Hey, at least we're not Wales
More ABs' wash-up; golf's golden year; Macca's blast at the Ship Steadier; Infantino's infantilism; and an apology of sorts to league fans.
Not much from my end to add to the summation of yesterday’s suitably bipolar test ($), except to note:
Take the kicking out to confirm the draw out of your mind, and England’s final 10 minutes was near flawless. It’s obviously easier to do that against 14 than 15, but not by much. Teams train all the time for 14-men contingencies, but England made a mockery of New Zealand’s attempts to button down the game.
The All Blacks, and the unfortunate TJ Perenara in particular, also made a mockery of trying to button down the game. Granted, what you’re about to read next boils down to personal preference but it marries with many people I talk to think: Aaron Smith is the best halfback in the country, Brad Weber is next and there is a vast chasm to third, whether it be Finlay Christie, Perenara (who is now out for the best part of a year with an Achilles rupture) or the raw but talented Folau Fakatava. The wheeze is that Weber is overlooked because the coaches don’t like his kicking game, which would be ironic given that errant kicking was one reason the All Blacks magicked a win into a draw at Twickenham.
The bench remains the biggest area for potential performance growth in rugby, not just the All Blacks. With eight players, you can reconstruct more than half your team (that’s pure maths there), but coaches have become hostage to sports science graphs, particularly the idea that high impact and aerobic positions have a “performance drop-off” window. Coaches have be come slaves to these numbers and in the process they’ve lost feel for the game, making changes by clipboard rather than what the see on the field. A couple of examples from Twickenham, aside from Perenara: the front row leaving en masse after having an exceptional outing, which was purely a reactive response to England changing their front row first; bringing Shannon Frizell on for Scott Barrett in the 65th minute, when it was actually Sam Whitelock who was fading and being isolated on defence in the final quarter.
Here’s a selection of opinion clips from the test.
Beauden Barrett being yellow carded was a massive blow, but just as devastating for the All Blacks was TJ Perenara kicking possession away near the death. The all-conquering All Blacks of 2011 to 2015 would have cherished the ball like the Hope diamond. Brain fades have been [a] feature of the 2022 All Blacks season, and how Ian Foster and his coaching team deal with them will decide how New Zealand fare at the World Cup next year.
Jamie Wall on the Radio New Zealand website:
[The All Blacks] dramatically soiled their pants, and not for the first time this season. They were up 21-3 in Japan, then ended up only winning by seven. A 14-0 lead turned into a 23-14 deficit against Scotland. Then, the most egregious, 31-13 in Melbourne against the Wallabies only to trail 37-34 and win in extremely lucky circumstances. The last test of the year shaped up to answer a lot of questions about where the All Blacks are headed. For 70 minutes it did, but the complete lack of composure shown in the last 10 means we’re still wondering.
By far the harshest assessment came from noted Foster critic Marc Hinton in Stuff:
Talk about your moral defeats snatched from the jaws of victory. Good, but not good enough. Promising, but also hugely depressing. Strong for long stretches, but also decidedly weak when it really mattered. Make no mistake, this was an All Blacks choke of the highest order, no matter the attempts to paint it otherwise by a head coach in denial. The New Zealanders avoided a similar meltdown in Melbourne by the skin of their teeth; but here there was no sidestepping the reality of a team that lacked the mental strength and physical wherewithal to finish the job in a big-time test.
And, finally, Andy Bull in the Guardian:
For years, it’s been New Zealand who have hunted down leads, the idea they are in it until the very last minute is part of their brand. This time, though, it was England who did it. The All Blacks collapsed. They were a man down after Beauden Barrett had been sent to the sin-bin but it felt as though the long tour had caught up with the 14 men left on the pitch. They switched off, which is the mistake everyone else warns teams cannot afford when they play against them, and they happened to do it at the exact point England switched on.
The most stunning result of the weekend was undoubtedly Georgia’s 13-12 win over Wales at Cardiff. Wales were an absolute shower against the All Blacks and you have to wonder how long the leash is on Wayne Pivac, never the most popular appointment even after securing a shock Six Nations win in the crowdless 2021 championship.
