‘England do not have to copy us to triumph’

Stephen Donald is a 2011 World Cup winner and he tells Tom Cary the All Blacks can be beaten

Stephen Donald has lived every New Zealand child’s dream. He kicked what proved to be the winning penalty, in a World Cup final, at Eden Park, to end 24 years of pain for the All Blacks. Boys’ Own stuff. So if anyone’s memory of events might be coloured by bias, it would be his. “When you talk about having the time of your life, that’s something I’ll never forget,” admits the man who famously missed his 11th-hour summons from coach Graham Henry for the tournament because he was out fishing for whitebait. “From a rugby point of view, they are hands down the happiest times of my life.” (including 23 Tests). He has played Super Rugby for the Chiefs, Premiership rugby for Bath. He still plays for NEC Green Rockets in Japan’s Top League. So when he starts analysing each team’s strengths and weaknesses it is worth listening.

New Zealand, Donald says, are just playing rugby from the gods. Everyone, he says, is talking up their “double pivot” of Richie Mo’unga and Beauden Barrett at 10 and 15. Yet Donald reckons it is the clever deployment of Anton Lienert-brown and Jack Goodhue in the centres which has bamboozled opponents just as much.

“You just have to sit there and enjoy it,” he says. “As far as their attack goes, yes, New Zealand got the double pivot thing happening, and I guess that’s the easy thing for people to look at and say, ‘Oh, that’s what they’re doing.’ But they’re also getting great work out of their midfielders, who are coming in at first receiver a lot. There’s not just one guy that everything’s based around, you know?

“That’s the enjoyable thing to watch. And that’s the thing that seems to have teams in a bit of bother at the moment. When you’ve got Jack Goodhue, Anton or Sonny [Bill Williams] popping up... I reckon those guys probably touched the ball at first receiver just as much as [Mo’unga and Barrett] during phase play against Ireland.”

Joe Schmidt’s team were, Donald concedes, poor on Sunday. But he credits New Zealand’s ability to beat the rush defence with their handling, their poppasses, their decoy lines, their chips and cross-field kicks, with placing doubt in Irish minds. “I think a few teams have worked out [how to beat the rush],” he says. “It’s not just New Zealand. I thought Fiji did a pretty good job against the Wales rush. But the All Blacks, with the skills of Mo’unga and Barrett’s kicking, that’s putting a lot of defences in two minds. “With that rush defence, you only have to have one person in two minds and it stuffs the whole system. As Sunday’s game wore on, some of the Irish backs must have been in two minds because on some of

‘I can’t remember rugby looking as good as it does at the moment. It’s brilliant to watch’

Tests

Points

Penalties

Conversions

Try those cross-kicks there wasn’t anyone for 30 metres.”

Ian Foster, the All Blacks attack coach, is certainly making a “compelling case” to be Steve Hansen’s successor, but Donald believes Joe Schmidt’s Ireland legacy should not be destroyed by two quarter-final defeats. In fact, Donald reckons Schmidt could walk into any international set-up in the world, including New Zealand’s.

“Obviously, it’s not the way he wanted to end, but he could write his own contract anywhere in the world, I think,” he argues. “If he wanted to be involved with the All Blacks, they’d have him involved, for sure. He’s highly thought of in New Zealand. I’m not saying he’d be head coach, but if he wanted to be involved, he would be. His record is amazing.”

England will present an entirely different proposition for the All Blacks this weekend, Donald says. Teams do not have to play like New Zealand to beat them. “South Africa, for example, aren’t going to change their game plan. But they are comfortable in what they do, and so are England.”

Donald says he was impressed by what he saw against Australia. He likes the look of the back three (“not one you’d normally associate with England, to be fair”) and Elliot Daly in particular (“he’s brilliant to watch”). He reckons England will be “confident as hell” after beating Australia. “By the time full time came around, they looked like a team who were starting to believe,” he says. “I don’t think they would have been intimidated watching the New Zealand-ireland game later on.

“I mean, they thrashed Ireland recently as well, didn’t they? It’s going to be a massive game.”