1
'The boys are up for the fight': All Blacks anticipating a 'fired up' Scottish side
By AAP
The All Blacks looked to be much improved as they outclassed Wales at the weekend - but they're wary of a fired-up Scottish team on the next leg of their tour.
New Zealand loose-forward Akira Ioane says they must be ready to match Scotland's fire in their autumn international at Murrayfield, as the home team seek a first-ever win against the All Blacks.
New Zealand have had an up and down year that has led some to suggest they are there for the taking, but they blew away Wales in an eight-try 55-23 romp in Cardiff this past weekend to suggest they are getting back to their best in time for Sunday's Test.
Ioane believes Scotland will be a step up in quality from that encounter and says the All Blacks will do well not to underestimate opponents who haven't beaten them in 31 previous attempts.
"They are a good team," Ioane told reporters on Wednesday.
"They have got a lot of threats over the ball, and a lot of speed and strength out wide. We can't take them lightly.
"They'll come out guns blazing, and we have to match that and make sure the boys are up for the fight. Our breakdown will have to be on point. If not, they are going to steal a lot of ball.
"They haven't won ever, so no doubt they will be fired up. We have to be ready for a Scottish team that will go past the 80 minutes, so we have to dig deep and make sure we nail what we can."
New Zealand have lost six Tests in the last 12 months, their worst run since the late 1990s, but they're chasing a sixth win in a row after a recent upturn in results, if not quite performance.
They squeezed past Japan 38-31 in unconvincing fashion in their opening autumn international clash before putting Wales to the sword.
"We wanted to take a step up from Japan and I think we did that against Wales, but Scotland is going to be another step up again.
"I know the boys are looking forward to it. We have been preparing well."
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".
But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.
The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.
Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?
Go to commentsI think they just need to judge better when it's on and when it's not. If there is a disjointed chase and WJ has a forward in front of him and some space to work with then he should have a crack every time.
If the chase is perfect and the defence is numbered up then it needs to get sent back. From memory they have not really developed a plan for what to do if they take the ball on/in the 22 with a good chase and no counter attacking opportunity.
Go to comments