Latest / Rugby Direct / Rugby Direct Episode 241: A Winning Start, Rennie’s All Blacks Era Begins

Transcript

Rugby Direct Episode 241: A Winning Start, Rennie’s All Blacks Era Begins · Rugby Direct

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks ed B.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Straight down the Middle, try.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: T get inside the game from every end goal. It's
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Rugby Direct with Elliott Smith and Liam Napier powered by
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: News Talks EDB.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Welcome into Rugby Direct powered by Access Solutions, elevating you
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: and your personers to a high live back at the
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: start of a new test week. But importantly, Ponder reflects
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: on the first All Blacks tests.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Of the year. Elliott Smith still in christ.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Juilliam Napier now back in Auckland reading snaps.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Welcome into Rugby Directors.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Always great to be back, Elliott. First Test week in
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: the books, and it was a hell of a test match,
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: wasn't it?
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Assuming what it was, entertainment was very, very high.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Give me your top line thoughts on what you made
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: of that All Blacks performance.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: I think straight off the bats, we've got to pay
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: tribute to both teams.
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: I think it was a brilliant spectacle under the roof.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: As you'd say in New Zealand's new National Stadium, it's
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: hell of hell of avenue.
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: Nine tries.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Your Black scored five France four very little kicking in
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: that game. That was a big takeaway. Both teams wanted
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: to play. France kept a wee bit more in the
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: second half and had some success with it, but I
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: think just a great advertisement for rugby. It really was
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: a captivating spectacle that went right down to the finish.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Probably my biggest takeaway Elliott, first and foremost is that
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: French team missing eight of their top players. If you
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: take the eight best players or eight finalists from Super
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Rugby out of the All Blacks, I think they really struggle.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: So it was a real illustration of the strength in
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: depth that French rugby has to push the or Blacks
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: to the brink missing that many players, and for the
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: All Blacks, I think, look, it was a good start,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: not a great start, typical lack of cohesion first test
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: russ but the intent to play that the clear plan.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: I think everyone was on the same page. It didn't
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: always stick and there's some big work ons defensively, but
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: from an attacking perspective perspective, really like what I saw.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did as well.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I think the first half from the Orblax was probably
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: better than the second half I thought. On the verge
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: of halftime when they went ahead and scored that try
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: nineteen thirteen up at halftime, it kind of felt like
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: they were maybe poised to break the game open. But
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: in the first spell I was really impressed with speed
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: to ruck. It slightly slowed down as you would expect
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: it around after halftime as bodies get more fatigued, but
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: that speed to ruck in the first spell was lightning quick.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: And then the ball of the ruck was you know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: three point three seconds roughly, which is, you know, much
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: quicker than super rugby. So the All Blacks played at
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: a lightning speed so to France, and their numbers were
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: comparable in that regard. But I felt the All Blacks
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: were getting on top just before halftime, and a weird
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: throwback to last year, it just kind of didn't click
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: in the early stages of the second spell, and France
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: were able to hang around. But to go back to
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: your original point, the attacking shape I thought from the
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: All Blacks was better than what we have seen for
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: most of the last two years. It felt like they
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: were singing off the same hymn sheet. They knew which
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: way they wanted to attack. There was they went sucked
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: into playing pick tennis at long periods of time. So
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: from that perspective, I think you've got to give plaudits
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: to Mike Blair in the way that his attacking system,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: which will obviously grow, has beat it in in the
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: five six sessions that they've had on the grass.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, look, I think we have to temper this a
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: wee bit, the sort of excitement around the attack, given
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: it's one match, and I think the French probably didn't
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: bring the same line speed that would see from other
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: nations around the world.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: But it was encouraging, wasn't it. And I think.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Your point there about the fact everyone sort of knew
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: what they were trying to achieve, and that seems like
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: a big step forward.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: It seems like a really basic thing.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: But the Robertson Rain, for me, there was so much
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: reliance that seemed from the outside anyway, about individual brilliant
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: sparking your black's attack. That's when they really produced something.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: But there was some brilliant moments in this match from
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: the All Blacks. You think about Peter Luckey's try so
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: slick and one of cam royguards as well. Will Jordan
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: finished a couple of brilliant moments and look the skill
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: execution needs to improve. Maybe that's a results of the
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: speed to ruck the ball being so quick and just
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: trying to play, trying to be ambitious at all times.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: So there was some real clunkiness, a lot of passes
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: going aground, a lot of drop ball. I think the
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: All Blacks kind of at least scored another two to
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: three tries, so could of France. To be fair, they
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: had that one try for their center ruled out and
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: who knows, it could have been the winning and losing
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: of the game right there.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: Your Black sneak home by a couple of points.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: But it does feel like there's been a bit of
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: a sea change in how the All Blacks will attack.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: That was one of their big work ons and look,
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: it does seem like Mike Blair and Dave Rennie have
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: made a big first impression in that regard.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: But it's still massive improvements to come, aren't There?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: There are?
