot more in a match than union players do.
And it wasn’t just one All Black who was at fault. The fumbling was spread across the team. Beauden Barrett threw four along the ground, Aaron Smith and Damian McKenzie each decked three and Sonny Bill put down a couple. Indeed every back chucked the ball onto the grass at some point of the match.
At halftime Ian Foster said: ’’We’ve just got to get crisp with our passing. We’re still being a little bit loose.’’
A little bit loose? No sooner had the second half begun than Rieko Ioane hurled another soggy pass along the ground. Inevitably we heard later about all the ‘‘learnings’’ that the All Blacks would take out of the match. But they should have learned how to pass by now.
Passing is the great weakness of this backline. In fact I sometimes wonder how much Hansen values the pass. Remember he took off Conrad Smith at halftime of the World Cup final. Smith had been perhaps the All Blacks best player in that first half. His passing was a masterclass. But he came off so that SBW could get his quota in. It looked preordained. In my book it was an insult to a great player.
Maybe you have to be called C Smith to be a great passer, although the team that played in the 2015 final also had Dan Carter and Ben Smith, whose distribution is being rather obviously missed at the moment. He is the best passer in the current team.
Yes, I know, you will all say, hang on, what about Aaron Smith. But here’s the thing. Aaron Smith is a great passer from the base. But he is not so good when he is in lateral motion (from dummy half if you like) and trying to hit the straight runners. He often throws the ball too hard and gets his timing wrong.
Will Genia is far better at that particular pass. He set up Australia’s first try against South Africa with a super quick dart off the scrum and then a perfect pass to Bernard Foley in behind the dummy runner. It was a herald of the Melbourne Storm’s final try of the Grand Final.
Smith flicked out the ball to Cooper Cronk and then appeared to switch off, waiting for the ball to go to the outside. But the body language was a screen, just as it had been earlier when Smith set up Dale Finucane on the short pass.
Cronk took a couple of steps and passed hard back to Smith. Almost in one movement Smith took the ball and popped it up for Billy Slater coming through on a straight line. Exquisite.
Slater reminds me a lot of Beauden Barrett. He is great in the air, he has that burning speed (even if it has now dimmed slightly), he runs great lines and he is a speculator. And of course he plays full back.
But no one in the current All Blacks set up reminds me of Cameron Smith.
They talk about soft hands in sport and Smith is a sort of amalgam of John McEnroe and Phil Mickelson. But with soft hands, comes speed of thought.
Darius Boyd said that Smith was like having a coach on the field.
You need that absolute stillness of mind in the hurly burly. Any mug can pass well when they are under no pressure. But you find out the great passers when their time and space are cut to nothing.
Queensland coach Kevin Walters says that Smith even bewitches his own Origin team-mates: ’’We’re just playing games and he mesmerises the defence with his handling, just the way he shows the ball. He’s not overly quick by any stretch, but his mind is really quick and his hands are very good.’’
Cronk said after the final: ’’I don’t think Cameron Smith has thrown me a bad pass in his entire career.’’
Not quite true. Smith grassed a ball towards the end of the first half and he was filthy with himself. But for the rest of the evening he was picking the Cowboys apart. Smith is the player, with his hands, piercing kicks and control of tempo, that the All Blacks badly miss at the moment.
That weakness may not be exposed at the weekend. If South Africa are daft enough to play without defensive linespeed again - surely not, but I really wouldn’t put it past them - then the All Blacks will cut them apart.
The Boks might manage a score or two themselves because they have Ross Cronje back at halfback and he is an exquisite passer. It was his accuracy which led to South Africa’s tries against Australia. But it won’t be enough if Barrett has time to do his considerable thing. And time is the thing.
Without it, these All Blacks sometimes look like a passing fancy.