Rugby: Kicking not so flash but don't panic yet

Goalkicking is a bit like wallpaper in that you only really notice it when it is quite awful. These opening weeks of Super 14 have been impossible to watch without being drawn to the continual sight of the ball drifting wide of the sticks.

It wasn't like this before. Dan Carter and Nick Evans used to line them up and bang them over no problem.

Stephen Donald, while never super reliable, seemed to be a better kicker last year than he's been this year while Daniel Bowden has been wobbly under pressure and Stephen Brett and Colin Slade, just wobbly, very wobbly.

There is a bad case of the yips infesting New Zealand's kickers and it is eroding confidence. Bowden, who has otherwise had an excellent campaign, pulled a simple conversion wide against the Brumbies in week one - a costly miss as it would have put his side three in front with two minutes to go.

He again hooked a sitter late in the game against the Chiefs that would have taken the Highlanders to within a point.

As for Brett, he sprayed them across Christchurch against the Force, missing a total of 15 points that would have put his side out of sight by halftime had he been successful. Slade managed a paltry 36 per cent success rate in the first three rounds.

Is this cause for despair? Are these guys no-hopers who should never have been let anywhere near the kicking tee?

Absolutely not, says All Black kicking coach Mick Byrne who has been consulting around the franchises these past few weeks.

"I have been working with these younger players and I have been mainly trying to help them improve their routines," said Byrne.

"The issue for them is getting comfortable. There are some technical aspects they could improve on but even the world's greatest golfers always think they could improve. So they don't need to be technically perfect, just as technically efficient as they can be.

"Look at the more experienced players like Dan Carter. He could be playing against the

Wallabies in a Bledisloe Cup game and miss a crucial kick. He'll then take the ball from the kick-off and do something special with it. The best players, the guys who have been around a bit know how to separate the components of their game and they know how to leave things behind and move on.

"The younger guys at the moment are maybe not moving on and are not finding it so easy to dust things off after the game."

For the likes of Brett, Slade and Bowden, Super 14 represents a major step up. The latter two barely have any provincial experience behind them while Brett missed most of last year which would have been just his second campaign.

Goalkicking is not an easy gig. It comes with a unique set of pressures.

Every player who lines up for goal knows that they straddle a fine line. Success could make the difference between victory and defeat and that can push 100 negative thoughts into the head of an inexperienced player.

The situation at the Crusaders has been made worse by the fact the missed kicks in recent weeks have made a difference. The 15 points dropped against the Force were critical. As were the missed kicks against the Hurricanes.

It's not necessarily fair to look at the margin of defeat and number of points missed and conclude the kicker cost his team the game.

But it is true that a ticking scoreboard builds confidence - that the momentum and psychology can be changed by a successful goal kick.

"Stephen Jones of Wales missed a few kicks against Scotland in the Six Nations. But Wales won comfortably so it wasn't a big deal," says Byrne.

"He would have been disappointed in his performance but he came out the next week and kicked really well.

"When shots at goal are missed and could have made the difference, that's when the pressure really builds. But these young guys need to accept responsibility and understand their role. They have to come to grips with it.

"I'm confident they will," says Byrne. "These things don't happen quickly but they are not doing a great deal wrong technically and they are in a good place."