James McOnie: The Crowd Goes Wild host on the All Blacks' defeat to England

James McOnie from The Crowd Goes Wild joined Piney to discuss the All Blacks' loss to England and the Black Caps' prowess at Hagley Oval.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from NEWSTALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The West Indies have won the toss and are sun
So Taggly oval and inserted New Zealand. So New Zealand
or bat first and the first of three One Day
Internationals against the West Indies first ball at two and
the All Whites up against Columbia twelve minutes gone in
Florida and Columbia already into a one mill lead. James mcconey,
as always on a Sunday, is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Hello mate, Oh hi Piney, how are you taking it well?
I see you and your New Stalks B listeners.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely. Look, I think the rugby public is reacting and
it's truly measured fashion as per usual. Where would you
like to place your focus as you analyze the game?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, I'd like to start with a little bit of
a defensive razor and that is, like you look at
this team, it's fully in development mode as far as
I'm concerned, because if there's four experience in that starting lineup,
and I call it four and a half really because
you've got Cody Taylor, Scott Barrett, Ardie, Savier Bowden, Barrett

(01:13):
and the half is Will Jordan, but the rest is
about one hundred and forty maybe gaps between them and
half of those belong to the group and Mules. So
I just want to say, I do feel like this
looks like a development team to me, and I know
that you know, the Wilblets don't do development because it's
you know, they must win philosophy. However, however, Pony, I

(01:36):
think our game plan is uninspiring and predictable, and I
think our attack is dis missing something. And even you
had the Englishmen saying we're just playing into their hands
on the halfway line, and in you were opener for
the show, I thought you were banging on you know
what's happened to our set moves? I think there actually
are gaps out on the field. England exploited them a

(01:59):
couple of times from set play for Ali Lawrence and
then has passed it Dingwell and you could see it
from Spider Can. The gaps are there, we're not finding them,
we haven't got the moves were and we're struggling to
actually get our best players into the game consistently.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
So do you feel optimistic that that can be corrected?

Speaker 3 (02:21):
I'm not sure because Jason Holland is gone, right, so
I guess does Hanson take over there in that role
as a tech coach, is what I've been hearing. So
it remains to be seen. And of course Wales is
just a gimme, isn't It's a layup of a game.
But the one thing that I think where England has
showed us up big time is bringing their talent through.

(02:43):
You know, they're not all massive. Marcus Smith is tiny,
he's there, Damien McKenzie, George Ford is a little bloke.
You know. There are guys out there who come on
and just provide either spark or leadership. They don't necessarily
have to be these big ogres that England have relied
on in the past, and so Henry Pollock is one

(03:04):
of those as well. And we do have Henry Pollocks
in New Zealand and that currently Lucas Casey Oli matthis
or whatever, and we're sort of waiting for the opportunity.
But the time is now really because the team, to
me is in development mode, so you've got to throw
the kitchen sink at it and you and I watched
a lot of Super umb this year, Pony and it

(03:24):
was pretty evident that Ruben Love should have been given
a shot at ten at some point this season. So yeah,
of course it's going to be against Wales, But what
are we waiting for?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Speaking of teens, do you believe as I do and
you don't have to agree. Do you believe that Scott
Robertson is kind of all in chips and if you
like on Richie Moonger to come in and be the
and be the savior of this team.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
I think he knew with Lester Fine the Nuku and
Richie Mooreener coming back, he's kind of getting the old
band back together. But the problem with trying to reinvent
those Crusaders teams that he won all those titles with
is back then he had the best players. He had
fourteen all blacks, and he had Sam Whitelock as the
leader and there was no way any other team could
come beat with quality and leadership and just true grit.

