‘We’ve been building’: All Blacks look to ‘take a step forward’ against Wallabies
After winning The Rugby Championship and retaining the prestigious Bledisloe Cup, the All Blacks are looking “to take a step forward” when they face the Wallabies in Dunedin this weekend.
The All Blacks have been quite brilliant under Ian Foster this year. In fact, this might be the best they’ve looked under Foster, who has taken the team to an all-new level alongside Jason Ryan and Joe Schmidt.
Having won three games from as many Tests, the New Zealanders have certainly moved on from the horrors of last year – they were beaten by Ireland, South Africa, Argentina and just snuck by Australia.
The All Blacks started their international campaign with a dominant win over Los Pumas in Mendoza, and backed up that showing with another promising display against the world-champion Springboks in Auckland.
But the men in black saved their best for last. Playing at the world-famous MCG last Saturday, in front of almost 84,000 too, New Zealand put on a second-half clinic against the wounded Wallabies.
“We’re pretty proud of the performance last week. We certainly had to work for it, they tested us in a lot of areas,” All Blacks captain Sam Cane told reporters on Friday.
“We held pretty strong with the fact that we only let the one try in, we try to work on our defence, and hopefully tomorrow we can take another step forward.”
In the minds of the All Blacks and Wallabies, I’m sure, there is no such word as ‘dead rubber’ when either team ventures into enemy territory.
The All Blacks may have won last week, and retained the Bledisloe by doing so, but this is still New Zealand versus Australia. In southern hemisphere sports, it doesn’t get much better.
Samipeni Finau and Shaun Stevenson will also debut after being named in the starting side, while Dallas McLeod could also become All Black No. 1213 off the bench.
“We’ve got three guys, two definitely making their debut and one potentially, and a lot of guys having an opportunity,” Cane added.
“On top of that, we know that where we’re at right now is not what’s going to be good enough later in the year.
“Every time that we get a chance to take the field as a team is a chance to take a step forward and get better, and ultimately get to where we want to get to.”
This time last year, New Zealand rugby fans were panicking. With the World Cup nigh on the horizon, the All Blacks weren’t tracking in a winning direction.
It was time to sound the alarm – almost. New Zealand Rugby stood by coach Foster, and that decision has worked wonders so far in 2023.
“I certainly felt, and I have felt for probably the last 18 months or so, that we’ve been building to a pretty good spot.
“I suppose it’s pleasing that it’s starting to show on the field, the squads in a really good spot as a whole. We see that by the selectors being bold and making a lot of changes for tomorrow night.
“Hopefully if our prep has been on point and we’re where we need to be, we’ll still get another really good performance.”
The All Blacks take on arch-rivals Australia at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium at 2.35 pm NZST on Saturday afternoon.
It’s their last Test on New Zealand soil before heading off to Europe ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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