August 14, 2024 • 9 mins
If we can take anything positive from the All Blacks' loss on Saturday, it's at least made this week's team selection quite interesting.
Scott Robertson and his team are under a lot of pressure to pick the right squad and not throw away the team's undefeated streak at Eden Park.
NZ Herald rugby writer Gregor Paul spoke to D'Arcy Waldegrave on Sportstalk about what he thinks needs to happen.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Duncie Wildergrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be It's warm.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Welcome to New Zealand Herald at Rugby scribe a Gregor
Paul as we look toward tomorrow morning's team naming and
indeed what amounts to a crucial test match at Eden
Park on Saturday night. Gregor, welcome to the show. Great
to have you on board. You can't really understate the
import can you, of this game on Saturday night. If
(00:34):
they drop this, it destroys an Eden Park legacy and
doesn't exactly set Raisor Robertson up for a pleasant time
in the Republic.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Welcome, thanks for having me, and yes, you're one hundred
percent right with all of that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Look. I mean, we.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Would know that every all black coach is always under pressure.
That's that's a given, but there are times where it
becomes of a particular stream and I think.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We're in that moment now where.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
A guy came into this role, Scott Robertson, with a
huge kind of expectation, public expectation. That is, everyone had
their views and ideas given what he'd achieved with the Crusaders,
you know, given the difficulties the All Blacks had had
in the in the in the previous World Cup cycle,
there was a real sense of rejuvenation, renewed energy, things
(01:24):
being a little bit different under Razor, new players, new
game plans.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Everything was exciting.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
And believable, and everyone anticipated that we would be seeing
something innovative and clever from the old.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Blacks at the moment.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
And here we are now four games in a couple
of you know, really gritty victories. Against England, we shot
a lot of character, but not a lot of finesse.
A romp against the Fijian team that was really, you know,
was expected because it was a Fijian team under all
sorts of trouble just to get to San Diego, and
(01:58):
we all thought we'd see something special on Saturday night,
or we would begin to see this team bedding and
start to deliver on Razors Visi and they went backwards,
you know, a long way backwards in terms of strategy,
in terms of execution. They looked confused, they looked labored,
they looked tired. Even before you know, even before halftime,
there was just no energy of Zip and the way
(02:20):
that they played, and that has left us.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
All sitting here going well.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
When the previous regime lost tests to Argentina, that was
the moment where everyone went hang on sick. The All
Blacks don't lose to Argentina. Yeah, we can get beaten
by Australia, we can get been by South Africa, England, France, Ireland,
but not Argentina. That's not something that we can that
we can you know, go along with however well they
might play. They are perenniallyanked ranked sort of eight nine
(02:46):
ten in the world, and that wasn't good enough. And
here we are gaming in part record on the line.
It's also on the line whenever the All Blacks played
in Park. But there's a real feeling here that it's
not just about a result, it's about a performance. It's
about living up to that expectation of seeing something new, innovatives,
(03:09):
getting a sense more about how Raza really wants this
team to play, because if I'm honest with you, having
watched them four times, I cannot tell you what type
of rugby they want to play. And I think, probably
more importantly, I've got a feeling that a lot of
the players don't know what type of rugby they're expected
to be playing at the moment.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
How's the recipe settling? You look at the old saying
too many Cox's broth being spoiled and the light there's
new management, new coaching staff, and there a number of
people have got their designated region's ideas and of course
Raiser over top of them. Is there some confusion maybe
caused by the lack of a combined and understandable force
(03:50):
behind the coaching staff, Well only.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
They would know that, to be honest. I mean, we're
on the outside looking in and we can have our views.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
But these elongated, extended coaching teams have become the norm
in international rugby, and they were becoming the norm even
within the All Blacks, you know, long before Razor came.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
He's taken it to the nth degree. I think that.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
But it's true because he's got a wider body of
coaches that have a selection voice. He's created coaching roles
that seemed to me to be particularly niche. You know,
Liam McDonald can remember which way round they Liam McDonald
is the kind of phase play coach and Jason Holland's
strike play coach. I feel that's niche with potential for
(04:32):
mixed messaging, potential for those two to get in each
other's way, potential to confuse players.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And yet Jason Ryan.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Who took over as forwards coach a couple of years ago,
he is now because under Ian Foster there was a
specialist scrum coach in Greg Feak. He's no longer there.
