A realistic assessment of the All Blacks in 2022 presents one big problem, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Photosport
A realistic assessment of the All Blacks in 2022 presents one big problem, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
The generous of spirit could argue that the All Blacks have only really had the one super bad patch this year which was the final 20 minutes against Argentina in Christchurch.
The series loss to Ireland could be said to have been a straight case of the All Blacksnot being good enough to get over the top of the team currently ranked number one in the world.
A win and a loss in South Africa is a fair return in any year, given that the All Blacks have only once won a series there.
Which leaves the defeat in Christchurch, which was clearly a bad night, one for which there is no real explanation and one that saw the All Blacks capitulate in the last quarter.
This argument about this season being not so bad, contains a second thread, that all these losses and the unpredictability of results, have been great for the world game.
Five years ago everyone was banging on about test football, particularly the Rugby Championship, being as boring as a night out with a Swiss banker because all the All Blacks ever did was win.
Now the Rugby Championship seems to have signed up to this new age idea of everybody having to get their turn at winning and with two rounds left to play, all four nations could still emerge as champions.
It's great for interest apparently. Great to see the games being so even and unpredictable and rugby supposedly has never been this engaging now that the All Blacks haven't managed to string successive victories together in 2022.
There may be validity to this whole line of thinking, but you have to be a lover and promoter of mediocrity to really buy into it.
Pablo Matera celebrates after Argentina's victory over the All Blacks. Photo / Photosport
The unpredictability of results and failure of any of the four Rugby Championship teams to win more than half of their games so far, shouldn't be celebrated as it's indicative of inconsistency rather than genuine competitiveness.
What we have seen would be worth celebrating if it was a case of all four teams lifting their standards each week and consistently playing to yet higher levels.
We have evenness now not because the other three countries have caught up with the All Blacks, but because the All Blacks have regressed and the competition has lacked a guiding light: a sort of alpha personality to take control, lead from the front and demand that everyone else get their game up to the same standards.
No side wins all the time because none of the four teams are playing consistently good rugby and while that has made the competition even, it hasn't necessarily made it compelling.
Great competitions don't tend to produce the sort of volatility we have seen this year. That a 10-point win one week can become a 50-point hiding the next, suggests there is an unprecedented vulnerability and fragility to all four countries.
And the fact that the All Blacks have delivered quite brilliant rugby at times, is enough to debunk the myth that they have only suffered a bad 20 minutes so far this year.
We have seen, albeit in limited quantities, what standard they can play at, and their respective performances in Dunedin, Mbombela and Christchurch were nowhere near the top of the dial.
The more realistic assessment of the All Blacks in 2022 is that, for whatever reason, they have lost the ability to consistently get the best out of themselves. They don't have the mentality to be great every week.
Sam Cane and the All Blacks dejected after losing the third test to Ireland. Photo / Photosport
It's a big problem because that's what international rugby is all about – being able to produce quality performances test after test in an unforgiving and hostile environment.
And it's a problem that really has to stop this Thursday in Melbourne. This lose, win, lose, win pattern is tired and so too, to some extent is the narrative that this inconsistency is mostly a coaching problem.
Earlier in the year it probably was, but the All Blacks look now to have a rock-solid set-piece, better ball carrying-practices, harder defensive structures and more presence at the breakdown.
When the play-makers have turned up and done precisely what they said they would do and varied the depth of their alignment, worked the full repertoire of their kicking portfolio and played in the right areas of the field, the gameplan has proven to be very much fit for purpose.
And so too has there been real evidence that the coaching group have a cohesive and progressive strategy around selection and there is now enough familiarity about all of the key combinations to believe that they should be delivering quality performances each time they play.
The All Blacks have played more than enough poor rugby this year and the onus to stop that rot now sits firmly with the players.
