One last hurrah?

Brilliant win in South Africa brings NZR more confusion, not clarity.

Winners are cuddlers. Photo / Getty Images

Kudos to Jeff Wilson, who did not sidestep or, as is his habit, cuddle the question everybody wanted to know the answer to.

“Do you expect to be All Blacks coach two weeks from now against Argentina?”

Props to Ian Foster too, for sounding suitably unknowing.

“I don’t know. I’m just going to enjoy tonight.”

Right there, ladies and gentlemen, is your 2022 All Blacks.

And right behind them every step of the way is New Zealand Rugby which, to ease the confusion, called a press conference for 5.30pm yesterday.

This threw a loop for The Bounce, which was going to furnish you dear subscribers with a “Sunday Special” newsletter but decided that whatever chief executive Mark Robinson had to say might make the events of the match redundant, so held off.

If the goal of the NZR is to deflect pressure off a coach who had been bashed from pillar to post recently, then it’s a masterstroke. If the goal was to be more transparent, then they need a reboot.

A friend of mine who has worked in the communications industry, including sport, for many years told me there are times when you have no choice but to go to a “least-bad” scenario.

Being presumptuous, I suspect NZR had noted the criticism of Robinson as a man who doesn’t front; a modern-day Nero. He wasn’t going to fall into the trap of a faceless press release like he did all those four Sunday ago. He was going to front.

Except he had nothing to front. He was on screen, but it was no more instructive than a test signal.

It was, as suggested in The Spinoff, a press conference to presage a press conference.

The body language screamed “this was the last thing we expected and I’m just winging it now”.

While the win was a beautiful sugar rush, it will be replaced by ever more toxic venom if Foster stays in place and they start losing again. Robinson and NZR knows this and while players like Ardie Savea and Sam Cane coming out and backing the incumbent means something, I doubt think it means enough. These are, after all, the same players who lost three tests in a row and five out of six. 

I’ve been wrong before, but I’d be surprised if Foster is still coach against Argentina, and I’d be very surprised if the decision hasn’t already been made. This is a can that can’t keep getting kicked down the road.

You can’t blame Foster, however, if he is delighting in the optics pickle he’s created by beating the world champions in a stadium considered the beating heart of South African rugby.

“I haven't heard or read [Robinson’s]  comments but he’s got a job to do. I'm about to hop on a plane and go home and mow the lawns around the pool,” Foster told reporters. “I’ll be given feedback, no doubt, but my expectations are I’m the All Blacks head coach and later in the week I’ll be going to Christchurch and assembling with the team until I’m told anything different.”

It’s a job that requires precision. If your catcher gets too full you’ll start spraying grass into the pool. That creates phosphates and before you know it, as the weather starts to warm, you’ll have a full-on algal bloom to deal with.

Then again, he probably doesn’t need to be told how quickly you can lose control of the situation.

THE Robinson-Foster farrago shouldn’t remove the gloss from a win that put the All Blacks right back in the frame for the Rugby Championship.

For some weeks now this All Blacks/ NZR production has taken on the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy, with fatal character flaws revealed: hubris, ambition and indecision among them.

They had most of the great works covered.

But something happened in Johannesburg over the weekend that moved it beyond the scripted stage to somewhere more confusing.

Shakespeare’s protagonists are always offered chances for redemption but fail to take them.

At Ellis Park, in what was expected to be the dying embers of Foster’s troubled reign, this team found redemption - and then some.

The All Blacks weren’t perfect, they were a long way from it, but it was how they covered up those imperfections that was admirable.

They finished all over a Springboks side undone by their own hamartia, tactical rigidity, despite being undermanned. They started all over them too, despite nearly gifting the Boks an intercept try, willing themselves to a 15-0 lead, with Samisoni Taukei’aho and Scott Barrett physically dominant.

There was a big chunk in the middle of this match where they became unglued - a familiar sight. There were ill-thought dink kicks and passive backline defence that conceded huge chunks of hard-earned turf.

In the best bend-don’t-break traditions, however, the All Blacks found a response.

They needed a bit of luck. One particularly aimless kick was followed by an untethered chase and the impressive Lukhanyo Am burst clear to put Makazole Mapimpi over for a try. Well it could have been except Sam Whitelock used all his experience to make it look like Jaden Hendrikse had impeded his path to Am.

The Boks could have taken a soul-sapping lead, Richie Mo’unga instead put it out to 21-13.

Which seems a good time to introduce one of the subplots: the battle for the No10 jersey. 

There’s no positional debate that better exemplifies the you-see-what-you-want-to-see approach to analysis than first five-eighth. In my lifetime there have been Fox-Botica, Mehrtens-Spencer doozies where the arguments centred as much on why you disliked one player, as it did on why you liked the other.

Mo’unga v Beauden Barrett feels eerily similar.

If you’re a Mo’unga fan, Barrett can’t manage a game; if you’re a Barrett fan, Mo’unga disappears when the lights shine brightest.

Tired of getting the calls wrong, Mo’unga downloaded Foster’s game plan directly into his brain. Photo / Getty Images

The calls for Mo’unga’s elevation have become more strident in recent times as it’s become apparent that the sparkle in Barrett’s eyes (and perhaps the speed in his legs) is dimming. Barrett is also damned, I suspect, by being seen as a “Foster man”, as Taine Randell’s playing ability was once secondary to his status as John Hart’s bagman.

Ellis Park may well be remembered as a turning point in Mo’unga’s career.

I’m one of those who feel his body of quality work at test level is way too thin for a player of his talent, that too often he cedes authority on the field to B Barrett (understandable, perhaps), J Barrett (less forgivable) and David Havili when the pressure comes on.

In this test he made some critical errors - the intercept, the loss of possession in the 22m that led directly to a try - but instead of fading into the background he stepped up to drive the team like an NRL half. He benefited too, I suspect, from the elder Barrett being sinbinned at a critical juncture. It’s hypothetical, but there was forced clarity as to who was at the helm in those final 15 minutes.

We have been here before, when Mo’unga has transferred his Crusaders form to the black jersey, but something felt different this time.

Critically, Havili looked a different, better player too, and further down the chain Rieko Ioane was outstanding. Both appeared to be playing with a bit more time and space, which is the best gift a flyhalf can give his outsides. 

Or maybe this is reading too much into a result.

At this stage it’s very hard to pin this victory down as anything more than a good night out - especially when we don’t know who’ll be in charge for the next one.

THIS WEEK

First of all, a quick apology. Typically, Monday’s Bounce would cover off a bunch of weekend action across a range of sports but for one reason or another, I just haven’t got my head in front of much other than the Springboks test.

I have some catching up to do. There are stories percolating at home and around the globe which I’ll cover off tomorrow. For example, if you think the level of schadenfreude is high when the All Blacks lose, trying being Manchester United when they themselves 0-4 down before halftime to… Brentford. 

On Wednesday, there’ll be a cricket-heavy newsletter for paying subscribers ($) featuring Ross Taylor’s book review, the BYC and analysis of the Black Caps’ Party Tour to date.

Depending on whether we see puffs of white smoke from NZR HQ or not, The Bounce will reappear Friday with The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be

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