So Jason Ryan is now in charge of everything to
do with the forwards. And that's a huge brief, you know,
from you know, winning line out, setting scrums, defending line out, drives,
(05:01):
collision work.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
All of that is under his brief now. And it's
maybe not a of whether.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
They've got too many cultures Orthough I suspect maybe they do.
It's probably more about what specific roles they've been given
and perhaps an imbalance of too many guys looking in
too small an area and one guy being left with
too big an area.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Gregor Paul from the New Zealand Herald, it joins us
the All Blacks panicked a little toward the end of
that match. There were some uncharacteristic errors and decisions being made.
Is Raisor Robertson likely to hit the panic button with
his selection tomorrow? Can you see major changes within that
side that maybe you didn't predict? Because he's been relatively
(05:45):
safe so far A great.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I don't think we'll see enormous changes.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Look, there's multiple things our coach will have to look
at after a performance like that. Selection is clearly one
of them. But I think to imagine that you can
fix where they are are purely by changing a significant
number of players along would be a mistake because I
don't necessarily think that was a case of all the
wrong players being on the park. There'd be one or two,
maybe three positions. I would say that will definitely have
(06:13):
to be reviewed, and I would be making changes if
I was one of which is halfback, where it's clear
to me that I didn't understand the recalls TJ Perrinara
Love the guy. Love is competitive nature, Love is battling ways.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
He's such a feisty player.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Love all that, But he's playing international rugby at a
pedestrian pace, and he is relying on a box kick
that is not accurate enough, and he is playing in
a way that doesn't facilitate the high tempo attack that
the All Blacks have produced when Cortez Ratoma or Noah
Hotham have been on the field. And I think TJ's
(06:50):
style is drawing the all Blecks into these arm wrestles,
so I think they need to abandon that. Pick Cortez
Ratama and empower him to speed things up would be
pretty helpful. I think a bit less box kicking, a
bit more passing, a bit more running, bit more aerobic
content that will get the old Blacks moving a bit better.
I think there's probably a change coming at wing because
(07:11):
Will Jordan needs to start, probably after you know, twenty
minutes on Saturday. He's looking quite sharp already, but they'll
probably start him in place of Safey Reese, who hasn't
played particularly well, so there would be a legitimate change there.
And I think there need to be changes made in
the loose forward combination. It's not easy knowing without being
(07:33):
you know, without having access to the players, that what
the right combination is going to be. It feels like
there might still be an element of jiggling around for
a while to come before they find it. I'd bring
back Sam King because I think you definitely want him
in your team in South Africa. Big defender and a
strong ball carrier in heavy contact, so I think he
(07:55):
needs to play, whether it's off the bench or starting.
At Eden parks where he's ready to go in South
Africa and you know, I don't know, you've got Wallace
Satiti there. He's a big lump of a human. I'm
wondering if if he starts somewhere in the mix and
they start looking at him to give them some ball
carrying oomphs that they don't currently have.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
As far as Addie Savi has concerned, an uncharacteristic display
from him. You'd expect if anyone was going to keep
the leagues pumping brutal right the way through, it would
be him. But he wasn't there is this is just
a one off that it's going to occur from time
to time.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Oh look, he's the best player in the world. He
didn't have his best game on Saturday night. There's no
doubt about that. He looked a bit flat, very unarready,
like we normally, no matter what kind of performance the
team are putting in, you can sort of usually rely
on him, you know, to be a sort of nine
nine and a half out of ten, and certainly rely
(08:48):
on him to provide two or three explosive ball carries
to change the dynamic of the game a week. But
he's inspirational a way he could do that. We didn't
see that. Really, he was guilty of that terrible pass
that started that awful chain of events that led t
Argentina scoring the try to win the game again. Very
unlike Ardie's got a great skill set. So look at
(09:11):
my gut feel, it's a one off with him. He's
you know, he's never played like that before. I doubt
whether he would play like that particularly often in the
entirety of his career. So he'll be hurting a little
bit personally, and i'd expect him to lead a fairly
brutal clinical response from the All Blacks.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Duncie Wildergrave
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be It's warm.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Welcome to New Zealand Herald at Rugby scribe a Gregor
Paul as we look toward tomorrow morning's team naming and
indeed what amounts to a crucial test match at Eden
Park on Saturday night. Gregor, welcome to the show. Great
to have you on board. You can't really understate the
import can you, of this game on Saturday night. If
(00:34):
they drop this, it destroys an Eden Park legacy and
doesn't exactly set Raisor Robertson up for a pleasant time
in the Republic.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Welcome, thanks for having me, and yes, you're one hundred
percent right with all of that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Look. I mean, we.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Would know that every all black coach is always under pressure.