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: But I think from a first performance you've got to
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: take some positives out of that. And I think back
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: to the game again England in twenty twenty four, where
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: the All Blacks scraped home and got the win. Yes,
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: but they didn't didn't play that well didn't look like
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: they've been major changes to the previous year. Twenty twenty
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: there was a draw against Australia. It was eighteen or
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: sixteen or something like that in Wellington, and they showed flashes,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: I think in that game in Wellington. But if you
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: market against the last two head coaches that have started
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: their reign, I think Rennie's probably just interesting head a
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: little bit in terms of what we saw from and
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: opening eighty minutes. And again, you're right, this is only
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: week one and there is a lot of rugby to
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: be played this year and next. But I think the optimism,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to use that word again, is reflected in the fact
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: that we can see perhaps a bigger picture emerging from
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: the all blacks around. They want to use the ball
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: in hand, they have an attacking structure that can work
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: with it. They obviously develop a lot of their game
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: plan around what cam Roiguard can do. So I think
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: that what's the reason for the optimism that perhaps we've
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: seen host match that maybe wouldn't have been seen or
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: wasn't seen certainly after the last couple of opening games
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: sort of respected head coaches.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: I've seen a bit of commentary about you know, after
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Scott Robertson's first outings as All Black Kids coach, that
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: there was quite a lot of criticism and maybe that's
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: not reflected in a similar result for Dave Rennie. But
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: I think it's the nature of the performance. And then
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: you throw in the nature of the selections, and conservatism
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: held Scott Robinson back in a big way, particularly from
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: a selection point of view. You look at that team
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: that Dave Rennie put out, Ruben Love at number ten.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: He's introducing rockies at the back end of that game
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: when the matches on the line, Xaviy new Mayor Jamie
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Hannah and fen and for the games and the balance
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: when those guys come on, I'm not sure Robertson would
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: probably have the courage to throw them in. Deil Blacks
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: had some late changes as well, with Patrick Twopolot pulling out.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: So looking at your six choice lock with no Fabian
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: Hollands and Scott Barrett and touprovi ruled out, You've still
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: got guys like Lester Fining and Nook you to come
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: back and a real attacking weapon off the bench. And
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: then if we move on from their attack, a little
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: bit the defense can improve massively. There was some big
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: gaping holes, some really soft tries conceded. Dave Renny seems
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: to think that that can improve with a lot more
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: line speed and more reps together. I have some reservations
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: about whether they can make those shifts that quickly, But
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: if the All Blacks can vastly improve their defense, get
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: some more turnover possession, spark their counter attack, and get
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: those players back, I think there's some real big progressions
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: that they can still make.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. It's as well and look at defense.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Is the one gleare thing that you'd take out of
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: that game that they con seeded thirty two points at home,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: And if you can see thirty two points at home
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: more often than not, there's a significant chance that you
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: are going to lose. And they need to be better
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: than that, certainly this week and again against Island the
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: following week, because you can see thirty two points in
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: your backyard and teams will probably end up winning most
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: of those games.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And I think the.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Key is and rugby is sort of changing a little bit,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: is just where you are in the park, and that
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: the twenty two entries are such a big thing now
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: in rugby buy and large, if you get into a
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: twenty two, you've got to make the most of it,
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: and teams are making the most of it. The All
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Blacks and France both had nine entries into their opposition
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: twenty two, and the All Blacks managed to obviously win
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: the game in the end, so they come out on
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: the right side of the scoreboard. But I think the
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: key is and you can obviously develop defensive systems as
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: much as possible to do this, but you've got to
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: keep team out of you you're twenty two. That's when
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: we saw the French were dangerous. They get a bit
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: of a roll on one, this tackle leads to two
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: very very quickly, and all of a sudden year, five
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: to three one meter away you're scoring a try. So
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: I think that's a key for tana Umager and his
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: portfolio was finding ways to restrict access to the twenty
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: two as best as you can, and the All Black
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: should be better in that regarding it, And it's probably
