The All Blacks were unable to find any answers against the Irish. Photo / Getty
The All Blacks were unable to find any answers against the Irish. Photo / Getty
OPINION:
These are unprecedented times for world rugby. No one can recall the margins between the top teams being this tight – a period when the world rankings jump dramatically week to week.
What we have now are eight teams bunched in a battle for global supremacy and the AllBlacks, ranked fourth, sit just about where they should based on their last eight performances.
It's a new place for them to find themselves having sat at No 1 between late 2009 and early 2019.
But as unfamiliar as it may be, this is the new reality of a world game which has seen the Northern Hemisphere come to life in the last few years and South Africa continue to produce a game plan that scores low on aesthetics but high on efficiency.
This great reworking of the world order has been built on a consistent theme – England, Ireland, France, South Africa, Wales and Scotland have all laid the foundation of their offerings on set-piece accuracy and collision warfare.
Collectively it was as if all the Northern nations considered that the basis of their game has long been their size and destructive power and any rebuild of their rugby strategy should retain that as the basis of their plan.
They have all upped the stakes on that front, spending the last three years building collision athletes and power plays. They've developed props that can scrum and run, locks that can jump and bump and loose forwards that smash and dash – something that the South Africans have never deviated from.
It has changed the nature of test football, for the better. The Northern sides have found who they really are and stayed true to their DNA.
But on this platform of smash, bash and crunch, they have added a touch of invention. Ireland and France in particular have twigged that a slick set piece and breakdown brilliance are the gateway to the lighter touch, pass and catch intricate attacking ploys they are so smartly conceiving.
And this is why the All Blacks now find themselves at a juncture where, with 18 months until the World Cup, they must find a way to elevate themselves out of the peloton to the front of the race.
It's a journey that will only be possible if they can find a level of consistency that has been missing since the last World Cup. The All Blacks are not being left behind per se; they are just not setting the pace because what they deliver one week can look totally different - not in a good way - the next.
The All Blacks were unable to find any answers against the Irish. Photo / Getty
The All Blacks have had their moments in the last two years. The relentless negativity that has clung to the team since 2020 is unjustified.
No one can doubt that the skillsets are there or that at times, the team has put together compelling performances or at least prolonged spells of the sort of rugby that other nations can't match.
But nor have the All Blacks produced enough of these performances and while it is undisputable that Ireland have progressed since November, the same can't be said of the All Blacks.
They don't yet to appear to have fully accepted that they have bring to carnage to the test arena all of the time and not some of the time.
In Dunedin, they played a catastrophic opening 20 minutes where it looked like they felt the hard work they produced in Auckland was still in the bank – earning them interest and a right to believe they had already broken Ireland down.
They continue to tread water, delivering a merciless effort at Eden Park before regressing in Dunedin and the statistics on that are starting to paint a damning picture.
The All Blacks have played Ireland, South Africa and France six times since August last year and have won two and lost four.
They are sitting on a 33 per cent win rate against the three teams who – on account of the draw - stand between them and a fourth World Cup title next year.
Much of the runway has been chewed up by this coaching team as a result of those numbers and if the All Blacks are to take off, it has to be in the next three tests.
The circumstances of the last two years have been trying and can mitigate results to some extent, but patience is running thin.
The All Blacks not only have to start winning consistently, there has to be a definitive sense they have committed to an effective style of rugby that enables them to compete in this new battleground of destruction, but one which they are able to replicate each time they play.
The statistics need to be turned to offer a greater beacon of hope. Even if they beat Ireland in Wellington, they will be going to the World Cup with a record of winning only half the time they play them.
Perhaps that could be overlooked or balanced with a more intuitive assessment if the performance this week is both brutal and emphatic and backed up with two more ferocious and cohesive displays in South Africa.
