Keep calm or it’s welcome to jungle
The great Australian cricketer Keith Miller, who flew daring raids over Europe in a Mosquito bomber in World War II, was once asked by a interviewer how he dealt with the pressures of test cricket.
“Playing cricket’s not pressure,” said Miller. “I’ll tell you what pressure is — pressure is having a Messerschmitt up your arse.”
There’s a mental Messerschmitt trailing the out-of-form All Blacks as they head into tomorrow’s rugby test against the Springboks in Mbombela.
How well our players can channel the mental freedom of Miller and still play with a confidence lacking against Ireland will decide the game. Past ABs triumphs point to what’s needed.
The 2011 World Cup final at Eden Park was gut-churning, nail-biting torture for New Zealand fans as the All Blacks squeezed past France.
But captain Richie McCaw would later say he was thinking: “They’re under more pressure because they’re behind — the big thing is to be calm.”
The All Blacks stayed calm and won 8-7.
Graham Mourie, captain of the
1978 All Blacks, the first to achieve the Grand Slam in Britain and Ireland, had a phrase his teammates would recall years later: “You want your body going at 100 miles an hour but your mind as clear as if you’re sitting in an armchair.”
That was how the All Blacks stayed so collected as they won two of those four tests in the last five minutes.
In 1988, just a year after winning the first World Cup, new All Blacks captain Buck Shelford and his team were down 16-6 at halftime in the second test with the Wallabies.
Shelford was a lot more than a “follow me” leader. During an injury break early in the second half, he told his players to calm down and concentrate on just one or two key tasks. The test was drawn 19-19.
In 1996, the last five minutes of the third test in Pretoria saw the Springboks smashing at the All Blacks line.
“What got us through was discipline, character, desire and pride,” flanker Michael Jones said.
The line held and the All Blacks won
33-26 to clinch their first series in South Africa.
Do the
All Blacks
Playing cricket’s not pressure. I’ll tell you what pressure is — pressure is having a Messerschmitt up your arse.
Australian Keith Miller
have enough players with that precious mix of astute thinking under pressure and total physical commitment to win in Mbombela? Some do. Will Jordan, despite the fact he should be playing fullback, is able to see two or three moves ahead. Caleb Clarke is wonderfully freethinking, with an attitude that allows him to show that sometimes rugby can be as simple as being faster, stronger and quicker on your feet than your opponent.
Of course, unless the All Blacks forwards muscle up against the controlled brute strength of the Springboks, it won’t matter how much speed and skill the backs demonstrate.
Hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho is a man so academically gifted, he’s gone from a 15-year-old who arrived in New Zealand speaking only Tongan to studying for a law degree. But as a rugby player, he harks back to a more basic time, when the motto “see it, smash it” was all forwards needed to remember.
If the rejigged coaching team can rev up all the forwards so there’s no more sleepwalking through the first quarter, as we saw in all three tests against Ireland, then the most maligned All Blacks side since 1998 may overturn the odds ( $1.70 for South Africa at the TAB versus $2.20 for New Zealand) and score an upset victory. But if they lose? Then take the pressure they’re under now and crank up the volume to levels that’d make Guns N’ Roses sound like a chamber music quartet.