All Blacks aim to lose bad attitude
The All Blacks will take the emphasis off physical preparation this week in Cardiff and park it squarely in their mental approach after they let themselves down in that area against Scotland.
As well as Scotland played and as much as they have to be respected for their performance, the All Blacks know they didn’t turn up at Murrayfield, or at least not all of them did, in the right mental state.
They didn’t have urgency or desperation; no hunger to get over the gainline and put Scotland on the back foot early.
The All Blacks drifted through the first half, largely passive and lateral and unable to get their attack going.
It’s possible they may have underestimated the Scots — or at least some players may have not taken the threat as seriously as they should.
Captain Kieran Read hinted at that immediately after the game when he said: “I think for us in that first half it wasn’t a skill thing. We were just 5 per cent off maybe attitudinally and we it made it hard for ourselves. We were not winning gainlines, we were not winning the chance to make the Scots go backwards so they had front foot ball and were coming off the line really quick.
“In a test match, if you win those, you generally get the rub of the green. It comes from within. It starts with the individual doesn’t it. So we have to look at ourselves and our preparation to see what we can do better.”
Whatever the actual problem, the chances of it being repeated in Cardiff should be low.
The feedback from coach Steve Hansen is thought to have been typically on point, making it clear that the All Blacks are unlikely to get away with a slow start two weeks running.
All Blacks flanker Sam Cane said the post-match review of the Scotland match focused on the slow start in Edinburgh.
“There wasn’t a heck of a lot of footage shown but there were a lot of discussions about different players’ processes in terms of turning up ready at kickoff to rip into it.”
Cardiff will be the All Blacks’ last game in a long season, but any thought of using that as an excuse is being kicked hard to touch by coaches and management.
All those who have toured in the past know that a poor last performance, even if it yields victory, can create a bad vibe throughout the summer. Those who are more experienced also know that if too much is made of it being the last week, minds can easily drift and jump too far ahead.
“I am not going to go around and avoid talking about it because it is there,” said Cane. “But at the same time I am really keen to finish the season on the right note.”