By WYNNE GRAY
GENOA - Brad Johnstone wore the green, white and red colours of the Italian team, but he was more concerned about New Zealand rugby after the All Blacks beat his team 56-19 in Genoa yesterday.
Former All Black prop Johnstone, like many studying the side in recent seasons, was disappointed with their forward play and wondering when they would regain some dominance up front.
While his work is now with Italy, late last year he was sounded out about coaching the All Blacks and yesterday his use of the pronoun "we" emphasised his passionate disquiet about New Zealand rugby.
"It is probably one of my fears for the future of the All Blacks that we don't seem to dominate any more," he said. "I think the All Blacks were a bit more clinical than [Italy].
"Our side were doing things just on passion, but the All Blacks don't seem to have a tight five to go out there and take the game by the throat - at the moment anyway."
He was unsure why there had been a decline in forward power.
"I don't know whether possibly in New Zealand we have taken the aggression out of the game. At referee level there is so much focus on foul play and stopping the aggression, while other countries are still doing it."
The All Blacks suffered with their lack of size, he said. Most European nations had much bigger packs.
Johnstone applauded some of the individual skills shown to the crowd of 50,000 at Luigi Ferraris Stadium, but suggested that until there was more forward grunt, the All Blacks would not make it back to the top of the international rugby ladder.
"Personally, I would have liked to see them do a little less tricky stuff and a bit more hard, honest work to take control of the game," he said.
"They were trying to out-skill us and they did do so, but they also gave away a lot of opportunities to us that we didn't capitalise on. A better opposition would have punished them."
Before their 10th and final test of the season, coach Wayne Smith and captain Todd Blackadder produced a wish-list, which had ball retention, patience and stringing together series of phases as their doctrine for Genoa.
They came up short on those ideas as a mix of Italian spoiling and a look from the All Blacks that they just wanted to get through the game, combined to produce just an average afternoon's work.
The excuses were that it was hard to get up after the defeat at Marseilles, that they had tried to flick the ball round but had been stymied by some serious Italian spirit and infringing, and that there was some scratchy refereeing from Robert Davies, of Wales.
In assessing how the All Blacks had gone in achieving their aims for the test, Smith said they had not maintained the ball as well as he wanted, but when they settled down after the break and got support players to the breakdown, they had been able to switch play and open up Italy.
"They played with a lot of fire in their belly and were disruptive.
"Yes, a lot of ball went to deck, a lot of passes did not find their man," he said.
"It was not the fault of the forwards. It was a fault collectively that the timing was not quite there.
"We were always in control and our second-wave attack went really well in the second half. The runners cut them apart.
"We wanted to have a bit of fun out there, as well. These guys wanted to run with the ball in hand and have a go at them."
Johnstone bemoans lack of aggression
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