The All Blacks appear to have multiple areas to work on at the Rugby World Cup following their opening defeat to France in Paris.
In the latest episode of Rugby Direct, NZME’s Elliott Smith and Liam Napier pinpoint how the All Blacks were defeated and why - with discipline, a lack of impact from the bench and poor finishing jumping out.
“One of the real frustrations was the All Blacks lack of finishing,” says Napier.
“They were dominant for large periods of that first half in particular. They had a break with Rieko Ioane straight off the kickoff ... Beauden Barrett’s cross-field kick for Mark Telea. They set up camp in France’s 22 a number of times and their decision-making, their finishing, their lack of accuracy was incredibly frustrating.
“Codie Taylor threw the ball out on one occasion thinking there was somebody outside him. Ethan de Groot, who had a night to forget, tucked the ball under his wing, charged forward and lost it. There was an image on the screen at the ground with Richie McCaw looking displeased with that.