It was a match filled with dubious officiating, including South Africa’s opening try not being overturned despite replays showing Bongi Mbonambi’s knock-on.
It came to mind after watching the All Blacks manufacture that loss to the Springboks; another test, like last year’s World Cup final, they really could have, would have, should have won.
They lost because of some dubious officiating, they didn’t put on enough points when in the ascendancy in the first half, their second-half game management, while their kicking and the bench were poor.
If, early on, Ethan Blackadder – in his best game yet apart from this error – had passed to Caleb Clarke instead of taking the tackle, a try could have been scored and the All Blacks would have gone into the break with a big lead.
Bongi Mbonambi lost control of the ball in South Africa's opening try. Photo / Sky Sport
The (presumably South African) TV director moved on quickly, avoiding replays that might have triggered some sort of switch in the minds of Irish referee Andrew Brace and Irish TMO Brian MacNeice. Surely rugby must exercise some control over such concealment. Why didn’t Brace check? What was MacNeice doing?
A word on those two. The Herald published a newsletter during last year’s World Cup. One of the elements was a Ref Ranking, rating refs after every game. We gave it up just before the quarter-finals as we were running out of space but Brace was ranked dead last at 12th when we called time. We must have done something right because our top four were the refs who controlled the quarters, semifinals and final.
MacNeice isn’t just a ref and a TMO. He is also a “high performance expert” and speaker on the topic.
Two quotes from a recent interview: “You need performance pressure to make people perform at their best.”
Yep.
“You need to be clearly focused on what matters most in terms of success.”
Focused, eh? There’s a thought.
But that’s enough of Brace and Bit (of a mistake). The All Blacks bench embodied something this column has banged on about all through the Ian Foster regime and now through this one: When rebuilding, give the young guys sufficient time at the top to grow their experience, particularly at the start of a World Cup cycle.
The psychological thought patterns of someone like Scott Robertson are probably like: “There’s a lot at stake, I need to win to succeed and to win I need my experienced guys who’ve been battle-hardened.”
That’s why TJ Perenara and Sam Cane are playing right now. Both leave New Zealand rugby after this year.
The rest of us think like this: “Mix youth and experience but give more youth their head or they will be undercooked and potentially lacking confidence when the big moments come. Every start they don’t make is one less notch on their belt and one further step away from the knowledge they belong.”
Cortez Ratima, on the other hand, looked like a natural-born All Black in his first outing or two. In his last two tests, coming on as a substitute with about 15 minutes to go, he has seemed a lot less to the manor born.
Coming on for 10-15 minutes against world champions pushing hard at the death is a tough assignment for any young bloke, particularly those not forged in the fire against top sides.
Young stars like Cortez Ratima should get a start for the All Blacks against South Africa, argues Paul Lewis. Photo / Photosport
Expecting them to gain experience in highly pressurised circumstances seems flawed and even counter-productive. Better, surely, to start Ratima regularly and use Perenara as a sub, growing Ratima’s game time, experience and mental strength upon which he can call at times like the last 15 minutes of the Ellis Park test.
The Boks throw their bomb squad on at strategic moments. The All Blacks took off everyone playing well – Caleb Clarke, Blackadder, Perenara, Codie Taylor and Will Jordan – and gave the new boys (excepting Anton Lienert-Brown and Ofa Tu’ungafasi) conventional end-of-game cameos. It looked odd.
Yes, the northern tour is traditionally the time for the younger brigade – but the first three matches will be against England, Ireland and France. No training romp there, especially if you’ve just lost two against South Africa, a real possibility.
Robertson’s thinking may not be improved by that. It’s also a prickly PR issue. He’s in the honeymoon phase but there’s been as much moon as honey. He needs to carry with him the people who wanted him, who bayed for Foster’s head, before reliance on tried-and-true morphs into tried and convicted.
A loss is a loss whether the old campaigners or the next generation are playing. No one wants to see a new coach playing fast and loose with the All Blacks’ precious win ratio but times have changed; needs must. Robertson needs to discover how far he can go with a team that doesn’t just resemble Ian Foster’s.
One media commentator supported him, saying rebuilding takes time. Yes, it does; maybe it should have started two or three tests ago.