It’s accurate to note that Wales (Cymru) Online has taken a rather dim view of proceedings.
Here’s some sample headlines and links.
“The last 25 minutes were the worst in Welsh history,” said Phil Bennett. “I’ve never seen such an inept display by Wales at Cardiff.”
“Wales rugby crisis uncovered - the major questions that need answering and what happens next.”
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask: “Where have I gone wrong?” Then a voice says to me: ‘This is going to take more than one night.’”
It’s a line from Charlie Brown in the old comic strip Peanuts.
But it’s not hard to imagine Wayne Pivac saying it to himself while looking at the ceiling in the wee small hours after Wales’ defeat by Georgia in Cardiff, assuming he’s self-aware.
“Wales ‘need to steal march on England to offer Scott Robertson job.’
Pivac’s contract runs out at the conclusion of the World Cup but it would be a surprise if Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Phillips is not looking to make a change given he has lost eight out of 11 Test matches this year. The answer for Wales is obvious: Scott Robertson.
The Crusaders coach is widely considered to be one of the best in the world and has recently been touted as Eddie Jones’ successor at England. While his preferred option would be coaching the All Blacks, Wales need to steal a march and offer Robertson the chance to lead them to the World Cup.
Gatland would command instant dressing room respect with Wales and instil organisation and confidence into a group of talented players who, under Pivac, have not added up to the sum of their parts on anything like a consistent enough basis.
No matter what way you slice it up, it feels like Pivac has lost the confidence of Wales’ most influential organ!
Here’s another dim view of proceedings: the Black Caps were a shambles in Mt Maunganui last night, stitching together a ‘chase’ that, for all the skills of the Indian attack, was the equivalent of Tom Walsh trying to run down Usain Bolt.
Some hard thinking needs to be done by high-performance general manager Bryan Stronach, coach Gary Stead and captain Kane Williamson because they look tactically rigid and increasingly passive with the bat compared to the best teams in the world.
In some respects making the semifinal of the World T20 was a smokescreen. They played one great match to do it - not by coincidence, the last time Finn Allen made a meaningful contribution - and to borrow from The ACC’s Mike Lane, New Zealand have become experts at “farting their way into tournament semifinals”.
This flatulence is an admirable trait. I have made the point before that New Zealand’s tournament consistency is phenomenal when you match up their depth of talent against the bigger countries, but others rightly point out that this cannot be the extent of their ambition.
T20 is a fast-moving and dynamic game to which New Zealand have few plans beyond “let’s hope our great attack strangles them”, and “let’s see what Allen can do?”
To the latter point, Allen’s sample size is not small any more and in 24 T20I innings he has passed 40 five times. With the unceremonious dumping of Martin Guptill, Stead is investing a lot of New Zealand’s future batting capital on the shoulders of an explosive but unproven talent.
The fact he has been dismissed so early so often leads to the biggest current problem, which is the pairing of Williamson and Devon Conway in the powerplay overs. Both are wonderful players and there’s potentially a role for both of them in the same lineup, but not together in the first six overs.
If you’re chasing 191, you cannot be 32-1 after six overs with a collective four boundaries (one of them five wides). I don’t care if it’s a meaningless bilateral series, that’s not acceptable. I’d love to know the figures from Spark Sport as to how many people jumped off the stream early last night and when, but if they stuck around long enough they would have heard former Black Caps batting coach Craig McMillan launch into some of the most stinging criticism I’ve heard from a commentator against Williamson in a long time.
“The alarm bells are ringing for New Zealand right now,” he said at the start of his final stint behind the mic. “The New Zealand captain has a run-a-ball 29 - we’ve seen this somewhere before haven’t we.”
There was a brief discussion of Williamson’s historic strike rate, which is a perfectly acceptable 131 in the first innings, but just 96 in the second (there are caveats to this, such as pacing the innings when chasing small totals, but even still).
“When you’re chasing a total of 190, 96 just doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work, it puts too much pressure on those coming in behind you,” McMillan continued. “When Kane comes out to bat the required rate is up around 7.5 maybe 8 an over. By the time he gets out and the others come in it’s 12 and 13 an over. There just has to be more intent. He has to take the shackles off and be prepared to be 29 from 20 balls, 18 balls.”