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: one of those things, as you said, that sounds easy
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: in theory, but when you're actually defending against it's probably
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: a little bit harder. What did you make of the
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: loose Ford trail. We talked a bit about it on Thursday.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: Some surprise selections that they made wire you on board
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: with those selections by the end of the game.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: I think by and large the game together pretty well
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: for something that was unconventional, certainly from numbers on the
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: back point of view. Peter Luckeye Startner's first first class
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: game at number six, I thought he was excellent. I
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: was quite surprised to see him actually replaced midway through
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: the second half of Wallace easy. I thought Arlie Severe
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: had some good moments. He got one one turnover which
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: directly led to turnover penalty directly led to Will Jordan's
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: opening try.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: I think it was Captain c Wise.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: I think he largely took the right decisions, turned down
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: all the shots that go until the Blacks were protecting
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: a one point buffer late in the second half, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: then took the penalty and they went by two points.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: So he'd have to say a big tick in that regard.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: And Luke Jacobson, I think he had a very good
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: game conceded. I think it was two penalties in the
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: first half and maybe one rope pass, but really grew
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: as the game went on.
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: Put on some big.
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: Hits, gave that slip offload for Will Jordan and I
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: think contributed in a big way to the speed of
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: rock for the All Blacks.
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: Cleaned a lot of bodies there.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: So you'd have to say a big tick for Luke
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: Jacobson at open sides. And you know, we've talked a
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: lot about him not really stepping up previously under many
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: All Black coaches.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: He's had many opportunity these.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: One good test doesn't make a summer, but that was
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: a real big step forward, I thought for him, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: I think he relished the new regime.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah it did.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: And maybe I think I mentioned it last week, maybe
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: this is giving him the role to play is actually
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: the key, whereas previously he has been restricted in terms
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: of starts, the kind of games he started, the impact
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: he's been able to make off the bench. So I
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: thought it was a really promising performance from Luke Jacobson.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: Is so much sold on the idea of sort of
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: you know, any loose Ford will do in terms of
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: putting numbers on their backs. But you know, maybe slightly
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: coming around on the basis of the weekend. Ruben Love
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: at ten look yellow card in the first ninety seconds
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: two minutes. Wherever it was probably wasn't the way that
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: he wanted to start the Test, but I thought he
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: did really well at shaking that off and just moving
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: on to the next thing once he was out on
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: the park and I had some good moments. Didn't overplay
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: his hand, which I think was really crucial for Ruben Love.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: You know, you don't want to be doing everything in
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: a Test match like that, and I don't think he
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: felt like he needed to. I think he obviously trusted
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: what roy Gard was doing at half back and then
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: why wouldn't you? And then Enjordy barried a couple of
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: moments as well. There's a couple of eras and kicked
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: from memory in the twenty two, but by and large
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: you've got to give Ruben Love, I think a real
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: tick for that performance.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: It was a horror start, wasn't it The best part
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: of eighty seconds and you've got a yellow card, you
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: go off, you're sitting there, you have to wait to
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: see whether it's going to be upgraded to a red.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: So there had been a fifth you nerves earlier.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: I think I saw a picture of Dave Runny and
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: the coaches box with his head in his hands after
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: the All Blacks concede and then copy yellow card. Really
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: was a horrific start, but they both recovered really well.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: I thought the All Blacks managed that period well. They
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: got down the other ends and then Ruby and Love
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: came back. And I think the big thing was not
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: only did he shake that off, but just his ability
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: to back himself and challenge the line and take a
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: gap when it's on users'd go through. That was really
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: really promising to see. It wasn't perfect, like you said,
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: there were a few errant kicks and option taking that
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: he'd want to have again, but for a first start
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: at first five and his at TESTLA match level and
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: his sixth Test, I thought it was a really promising
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: performance with a lot of growth to come. And look,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Jelliber was excellent as well. He really sparked and inspired
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: the French team. So two tens on display. It was
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: a great spectacle in that regard.
