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'He never leaves a stone unturned': All Blacks praise new attack coach
By Ned Lester
Much has been said about the All Blacks coaches this international season with historic losses and roster instability fuelling critics' calls for big changes on and off the field.
A somewhat chaotic South African tour that finished in a resounding win for the men in black seems to have finally put the turmoil to rest, however; Ian Foster has been backed by his players and now New Zealand Rugby to steer the ship into 2023.
A robust review schedule for the All Blacks has resulted in new assistants in the coaching group, with Jason Ryan taking over as forwards coach prior to the South African tour and now Joe Schmidt being named as attack coach.
Midfielder David Havili expressed his excitement for the latest coaching addition during Thursday's media session.
"It's been awesome to have him," said the 18-cap All Black. "He's been here for a couple of days now and I've already learnt so much off him."
Havili made a point of mentioning the attention-oriented approach Schmidt has brought to the All Blacks environment:
"The detail he brings to the game, it's something that I really enjoy, just the wee bits of stuff I can take out of my game and be able to implement on the weekend.
"He just never leaves a stone unturned. He wants the best out of the player and he pushes you to be better.
"I've experienced that the last couple of days and I'm looking forward to another big training couple of days and then getting into the game."
Will Jordan echoed Havili's sentiments on Schmidt:
"He's pretty detailed about how he goes about things," Jordan said. "Stuff around running lines, he's big on his catch-pass quality and stuff like that.
"I don't think it's huge structural changes but just little things go a long way towards being more successful in that space."
Despite recent results, it's safe to say expectations for the All Blacks remain high for the rest of the Rugby Championship and heading into next year's Rugby World Cup. Schmidt will have to hit the ground running if the team is to ascend to the familiar realm of dominance that the fans demand.
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Latest Comments
Recent complaints that SA players have a 12-month workload isn't of itself a credible enough excuse to lay at the door of EPCR administrators. If SA clubs want to participate in NH league and club competitions and also participate in SH internationals, then clearly something has to give.
From the EPCR perspective, I do think that the format/schedule issues can be fixed if there's a strong enough desire to remove some of the logistical challenges clubs are facing with these long and frequent trips across the hemispheres.
From the SA player workload perspective however, I'm not sure how players can participate safely and competitively at both the club and international levels. Perhaps - and as Rassie appears to be developing, SA develop a super squad with sufficient player numbers and rotation to allow players to compete across the full 12-month calendar.
Bottom line though, is the geographical isolation is always going to restrict SA's ability to having the best of both worlds.
Go to commentsMoriaty refused to play for wales also he’s injured, France’s is being coy about wales, North in the dark but Sam David and jerad are you joking their not good enough
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