Gregor Paul: All Blacks' critics missing the point

Opinion

As much as Steve Hansen was guilty of stating the obvious when he said the All Blacks only have to score one more point than their opponent to win the quarter-final, plenty of analysts at this World Cup still haven't grasped that.

World Cups are about absorbing pressure, reacting to it and finding a way through it. That's what Hansen was getting at - it's about scrambling, scrapping and clawing to stay in the contest. It's about taking chances when they come because it matters not who dominates territory and possession and who created the most chances.

It only matters who finishes the chances they create and who ends up with that one point or more advantage after 80 minutes.

World Cups aren't about avoiding pressure - they are about dealing with it and the All Blacks are doing just grand on that front. Not that everyone will agree.

The prevailing view at this World Cup has been the All Blacks are out of sorts - that the signs were there from the opening game because Argentina were able to put them under sustained periods of pressure in the first 50 minutes.

It was the same again in Newcastle. The All Blacks were scrambling late in the first half to contain Tonga. Again, this has been taken as a definitive sign the aura is slipping, that the All Blacks are now chasing the Wallabies.

Anyone buying that might be in line for a PhD in missing the point. The mark of a potential champion team is responding to the threats that are posed. No one, not even the All Blacks, is good enough to get through 80 minutes without struggling at times.

It's OK to be under pressure for periods. It is entirely ridiculous to believe any side won't be.

The All Blacks will again have been a little irked at their capacity to add to their troubles, especially in the first half when unforced errors hurt them again. They won't feel good that they helped Tonga build momentum by failing to deal with a few high kicks and not handling themselves in the scrum quite how they wanted.

But what will please them is the way they kept believing in what they were doing and backed themselves to eventually break the spirit and resistance of the Tongans.

That's what mattered, that they were able to play at pace and with stunning accuracy in the last quarter of the game.

It is laughable that the All Blacks could score almost 50 points against a highly-charged and effective Tongan team and yet be described as vulnerable.

Every coach left at this tournament would love for their team to be that vulnerable. And every coach left at this tournament will have seen how the All Blacks have been wobbly, been made to look ordinary in periods by both Argentina and Tonga, and to a lesser extent Namibia and Georgia, and yet they finished the pool just one point shy of collecting the maximum 20 available.

The All Blacks keep finding ways to finish strongly, to eventually play all the rugby they need. Tonga were a tough nut to crack but the All Blacks cracked them. That's the bit to focus on, not that it took longer and was harder than expected.

No one will remember if the eventual winner played pretty rugby or not, or were in second or third gear for much of the pool round as the All Blacks have been.

Now that the pool round is over, the All Blacks can feel they are just about in the sort of form they want to be. The last 25 minutes will buoy their confidence more than the first 55 will have rocked it.

The rugby they were playing at the end was full of promise and they walked off the field a little more confident than they walked on it.