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: Also liked.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: I thought Stam Dowry was outstanding. He was everywhere at
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: the line out, ball carrying, defending and obviously cam Roy guards.
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: So yeah, some big individual performances from the All Blacks
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: as well.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there were a lot of standouts and obviously we've
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: touched one a few things that they can improve on.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Question for you Lem before were perhaps wrap it up
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: our thoughts on the Test match. But can they play
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: like this when they're not under the roof? I guess
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: is the question. The ruck spy was sensational on the weekend.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: I think Dave Rennie mentioned lightning quick ball. The stat
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: that he looks at and he ses very stats focus
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: is around eighty five percent or thereabout. It's maybe just
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: a touch lower. Can they play with that when they're
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: not under the roof. They're looking at the forecast for
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: the Capital this weekend and I know Mike Blee mentioned
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: it yesterday, not too bad partly clay with a chance
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: of a shower and southeaster is dying out in the
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Wellington Hive six hive nine Love six, so it's not
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: gonna be too wet. But can they play like this
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: when they're not in conditions that they know.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Are going to be pre game?
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: In short, you s Elliott, if as you'd witnessed with
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: our championship winning Hurricanes this season, they did it and
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: good the bad and the ugly weather, it's a skill execution.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: It's yourself at sticking to the game plan, I think, look,
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: you have to adapt. If it's driving rain and gale
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: force wins, then maybe you do adapts. But in the
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: wind in particular, we saw the Hurricanes in the final
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: keep the ball on hand more and that really worked
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: for them, and.
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: It didn't for the Chiefs.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: So look, I don't think you'll get the same speed
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: of ruck that you'll get under the roof and chrish Church,
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: hard and fast pitch, pristine conditions. I'll be surprised to
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: see that ruck speed replicated and Wellington and most other
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: venues around the world. But in terms of the attacking intent,
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: the ambition, the desire to play at pace, whether that
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: be quick throws, quick taps, I think, yeah, you can
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: do that elsewhere.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: Anything else you want to add on the thoughts on
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: the test match before we move into the Final four.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: At the end of the episode, look pains to point
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: out they did only win by two points, and they
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: scraped home in the end and set up at Grandstand finished.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: But one thing that stood out right at the end
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: was the fact they had just confidently shut the game
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: down and they weren't willing to give the French an
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: opportunity I thought that was really good game management, and
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: they're closing ninety seconds two minutes and showed, you know,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: perhaps of pragmatism that maybe we haven't seen for a
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: wee while, that the All Blacks are like, right, well,
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: we're not going to give the French any sniff here.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: We're just going to completely shut them down.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: And I thought that was, you know, something I took
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: away from the match, going, Okay, this team is aware.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Perhaps how to manage and close the game out.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, they did it well. It was pretty nervous, tense stuff,
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: wasn't it. Fronts who were having a real crack at
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: the counter ruck and got pretty close on at least
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: one occasion. But the All Blacks managed to do it
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: for the best part of two minutes. And there's actually
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: a lot of inexperience on the field at that time too.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: When you think about Reuben Love. Of course, here's at Artema,
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: I suffer, Armor, Xavier Numa, Jamie Hannah, even Wallace and tc.
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: These guys haven't played a lot of tears, so for
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: them to live and breathe and come out the other
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: side of a test match like that is a great
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: learning experience.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: It is indeed, quick break back with the final four
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: after this on Rugby directs, you back with a Rugby
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: direct time now for the final four and certain Liam
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: hope you've seen some of these because I flowed to
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: the wrong run sheets, so some of these might be
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: catching you on the fly. But it's all right, rich
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: number one, right, the All Blacks performance out of ten
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Look, it's a starting point Outlett, so I'm a harsh
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: mark so I'm going to go six. I think they
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: can get a lot better. But as we touched on,
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: I like a lot of elements of that performance. So
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: the ceiling on this team is a long way off,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: but it was a starting point.