He finished with another observation, that’s Williamson’s great ability as a batsman is not getting out; a fundamental tactic that has served him brilliantly in test and ODI cricket, but in T20 cricket “you have to be prepared to go from ball one and get out from ball one, but that’s not ingrained in the DNA of Kane Williamson”.
It will be interesting to see if there is any tinkering in the order for the final T20I in Napier tomorrow.
Meanwhile, take the opportunity to marvel in the otherworldly skills of Suryakumar Yadav (pictured above playing a textbook lofted slice), whose 111 was something else entirely. According to Cricinfo it’s anime, maybe?
Think about it. He makes 111 off 51 balls. In the same time, on the same pitch and facing the same opponents, his partners at the other end make 44 off 38. He hit 11 fours and seven sixes. The rest of India put together manage seven fours and two sixes. This is classic anime. One superpowered being making a mockery of all things that came before them and all things that will come after them.
So, Lydia Ko is still pretty good, then?
As mentioned, I don’t watch or follow golf to the extent where I can furnish you with any wisdom, but it seems New Zealanders had an OK year.
That’d be a first place on the LPGA Tour for Lyds…
A close second on the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) for Ryan Fox…
And a win on the Champions Tour (seniors) for Steve Alker.
The Fifa World Cup started this morning with a low-energy, low-impact match won 2-0 by Ecuador over the hosts Qatar, which saw the extraordinary sight of many local fans leaving their seats early and not returning.
Meanwhile, BBC chose not to screen the glitzy opening ceremony choosing instead to “criticise the treatment of migrant workers, highlight corruption at Fifa and discuss the ban on homosexuality in Qatar”.
The Daily Mail, being the Daily Mail, chose to highlight the criticism over the BBC’s virtue signalling, which would have carried more clout if they themselves hadn’t led their website with this snappy headline. “Qatar fluffs its World Cup kickoff: ‘Fans’ are seen trooping out of stadium early leaving rows of empty seats, after disgraced Morgan Freeman hosts opening ceremony and rows rage over ‘most controversial’ tournament ever.”
This World Cup needs a good game soon because the opening weekend is in danger of being remembered only as a platform for one of the most bizarre, ill-conceived and unsettling monologues delivered by a sporting figure. Take the floor, Gianni Infantino.
I love the fact that Samoa made the final of the Rugby League World Cup. I think I love the idea of them running the women’s and wheelchair world cups concurrently.
Yet there was something preventing my interest levels from gaining any traction throughout the tournament. It didn’t help that the women’s final was a one-sided blowout, or that the men’s final was entirely predictable, but there’s something else that is more difficult to put my finger on.
The format and the eligibility rules for me lack credibility. It reeks of festival league.
The fact, also, that the NRL on a weekly basis and the State of Origin on an annual basis is so much higher in quality, gives the World Cup a slightly low-rent feel.
The time zone didn’t help either.
I really wanted to enjoy the tournament, but just couldn’t. I’d be interested to know from league fans how engaged they were with the RLWC and if it was just me that struggled.
Couldn't agree more with your call on the halfbacks. If it's true that Weber has fallen out of favour with selectors over his kicking game then I'm a bit speechless. Neither Christie, Perenara or Fakatava offer much of an exceptional kicking game. And all of them, for their various talents, don't really match Weber for his passing and decision making from the base of the ruck. Which is really all the All Blacks generally need from a halfback to execute their gameplan.
He can often be forgotten about a bit, but if you ask people who they would want starting at 9 it Aaron Smith went down the night before a world cup Semi-Final, I think you'll find most of them would eventually settle on Weber.
Big league fan here. I tuned into SOME of MOST of the Kiwis games but never really became invested in the tournament proper. The pre-tournament chat about Kiwis being heavy favourites just didn't strike a chord for me. Australia will always have that big-brother bully-boy psychological hold over us, worth 12 to 16 points in any given game between us. Now, I definitely would've become more attentive if the Kiwis' performances had more promise, but, perhaps as a well-honed self-defence mechanism (thanks to my beloved Warriors), I watched with only a passing interest and am now not psychologically scarred.