Referee Paul Williams was keeping a close eye on the All Blacks at the breakdown. Photo / Photosport
Referee Paul Williams was keeping a close eye on the All Blacks at the breakdown. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Test rugby spits out all sorts of numbers these days to create a statistical-based narrative on which to understand the real story of big games.
Often this underworld of numbers can be illuminating, a genuine source of revelation as it unveils previously unknown aspects about ball carrying, lineout stealsand tackle counts.
But there is no hidden story to discover about the first Bledisloe Cup test. It was not a test shrouded in statistical mystery, but instead a simple enough case of one number being enough to confirm what everyone could see.
That number was 18 – the number of penalties the All Blacks conceded and the primary reason they spent nearly as long chasing the game as they did dominating it.
That equates to possession being lost every four minutes and were it not for the fact that young Wallaby first-five Noah Lolesio had a torrid time landing goals in what was an erratic and hard-to-read wind, and fullback Tom Banks couldn't get much more than 15 metres out of his line kicks, the All Blacks could have been waking up on Sunday morning 1-0 down in the series rather than 1-0 up.
The All Blacks, as they appreciate, were fortunate that the 18 penalties conceded did not prove to be catastrophically damaging.
Referee Paul Williams was keeping a close eye on the All Blacks at the breakdown. Photo / Photosport
The question of whether they can reduce the number they concede in Bledisloe two is harder to answer because this issue of ill-discipline has reached the point of seemingly being endemic.
The concession of too many penalties was highlighted as a problem following the victory against Fiji in Dunedin last month.
Ill-discipline was a major factor in the loss to Argentina last year, as it was when the All Blacks were beaten in Brisbane.
Everyone remembers the red card to Ofa Tuungafasi in Brisbane, but the real killer that night was the needless yellow card picked up by Scott Barrett when he slapped the ball out of halfback Nic White's hands at a ruck.
There's no question now that a lack of discipline has crept into the All Blacks' game since the last World Cup. It's proving to be a problem they can't fix – and one that is preventing them from building the flow and cohesion that makes them such a tough team to contain.
There was a 15-minute period in the 33-25 victory at Eden Park when the All Blacks had that unstoppable, rampaging look of old.
The machine was cranking. Confidence was high, players were focused and the rugby, from being barely watchable, was suddenly a thing of beauty.
Between minutes 50 and 65 the All Blacks would have been too hard for any team in the world to contain. Even South Africa's brilliantly orchestrated rush defence and bullish pack would have been sticking their fingers in the dyke had they encountered that All Blacks surge.
And while there were multiple stars that had to align for that golden period to emerge, none was more important than the All Blacks finally managing to produce a sustained period where they stayed onside, on their feet at the tackle and rolled away from the ball when they had to.
The All Blacks look unbeatable at their best. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
The Wallabies are a gifted side in the process of building the resilience and tenacity they will need to win more regularly, but the All Blacks' ill-discipline handed them too many soft entry points to stay in the game.
A deep dive review of the game will tell the All Blacks coaches how many of those 18 penalties were the result of pressure induced by the Wallabies and how many were avoidable – preventable acts of poor judgement.
But they already know what the likely outcome of their analysis is going to be – which is that the majority of the penalties they conceded were needless.
The offside line is not some hard to locate lost city. Its coordinates are well documented and the penny should have dropped during Super Rugby that referees in this part of the world are finally willing to penalise those who stand on the wrong side of it.
Those who can't muster the ability to stand behind this literal line may end up being victims of the metaphoric line All Blacks head coach Ian Foster is going to have to draw on this whole issue of penalty concession.
The All Blacks rode their luck to some extent at Eden Park but they can't expect to win many more tests if they continue to so flagrantly and casually give away an unacceptably high number of penalties.
This problem of ill-discipline needs to be fixed because the All Blacks have shown that there is a butterfly lying beneath the cocoon of recidivist offending.
