All Blacks make a statement in the duel that was 'coming forever'
There was a point on Saturday night in Yokohama when Kieran Read gathered his troops about him and told everyone to just take five.
Take a breath, he said. Do what you do and execute. Easier said than done when the Springboks are in suffocation mode. It was all New Zealand could do to keep their heads above water as tackles and intensity tested them in that first quarter. Here was proof, it seemed, of all those pre-tournament predictions that the world champs would be knocked off their perch.
Power, we were told, would be king.
And then it wasn't. The Kiwis were holding a ten-point lead by the time they heard the final whistle. They had survived that early onslaught, defended superbly, showed incredible discipline in conceding only four penalties and scored two sublime tries. And they did it with a number of players still learning new roles and with tactics we thought had been consigned to the bin.
Add it all together and this felt like a statement win.
“For sure,” nodded scrum-half Aaron Smith. “For us it was a game that was coming forever. Once the Rugby Championship was over and the team was named it was all about this game. It was such a build-up for me. It felt like a final. And it was just such a great performance to be a part of.
“Emotionally it was a big build-up and being out there, the heat, I'm really happy with how we performed. We've been under pressure a little bit, we had a draw in Wellington playing them, we've had mixed performances between now and the last World Cup. So it was really great tonight to win the little things that we really wanted to prove we could do well.”
💬 "We'll use the next couple of days wisely and then get back into work"
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) September 21, 2019
Steve Hansen wants the All Blacks to build on opening win.
READ 👉🏽 https://t.co/2MNUXkoiX3 pic.twitter.com/nB70yLSRfW
Smith's honesty is revealing. The All Blacks approached Yokohama with doubts plaguing them, even if they were others' rather than their own. There were theories that they would flail in the face of the brawn the Boks and England could present and suggestions that the team was in too much flux to hit its straps in Japan.
Five of the starting 15 were still displaying 'L' plates. George Bridge and Sevu Reece were earning caps six and four respectively on the wings. Richie Mo'Unga was making just his sixth start at out-half and even experienced operators in Beauden Barrett and Ardie Savea were making just their sixth and fourth starts in their chosen positions.
Add in the continuing shifting of chairs at midfield, where Ryan Crotty and Anton Lienert-Brown were resident two days ago, the absence of Brodie Retallick and a shift towards some more mobile props off the bench and Steve Hansen was fielding a side that had legitimate question marks over every line on the field.
They answered all that with stunning individual performances, Savea's on the blindside most obviously, as well as a collective strength characterised by Smith's assertion that 'defence is the way you show how much you love each other', blinding attacking play and a return to a kicking game that neutered the Boks' physical advantages.
Neither Smith nor TJ Perenara put a boot to ball in Wellington in July when South Africa clinched a 16-16 draw but the box-kick was reupholstered as a weapon of choice here. With Barrett and Mo'unga embracing the cross-kick, New Zealand had the ways and means to stretch the game and bypass the rush defence. Multiple phase play was just not an option.
“The box kick is a big part of our game if we get it right,” said Smith. “It is a 50-50 opportunity. The northern hemisphere teams use it very well. We went away from that a bit and it is just really great that it is back in our repertoire. We varied our kicks today as well, it wasn't just the box kicks putting them under pressure.”
The net result from all this was sobering.
New Zealand have performed radical surgery on their teamsheet and on their tactics, seemingly within the blink of an eye, and with the result that they have seen off what may be their main challenger for the Web Ellis trophy. New Zealand don't just look the best in the world after this, they looks streets ahead. Again.
The most open World Cup ever? Yeah, about that...
Rassie Erasmus attempted to put it in context, and play some more mind games, when he pointed out afterwards that his Boks are only the fourth-ranked side in the world. There may be other sides out there who will handle that kicking game better and other things to discommode the Kiwis, said the Springbok coach.
"We guarantee some things, but they handled our maul very well,” he explained. “They handled our scrum well, our kicking game well. You play teams like Wales and England and there's a totally different strength there. By all means they're the favourites, but they will have different tactical challenges against the northern hemisphere teams."
Maybe but how could you bet against them after this?
