We've moved on from MacDonald's departure - All Blacks forwards coach Ryan

If the All Blacks are to be believed, the spat between head coach Scott Robertson and former assistant coach Leon MacDonald, which caused seismic disruptions in New Zealand last week when the latter quit his role with the team because of “coaching differences”, is something of the past.

The All Blacks don’t want to focus on it, and are doing their best to tell everybody who would listen that it is a storm in a teacup, and nothing more.

Still, the echoes from their 2022 visit when then coach Ian Foster dumped John Plumtree just before heading to South Africa rings a very familiar tone, and the All Blacks were beaten on that tour in Mbombela but bounced back at Ellis Park.

This time around forwards coach Jason Ryan was put forward to say “there is nothing to see here folks”, doing his best impression that the side had moved on.

“We’ve just got on with it,” Ryan said. “The conversations were had and decisions were made and we moved on pretty quickly. You have to, to be fair. I’ve got a massive amount of respect for Leon as a man and as a coach - as I have Razor. They’ve come to that decision. As far as we’re concerned it’s last week’s news and we keep moving forward.”

The move meant that Tamati Ellison has been moved into the defensive role where before he was a part-time consultant, while Scott Hansen has moved from defence to attack.

Ryan believes despite the whole set-up being new, it would all work out fine as they head to face the World Champions in their backyard.

“A little bit I guess but the boys are across the details and we’ve got done what we needed to early in the week. The adjustments have been pretty seamless to be fair,” Ryan said.

“We connected with the boys before it became known to everyone. Ray spoke to the leaders and the staff and we just got on with it.”

TEAM EXCITED

Ryan said the team is excited at the prospect of facing the team they narrowly lost to in the World Cup final last year.

“As Dane Coles once said it’s probably the greatest challenge and best arena you can test yourself in the All Blacks. We’re really excited by that. We’ll embrace that and walk towards it. They’re the world champions; 64 000 roaring South Africans, it doesn’t get any better, so we can’t wait.

“Even the bus trip is pretty feral. There’s a few hand signals and a few empty cans coming towards the window and that sort of thing. In all honesty it’s probably coming from a good place. It’s a great rivalry, the All Blacks and Springboks. As much as they want to beat us there’s a good amount of respect there – as there is from us.”

The Boks won the pre-World Cup test with a big 35-7 scoreline at Twickenham, employing a seven-one bench, which led to much debate afterwards. But Ryan said the team learnt a lot from that defeat, some of the lessons they put in place for the one-point loss in the World Cup final.

“They taught me a fair lesson in that Twickenham test,” Ryan said. “They dinged us up pretty fiercely to be fair. It’s the best contest you can judge yourself on. In the forwards is where it’s won and lost.

“With those experiences and the World Cup final you can give the boys confidence around what we’re doing and making sure they’re really clear and don’t have too much clutter. When you’re playing in this arena it’s the best ever. You can’t be thinking too much about things if you want that physicality. That’s what I’ve learned – removing a little bit of stuff during the week helps them execute under pressure.

“A lot of the big rocks around your set piece become very important. Playing at altitude and how you use the ball you’ve got to be smart around that. Both teams are playing at altitude so we’re pretty confident we’ve got a game that will suit us.”

The All Blacks will name their side on Thursday for the clash.