Scott Robertson and the All Blacks will host England for two tests, in Dunedin and Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Scott Robertson and the All Blacks will host England for two tests, in Dunedin and Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
OPINION
Only a few weeks ago, England were trundling around Murrayfield, booting the ball aimlessly to the heavens and dropping every other pass when they bothered to try to make a few.
New All Blacks coach Scott Robertson would have been watching that performance with little trepidation aboutwhat his team will face in their first two tests of his reign this July.
England couldn’t catch, they threw the ball into touch four times and even their normal trump card of crunching set-piece and bruising breakdown work was patchy.
But much has changed in the past month. England, triggered by that loss in Edinburgh, have started to reinvent themselves as a more expansive and fluid team that can create and exploit space.
From being awful against Scotland, they bounced back to beat Ireland and beat them well and then played out a classic, high-intensity encounter with France last weekend which ended in a two-point defeat with the last kick of the game.
England are heading to New Zealand in four months a vastly different team to the one they were when they began the Six Nations – one that has suddenly found the confidence and ability to play with adventure and ambition.
England's Mako Vunipola and Jamie George after the draw against the All Blacks in 2022. Photo / James Crombie, INPHO
So too have the players taken on the singular mindset of their stoic head coach Steve Borthwick, whose capacity for joy seems non-existent, unlike his work ethic, which is relentless and saw him jump on a plane to New Zealand just hours after the conclusion of the Six Nations as he wants to build micro detail about what his team will be getting into when they come in July.
England are not like the Celts – they don’t have that same chip on their shoulder to relish being cast as the underdogs.
They are at their best when they are written up, not written off and despite not winning their last test, they are coming to New Zealand with genuine aspirations to win the series and the conviction they can do it.
Equally, as England have revived, questions have arisen about the skill levels on show in Super Rugby Pacific and what sort of team Robertson will be able to put on the track in Dunedin for the opening test of the year.
There are two parts to that question, one relating to the personnel Robertson will have picked and the other to the readiness of his squad to adapt to test rugby.
The personnel question is starting to throw up a few answers in positions in which the post-World Cup cleanout created a void.
There was never any real doubt about this anyway but Damian McKenzie has put down an irrefutable claim to be the All Blacks No 10.
Equally, Cam Roigard has strengthened his claim to replace Aaron Smith and two key building blocks of Robertson’s 2024 All Blacks appear ready to be put in place.
Ruben Love has shown himself to be a possible option at fullback, while Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens will have put himself on the watch list as he has so much speed as to be intriguing to the national selectors.
There’s a long-list of loose forwards playing well – Hoskins Sotutu, Luke Jacobson, Samipeni Finau, Dalton Papali’i, Brayden Lose, Anton Segner and the irrepressible Billy Harmon, who continues to work miracles at the Highlanders.
The unknown still is how much progress Robertson feels has been made to his highest priority of finding a couple of new locks to step in to replace the retired Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick.
But perhaps the bigger concern is the fluctuating accuracy of skill execution that has been prevalent in all five New Zealand teams.
Too many lineout throws have gone astray, too many box kicks have been sent too far, not enough have been caught, and how often in the first four weeks of Super Rugby have halfbacks thrown a wild pass inside the opposition 22?
The polish hasn’t been there and the hallmark of New Zealand rugby – razor-sharp pass and catch – hasn’t been at historic levels.
Some of this inaccuracy may work itself out of the system as the competition develops but there’s another worry still: that New Zealand’s players are going to come out of Super Rugby with a Super Rugby mindset that leaves them ill-prepared to succeed in the test area.
International rugby is all about attention to detail: consistently executing the basics with precision, prioritising the importance of the set-piece and kicking with purpose.
This has been a big problem in the past – Super Rugby doesn’t have the same emphasis on these key facets and it takes the All Blacks time to adjust and deliver the right sort of rugby with the requisite intensity and accuracy.
They got caught out by Ireland in 2022 when they couldn’t switch out of Super Rugby mode quickly enough and now England look capable of causing similar problems in July if the All Blacks don’t respect the need for the basics to be done better than they currently are.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.
