ABs admit skills have to improve
READING between grumbles, the All Blacks are growing tired of being told their World Cup campaign isn’t where it needs to be.
The theme of discussion as Steve Hansen’s men arrived in Darlington, a small sleepy market town in the northeast of England, after waiting four hours for their delayed flight from Cardiff to get its wheel fixed was the frustrating nature of their win over Georgia.
While other contenders warm into the work the All Blacks are yet to get out of third gear.
Everyone seems the team itself.
Feedback from outside the camp has centred on the 18 handling errors, scrum issues on Georgia’s feed, battles to adapt to rush defence and disjointed backline moves.
Sam Cane, Sonny Bill Williams and Aaron Smith were all defensive when probed at times yesterday, pointing out the All Blacks remained unbeaten after three pool matches – two of which they were always going to win – and parts of their game were on track.
‘‘There were a lot of positives there. You guys expect the world from us,’’ halfback Aaron Smith said.
‘‘We were pretty disappointed in our performance but we’re building. It was a tough watch but an exciting watch too because you could see we were very close to achieving what we wanted to. We scored some brilliant tries from set piece and we were able to speed the game up as well which was good.’’
It would not surprise if Hansen has delivered a few stern messages behind closed doors about ball retention.
Uncharacteristic errors were unwanted features of the All Blacks’ desire to play at pace. Usually it’s those
concerned
except simple things that set them apart. They place great emphasis on repeating basic catch pass skills at every training.
The failure to execute these last week will grate. Lifting accuracy and execution will be a major focus for the final pool match against Tonga.
‘‘There were a couple of times we turned over the ball and they were easy turnovers; going out over the sideline or spilling the ball,’’ hooker Keven Mealamu said.
‘‘Being able to look after the ball better gives us a chance to build some better pressure.’’
Clearly the All Blacks believe a seismic shift is not required to align areas such as timing into the backline and polish on attack.
No doubt the rush defence with which Georgia troubled the All Blacks will be replicated by others. Sending one man – a shooter – out of the line to isolate the ball carrier with a big spot tackle caused problems last week.
‘‘Every team we come up against is trying to find new ways to counter our attack,’’ Williams said.
‘‘That would be one way but we’re working on things like that to try nullify those at training. You could say we haven’t been playing our best footy but we’re still three from three.’’
Hansen’s revelations that he has limited the skills available to his players and attempted to hold tactics back for the quarterfinal wasn’t used as an excuse by Smith.
‘‘We trained it all week so we still wanted to do what we planned on the field. As a player and being a part of that game I was a little gutted we couldn’t execute as well.
‘‘For that first 20 or 30 it was working well but then we weren’t able to adjust to the way they changed it.’’