Sir John Kirwan: Former All Black comments on disappointing loss to England to end hopes of an unbeaten Grand Slam

The All Blacks lost to England 33-19 - a defeat that ends their hopes of an unbeaten Grand Slam tour. 

The game at Twickenham saw the All Blacks start the match strong, but England's strong momentum in the second half, and a last minute try to rub salt in the wound, secured victory. 

The crushing defeat has raised questions around Scott Robertson's coaching of the team. 

Former All Black sir John Kirwan told Mike Hosking that, 'it's a lonely place being head coach and they'll have to ask him some hard questions.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
No Grand Slam for us this year. Is the All
Blacks fellow to England? Of course I looked okay in
the first half, so no shortage of ankst and approbrium
on social media over the weekend if you follow that anyway.
So John Corwin finds himself this morning in Italy and
he's with us morning, how are you very well?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Indeed?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Exactly as far as defeats go. How bad was this one? Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Pretty disappointing. I think for thirty minutes, as you just
mentioned that All Blacks were very, very good. I was
sitting in the stand thinking, we're all good here, but
the last ten minutes a couple of areas not kicking
the ball out, not taking shot at goal, and then
the second half we just lost our way a bit.
So I think that the most concerning them, Mike is
you know, we're seeing some brilliant rugby, but we're not

(00:42):
consistent over the eighty minutes. So bit a soul searching
this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Why would you not be consistent? What's gone wrong there?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah? I think that's what the team need to ask themselves,
and the coaching stuff need to ask, why are we
playing so well for twenty minutes? And then you know,
going off the bail and it seems to be consistent
for the season so far. So you know, I said
yesterday before the game, we'll have to play for eighty
minutes and play well for eighty minutes to beat the
English side. And we played well for thirty and then

(01:11):
we were you know, good and patches in the second half,
but England really dominated us and deserved to win. Not
to It's a lot of soul searching about why that's happening.
You know, why is that happening? What are the answers?
You know, and you're asking the right question and the
answers I don't know. And I think that the coaches
will be asking those questions this morning. Why are we
losing our way?

Speaker 1 (01:31):
It Not to defend this in any way, shape or form,
but we sort of get super angsty about it. But England,
we talked up, England were a good site. England were
to be watched and worried about. So we can't be
shocked that they win, can we?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
No, we can't. And I think that you know, they
would have had the respect for the opposition. But I
think it's just this inconsistency, make it's this this game
at the moment where you know, we saw it against
in the second half against South Africa that last twenty minutes.
You know, when have you seen a side that's up
seventeen points against like Scotland and not put forty on them.

(02:07):
So we're seeing stuff that you know, we're all a
little bit concerned about because we need to get back
to playing for eighty minutes. You know, you see you
saw in the second half, you know the boys when
when Boden went off sort of lost their way away.
But so you know there's plenty of plenty of stuff
to work on for this week that they'll be really
disappointed in their performance for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
You know the text you get does Raisin need sacking?
It's all raises faults, It's Canterbury conspiracy. Raiser needs to go.
What do you say?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, look, I think they'll do a massive review
on what the season has been like and I think
that you know, it's a lonely place being head coaching,
and you know they'll have to ask them some hard questions.
I'm hoping that they'll be asking a lot of hard
questions internally as well. So you know, I don't think
you get this job and you know, I'm pretty sure

(02:56):
if you asked, you know, Sir Graham and and so Steve,
like when you started the job, were you as good
you know when you finished. No, So I think we
you know, coaches need to grow into the throll and
there'll be some hard questions asked for sure, And that's
why you take the job right. It's the hardest job
in the world and you should be challenged.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Good stuff might always good to catch up and enjoy.
At least. John Coo went out of Italy for US
this morning.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
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