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: I scratch you one at that, but you take the
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: win and move on you do.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Indeed, I'm going to go six and a half.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: I'm not as harsh a marker as you, as we've
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: established over the course of history on this podcast. But yeah,
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: broom for improvement, but some positive signs. Topic number two,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: The verdicts on the rest of the weekends. Haven't seen
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: all the games that have caught the highlights of most
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: of them. What stood out Australia Island watched the full game,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: but that wants to return to the office here in
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: christ Church and that was another barn burner of a
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: game and Australia, perhaps a little unlucky not to emerge
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: with the victory, stood out from the rest of the
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: nation's championship.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: I think Australia butchered that match. To be honest, Ben
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: Donaldson not putting the loss on him alone, but he
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: missed too late kicks difficult ones at that but you
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: know he wanted that penalty at the finish from a
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: good probably fifty meters on the angle.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: Harry Wilson was weighing up where they go for the corner.
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: You know, it's easy to say in hindsight, but he'd
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: probably go that option again. I thought Australia had the
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: better of that game. Ireland missing a number of players,
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: so they'll take the one and run. But there was
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: a record crowd I think at Alian's in Sydney for
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: that match, and the Wallabies will be desperately disappointed. It
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: doesn't get any easier for them the French this week
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: and they'll be bolstered by those top fourteen finalists. So
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: the Wallabies were pretty caen to get some momentum. Look
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: the spring box easily subduing beating down England's at Alice Park.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: That was a real return to the spring box of
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: old from a style point of view, lot of box kicking,
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: very conservative from an attacking point of view, but they
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: did score seven tries so it worked for them. But
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: from a stylistic point of view, you wouldn't been able
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: to tell that Tony Brown was involved there.
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: Big win for Scotland and Argentina.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: As well, A very high scoring match. Pretty underwhelming crowd
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: in Quarteraba for that, but yeah, I think a really
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: notable win for Scotland away from home.
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: What about you?
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was impressed by elements of the weekends Japan
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: and against Italy. Japan I thought were pretty good. But
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: Italy were, you know, with a Night Awards this weekend
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: in the Capitol, really really disappointing. I thought they were
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: looked unglued on attack and didn't seem to have any
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: cohesive plan through the game. It was really labored. They
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: lost the ball I think about twenty five times to
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: seven turn the ball over and their defense I thought
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: was sluggish as well.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: So I think with a.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Night Awards this weekend, they have to step up massively
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: for the trip to Wellington. It could be a very
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: very long afternoon for the Italians in the capital. Similar
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: to you South Africa and England. Great start from South
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Africa seventeen nilapa after twelve minutes, England felt like they
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: were waiting for individuals to do something else. Kine takes
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: that quick tap before halftime and gets them a try
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: and then they get another one before the break. But
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I thought England would largely pressive. They lost the penalty
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: count convincingly. Yeah, I just don't see enough firepower in
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: that England team, or at least enough harnessing of it
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: from Steve Borthwick to give them give me any thought
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: that they are on the right track, you know, with
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: the World Cup next year. I think they have gone
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: off track completely and perhaps it was only saved by
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: the fact that they pushed France right to the brink
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: in that last game of the Six Nations and FIGI
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Wales caught my eye as well.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Wales.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: You know, it's been a really rough two or three years,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: if not longer for them.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: They looked a lot more organized.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: I thought that I'd seen in recent time a lot
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: the way they closed out the game, there was some
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: smart moments from the MFG. Disciplined look a small step
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: forward for Wales, but I think there is some some
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: positive signs there as they continue to build under Steve Tandy.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: So all in all, I thought it was a really
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: really good weekend. I think the jury is still out
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: on the nation's championship, but by and large us an
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: entertaining weekend of rugby.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Mates.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: Look, I'm coming around to this format, Eliot. I like
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: the fact that there's different opposition each week. It'll be
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: costing organized as a bomb to fly all these teams
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: to different countries every week.
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: But I like the new flavor.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: I like new opposition each week, so it'd be interesting
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: to see how long and how it pans out. But
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: I think we're also seeing largely a shift and a
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: style of rugby, quite high scoring games, quite up tempo
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: attack first, but the spring box also showing that it
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: can be done the old scoreway.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: I can indeed question number three in the final four
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: what changes would you look at potentially for this weekends
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: and apes.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: It's a bit of a catch twenty two is always Elliott.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: I think you'd like to see that all black teams
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: stay together get much better cohesion, finish a lot of
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: the chances that they blew in christ Church. But in
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: terms of this July series, if you're going to make changes,
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: this is the test to do it on. Eden Park
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: was always going to be the biggest match of this
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: July window. So I think you will see some changes,
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: but maybe maybe not too many. Maybe in the front
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: row you could look to promote Tyrel Lomax and Xavier
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: new mayor maybe bring in Samasoni, Takyajor, some of these
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: guys who didn't get an opportunity at the weekends. I
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: would like to see more of fining a northwol particularly
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: at Test level. He was very nervous viewing at halftime.
