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BRISBANE - New Zealanders were looking for answers on Sunday after their beloved All Blacks once again failed at the Rugby World Cup.
France's stunning 20-18 win over the All Blacks in Cardiff left the nation wondering just how the world's top- ranked team managed to lose to a French side which had been woefully out of form during the tournament.
Prominent New Zealand commentator Murray Deaker said the All Blacks lacked intelligence and David Kirk, who in 1987 captained New Zealand to their only World Cup win, said the coaches had not prepared the team well enough.
"It is to my mind true to say...that the rotation policy has not worked the way the coaches and selectors would have liked," Kirk said in the Sunday Star-Times newspaper.
"For all the endless hours of training and honing of different combinations so they work on the field, some combinations simply work better than others.
"With the margin of error so fine at World Cups it is the team management's responsibility to find those combinations and stick with them."
He added: "I think playing the best team regularly is important. It is possible to have too much talent."
Kirk said the All Blacks had outplayed the French for long periods of the match, but the French defence had proved equal to the task of holding out a rampant New Zealand.
"No one played badly," he said. "If no one plays badly in a great All Blacks team they should win. But they didn't. "
Deaker described the result as nothing short of a national disaster.
"Sadly we are a dumb rugby nation, we don't play the big matches well," he said.
"We play them in a boofhead way. We were a bunch of boofheads playing out there tonight against a French side that isn't that good. On the big occasions we choke."
Former World Cup winner Gary Whetton told New Zealand radio that the All Blacks lacked composure.
He said they had the passion in Cardiff but could not alter their game plan when they needed to.
Some New Zealanders were also quick to apportion blame to English referee Wayne Barnes.
"The players deserve better than to have refereeing decisions determine the outcome of matches," Kirk added.
- REUTERS
