With 22 tries scored across three matches and two 50 pointers recorded it was understandable that the All Blacks should end the first part of their Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour proclaiming that boxes have been ticked.
The New Zealanders haven’t been made to sweat much so far. The only local club team that really asked questions of them was the DHL Stormers, who were in with a chance of winning their game until the 68th minute of their clash in Cape Town.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks fielded what could almost reasonably be viewed as an academy team against them, and the Vodacom Bulls gave the Kiwis what they wanted by trying to play them at their own game, which was never going to work when they were just three weeks into their pre-season.
Given that the Bulls’ front row without Wilco Louw, Johan Grobbelaar and Gerhard Steenekamp is a very callow one, and this game showed how much Louw might be missed now that he has officially returned to the Stormers, the All Blacks weren’t subjected to the scrumming test they might otherwise have been at Loftus.
WEAKENED PACKS HELP FUEL PERCEPTION OF AB IMPROVEMENT
The Sharks had a very weakened pack on the field in the midweek game in Durban, so of course the appearance is that the Kiwi scrumming has improved. And both coach Dave Rennie and the captain on the day Codie Taylor said as much at the post-match press conference in Pretoria.
“The improvement in the scrum (from the Stormers game) has been the result of a lot of hard work,” said Rennie.
“There were a few things around the Stormers game we needed to work on, technical things, and full marks to Jason Ryan (the scrum coach) for what has been done to get that area of our game right.”
There is much truth in that old saying that you can only play what is in front of you, so what Rennie says is true. The scrum worked against the Sharks and the Bulls in a way that it didn’t against the Stormers.
ACKERS’ COMMENT WAS ON POINT
But then, when pressed at the post-match press conference on what advice he would give the tour organisers if they wanted the tour games to be more competitive, and therefore justify the money that spectators are being asked to spend on them, Bulls coach Johan Ackermann was on point.
“It is not my place to give SA Rugby advice, but I think we would have been in with much more of a chance if we played this game two months earlier or two months later, maybe if the Aussie and Argentina games (against the Boks) were swapped around and this game was played later,” said Ackermann.
Of course he was right, and John Dobson of the Stormers and JP Pietersen of the Sharks could justifiably say the same thing. There was some criticism afterwards for the inaccuracy which cost the Bulls in the first half and there was also some surprise that a normally physical team appeared to be bullied in that period, but then it was also completely explainable.
“This was our first contact of the new season. We are currently busy with our pre-season,” said Ackermann. “The Boks are match fit and they have quality players who have played a long time together. They have the best rugby heads in the world putting a plan together. They will be well prepared.
“Against the Boks the All Blacks may not have the scoreboard luxury of being able to run from their own half. If they do that against the Boks I don’t think they will get away with it. The Boks will see opportunities too if they keep the ball in hand.”
THE INTRODUCTION OF TWO CURRENT BOKS BROUGHT PERSPECTIVE
That last point is an interesting one. All the tour games have been played by club teams denuded of Boks. But when two current Springbok squad members, Elrigh Louw and Johan Grobbelaar, arrived on the field at Loftus, it may not have been a coincidence that was when the Bulls stabilised and played their best rugby.
Until Wallace Sititi ran through a tired defensive effort near the end the second half score was 19-all, and the Bulls did trouble the All Black defensive system in that period, and the forwards, with two experienced Boks there to offer some spine, discovered their mojo. Taylor admitted afterwards that the Bulls did put pressure on his team in that period.
So how would the tour games have gone had the club teams had their Boks, or even just a few more of their Boks, available to them?
Ultimately, because you can’t compare the Sharks and Bulls scrums to the Stormers scrums, and even their mauling ability with that of the Stormers currently (someone like JF van Heerden was playing his first game for the Bulls in ages and Hanro Liebenberg his first in years), the claims that the tourists have improved in those areas can be accepted but with an asterisk.
NO CONTESTABLE TEST SINCE CAPE TOWN
And since Cape Town the All Blacks also haven’t had to deal with an accurate contestable kicking game, with the Bulls shying away from that approach at Loftus and the Sharks just not really equipped for it and playing with inexperienced players in the playmaking roles.
That though appears to suit the All Blacks, and the pronouncements by Taylor and Rennie afterwards that they’d played against a team that came to play should not be regarded as just flippant, off-hand remarks.
As hard as they have worked on the field on the tour, the All Black management and leadership has worked hard off it on spinning a narrative that they must hope will influence the officiating in the forthcoming series.
The claims that the Boks will be aiming to slow the ball down and slow down play in the test matches has no basis if you have been paying any attention to their evolution since the last World Cup - in fact since about a year before that event - and yet it is a consistent narrative coming out of New Zealand.
A RAISING OF TEMPERATURE LIKELY BY SATURDAY
Perhaps because the sport is under pressure in their country from the rival Rugby League code, there’s a perception that rugby must be played a certain way, with aspects like the scrum devalued, in order for it to survive.
It was not a perception apparently shared by other nations at the recent State of the Game conference, but that hasn’t stopped the Kiwis from thinking they are right and spinning the narrative in that direction.
This week could see a ratcheting up of the phoney war between the teams and the temperature could well be sky high, and that is not a reference to the weather or altitude, when kick-off to the real deal arrives at Ellis Park at 5pm on Saturday.
RGR TOUR RESULTS SO FAR
DHL Stomers 21 All Blacks 38
Hollywoodbets Sharks 0 All Blacks 54
Vodacom Bulls 19 All Blacks 50