New Zealand first five Damian McKenzie had a penalty timed out after taking longer than the 60-second limit to take the kick
The second test is on Saturday at Eden Park, kickoff 7.05pm
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.
OPINION
Super Rugby may come with the problem of shielding New Zealand’s players from the realities they willlikely encounter in the test arena, but, as evidenced by events in Dunedin, so too does it have the benefit of protecting fans from some of the unfathomable madness that feels hard baked into the international game now.
It’s a time-honoured challenge for All Blacks coaches to gather their players for the first test of the year and de-programme the bonus point culture mindsets that have developed from playing five months of Super Rugby.
Inevitably, given the predominantly aerobic nature of Super Rugby, the relatively unsophisticated kicking strategies employed by most teams and the greater emphasis placed on attack rather than defence, New Zealand’s elite players tend to struggle to adjust to the intensity and the different strategic elements they encounter in the first test of the year.
Most obviously, the All Blacks were flummoxed by the speed and intensity of England’s defence and their ability to set up an aggressive and effective defensive lineout, while some of the home side’s decision making – keeping the ball alive after the halftime hooter – reflected that occasionally they were still trapped in the high-risk mindset that Super Rugby encourages, given the value of collecting try-scoring bonus points.
“There are a lot of leaders and we have got a lot of experience. We have got a lot of guys who have played test footy and knew that the English side would want to put us in that position.
“We talked about it – we talked about the pressure we would be under and what sort of solutions we need to get out of it.
“We wanted to go to scrum if we could, or the maul to create opportunities for us and we did that at times.”
But the battle to adjust to test rugby wasn’t just one that the players faced.
After months of impressively accurate, common-sense refereeing throughout Super Rugby designed, in conjunction with a few law tweaks, to speed things along, the first test of the year was a sharp reminder that the fans continue to be neglected and let down when it comes to the highest form of the game.
There is a gaping difference between the officiating of international rugby and Super Rugby Pacific, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Getty Images
The controversy over the timed-out Damian McKenzie penalty is yet one more example of how rugby madly and needlessly destroys its credibility by refusing to have consistent, clear and transparent mechanisms to manage the game.
No one, least of all McKenzie, has any issue with a hard imposition of a 60-second window in which to take a shot for goal, but how difficult would it have been to have had a visible shot clock at Forsyth Barr Stadium to remove this need for it to be a matter of referee interpretation about how long the respective kickers were taking?
Establish a universal protocol about when the clock goes on – once the captain signals the team’s intent rather than when the penalty is awarded – and enforce it in all international games.
Equally frustrating was that having spent Super Rugby seeing the ubiquitous phalanx of water carriers and medics shooed off the field by referees, and players hurried along to lineouts, the encounter in Dunedin was again held up infrequently by unexplained stoppages.
Light injuries that required prolonged attention and a sort of glacial vibe that flew against this whole narrative being espoused that everyone involved realises they are in the entertainment business and subscribes to the notion that a good game is a fast game.
And of course, so too, was there a level of confusion about how the scrum was being interpreted and question marks over whether England’s rush defence was benefitting from being able to set up in an advanced position and begin its surge a fraction earlier than would be strictly legal.
On that last point, it again seems incongruous that rugby’s executives are transfixed by this idea their sport is in the midst of a digital revolution and yet no one has thought that rather than spending millions pumping out bland content no one much wants to watch, why not invest in some kind of technical innovation to beam a real or virtual offside line across the park to once again remove the need for human and mostly inaccurate assessment as to whether players are onside or not.
All of this vague, inconsistent application of the laws clearly frustrated Robertson as much as it did everyone else, with the All Blacks coach saying: “All those things around the officiating we will deal with privately it is a game of respect, rugby.
“We will put some questions [privately through the appropriate channels]. We will have a look at timing, speed, ball of play and getting along to the next lineout and the officiating in the scrums so we can get better.
“Our game wants to be sped up, doesn’t it. We are in the entertainment game and also the safety game as well, so we have to get a balance, but we want to keep moving.”