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: He had maybe ten to fifteen minutes off the bench.
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: So maybe not a raft of changes.
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: But a few tweaks, give a few more Hurricanes a
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: start perhaps.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, perhaps, Yeah, that's not rule anything out. Yeah, I
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: would probably look at keeping the bulk of that team together.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: I think Rubin Love needs to start again at ten.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Maybe you look at changing the half back and keeping
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Woiguard frushtrating him twenty minutes off the bench, all though
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: he's played a fear bit of rugby towards the back end.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: I think there was a comment around how much the
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Hurricanes have played recently, so maybe you look at giving
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: them potentially obviously some game time in front of their
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: home fans. You've got to balance that out. But look,
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: I think maybe Signa comes into the loose forward treer.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: Potentially you could look at Fineanng Andofo on one wing,
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: and maybe Clark does start on the other and keep
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: his spot. Jordan might go to fullback, but I'd be
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: loath to tamper too much with that team. I think
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: that you know, Davin, you'll probably try and achieve a balance.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: I guess the question as well, Liam is around Ardie
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Savia and there's a lot of talk earlier in the
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: year and even not that long ago around him. Maybe,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: you know, having a eighteen months continuously of rugby, do
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: they look at maybe him coming off the bench or
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: not playing at all this week? Would that be a
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: risk given he's only had one teast as full time captain.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: What are your thoughts on that?
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there's a very live option. Eliott.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: I think it's a good point about him playing continuously,
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: and he also looked pretty beat up postmatch in christ
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: Church actually had a bit of a scare in the
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: warm up, didn't He took a blow and on his
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: groan which made his one of his legs numb, but
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: came through that. But yeah, look pretty beat up as
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: you would expect, very very.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: Tough physical test match.
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: But I think if you were going to spell him,
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: this is a decent opportunity to do it.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: You're not going to have a lot of time between
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: the July.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: Series and South Africa, and we all know how massive
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: that's going to be from a physical and mental perspective.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: Maybe later in the year you look at spelling him
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: from one of the bleeder's loads. Not too sure, but
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: it wouldn't shock me to see him spelled. And then
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: you could look at maybe a Cody Taylor or Jordi
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: Barrett assuming the captaincy, And yeah, i'd really like to
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: see Signa get a crack in that loose forward trio
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: as well.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Absolutely a team out on Thursday round four o'clock. We'll
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: have another podcast for you that's at night. Final question
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: which I don't really have an answer for. I have
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: gone right to the top of New Zealand Rugby's communications department,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: so I listen to me, emailed me yesterday and said,
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: why would the All Blacks not wearing those Nations championship
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: badges that we saw on the other team. So this
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: is a final four question without an answer. I don't
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: have a question answer to that question as at quarter
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: past ten on Monday morning, but I have put it
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: forwards Liam.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Have you got any theories behind that?
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: Look, the All Blacks jersey's pretty sacred and they only
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: tend to give it up for millions of dollars. So
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: unless unless the Nation's Championships coming to the party with
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: a brown paper bag or some big cash one for
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: I don't think your Blacks are gonna slap something on
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: the jersey too easily, so that would be my assumption.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Anyway, it's probably a pretty good assumption. Tim.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you for your question. If I hear back by Thursday,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: I will let you know. I'm intrigued to know the
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: answer myself. That will do us though. For our early
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: week edition of a Rugby to Direct, Thanks Naples naps
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: As always look forward to seeing you in the Capitol
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: and soaking that up from a bit later in the
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: week in.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: A great city of Wellington.
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: Elliott hopefully that white beat Fredder standard has been reinstalled.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: Well yeah, it wasn't open on the morning of the
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Super Rugby Finals, so yeah, question marks remain. We'll do
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: some investigative journalism and see whether it's going to be
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: there on Saturday. We'll catch it in thanks to Mark
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Kelly producing and this has been right bedrec colored by
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Access Solutions elevating you and your business to a higher level.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks ed B listen live on
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
• 28:51
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