(04:09):
Whereas out there right now he doesn't have the best players.
When we play other nations, we don't even have the
most dangerous players. You know, you look at South Africa,
they've got four or five match winners who you'd probably
rate ahead of ours. So and they're starting to use
them so that the signs aren't good. I actually think
you really need to go and say whatever, Henry Pollock

(04:30):
provides that energy, that excitement. We need to find that
because that was what New Zealand Rugby had over the others,
including skill level and dare I say it passing in
tight spaces. England gave us a lesson last night, a
simple as that.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
What do you think they'll do selection wise for Wales?
Do you see wholesale changes or do you think, given
the fact that they lost this morning that they might
be a bit more conservative. Surely there'll be some changes.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Well, given that I've just mentioned is four and a
half experienced players, I think some of them will still
have to play because you can't just go in with
all rookies. They are an experienced a lot when you
look around. But yeah, there will be a fair amount
of changes with I guess an insurance policy on the bench.
But brutally, if you consider that Damien McKenzie got us

(05:23):
out of jail last week in Ireland, that the cards
sort of fell our way nicely, and I know the
Iris didn't enjoy that French ruth, and I mean it
has to be said that in the yellow card to
Cody Taylor was laughable. But we weren't dominating the game,
we weren't dominating the contact and we didn't have the continuity.
So you know, what is the plan? Which is what
you're asking and I think you can probably just ask

(05:48):
that or whoever next time you get a coach on
is just say what are we doing? Because it doesn't
seem to be working against the big teams?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
At what point in the World Cup cycle? Do you
stop experimenting or can you keep on trying new things out?
Certainly next year, but what about know at the back
end of next year when we're within twelve months of
the World Cup, can we still be trying stuff out
on the Northern tour next year? We've got the South

(06:15):
African Tour obviously next year, haven't we? Is that next year?

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yea? There's So.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
When do you settle on what you're doing heading to
all World Cup?

Speaker 3 (06:27):
I think you never say it? Well really, I mean
it's different when you look at our great team or
most the recent great team of twenty fifteen. We had
so many Hall of famers and centurions in that team,
plus near him on the scudder right. He was brought
in at the last second, so he should always be
room for bolters, for exciting, exciting talent, points of difference
right up until World Cup year, and I think we've

(06:49):
always had that, you know, Michael Jones in eighty seven,
right the way through. I think it was you know,
Josh Cronford and Andrew Mertens and Glenn Osborne in ninety five.
Every World Cup you can name those guys. And in fact,
the ones where we probably haven't done that are the
ones we've come undone and haven't underperformed. So New Zealand,
I think we still have incredible talent. Yes, a lot

(07:10):
of it's going to NRL clubs, but that's even more incentive.
I think to pick someone who is our version of
Henry Pollock and give them a chance in the black jersey,
because watching them be so preedestrian is actually a tough watch.
I think we are better than that. I know we've
got better talent than that in New Zealand. And.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Henry Pollock's a an eye catching rugby player, isn't he He
loved did you see him in the Hawker during the Hacker?
He loved it, didn't he? He was licking his lips.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
He's magnificent, giving a short way after the game photos
of the Emiratikno he's a star, he's just an absolute
boy band start. I'm not sure which one is the
more West Life I think possibly Boyzone. Hard to say,
but the one thing is that this England team will
get better if Hoskins Statucci goes there. And I think
that's the other thing where this all black selection panel

(08:01):
has kind of dropped the ball, really is that the
handling of the Hoskins Stitutu situation and Papa Lei Because
to me, Dalton Papa Lei was a proven test player
who had shown that over the years. Here's a big
part of our last World Cup squad. So to drop
him completely you have to have a pretty good reason
for that, and I don't think it's really good enough.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
James as always a great summary from you. I think
are we done here? Is there anything else you want
to add? I don't want to cut you off at
the knees. You've got another thirty seconds if you'd like
to use it.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh yes please. I'd like to say that we're to
go down against Columbia and the All White So I
was really looking forward to that game to sort of
you know, wash away the bad taste of that England win.
But hey, congrats to England and don't worry on crowd
goes well, even though we're eternally positive there we will
be flipping the desk and provide some kind of sacrifice

(08:53):
to the rugby God. So tune in tomorrow at seven.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Look forward to it. James, Thanks mate. James mcconey, huge
part of our Sundays joins us around this time every
Sunday afternoon or Weekend Sports.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
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