That's that's a given, but there are times where it
becomes of a particular stream and I think.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We're in that moment now where.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
A guy came into this role, Scott Robertson, with a
huge kind of expectation, public expectation. That is, everyone had
their views and ideas given what he'd achieved with the Crusaders,
you know, given the difficulties the All Blacks had had
in the in the in the previous World Cup cycle,
there was a real sense of rejuvenation, renewed energy, things
(01:24):
being a little bit different under Razor, new players, new
game plans.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Everything was exciting.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
And believable, and everyone anticipated that we would be seeing
something innovative and clever from the old.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Blacks at the moment.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
And here we are now four games in a couple
of you know, really gritty victories. Against England, we shot
a lot of character, but not a lot of finesse.
A romp against the Fijian team that was really, you know,
was expected because it was a Fijian team under all
sorts of trouble just to get to San Diego, and
(01:58):
we all thought we'd see something special on Saturday night,
or we would begin to see this team bedding and
start to deliver on Razors Visi and they went backwards,
you know, a long way backwards in terms of strategy,
in terms of execution. They looked confused, they looked labored,
they looked tired. Even before you know, even before halftime,
there was just no energy of Zip and the way
(02:20):
that they played, and that has left us.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
All sitting here going well.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
When the previous regime lost tests to Argentina, that was
the moment where everyone went hang on sick. The All
Blacks don't lose to Argentina. Yeah, we can get beaten
by Australia, we can get been by South Africa, England, France, Ireland,
but not Argentina. That's not something that we can that
we can you know, go along with however well they
might play. They are perenniallyanked ranked sort of eight nine
(02:46):
ten in the world, and that wasn't good enough. And
here we are gaming in part record on the line.
It's also on the line whenever the All Blacks played
in Park. But there's a real feeling here that it's
not just about a result, it's about a performance. It's
about living up to that expectation of seeing something new, innovatives,
(03:09):
getting a sense more about how Raza really wants this
team to play, because if I'm honest with you, having
watched them four times, I cannot tell you what type
of rugby they want to play. And I think, probably
more importantly, I've got a feeling that a lot of
the players don't know what type of rugby they're expected
to be playing at the moment.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
How's the recipe settling? You look at the old saying
too many Cox's broth being spoiled and the light there's
new management, new coaching staff, and there a number of
people have got their designated region's ideas and of course
Raiser over top of them. Is there some confusion maybe
caused by the lack of a combined and understandable force
(03:50):
behind the coaching staff, Well only.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
They would know that, to be honest. I mean, we're
on the outside looking in and we can have our views.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
But these elongated, extended coaching teams have become the norm
in international rugby, and they were becoming the norm even
within the All Blacks, you know, long before Razor came.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
He's taken it to the nth degree. I think that.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
But it's true because he's got a wider body of
coaches that have a selection voice. He's created coaching roles
that seemed to me to be particularly niche. You know,
Liam McDonald can remember which way round they Liam McDonald
is the kind of phase play coach and Jason Holland's
strike play coach. I feel that's niche with potential for
(04:32):
mixed messaging, potential for those two to get in each
other's way, potential to confuse players.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And yet Jason Ryan.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Who took over as forwards coach a couple of years ago,
he is now because under Ian Foster there was a
specialist scrum coach in Greg Feak. He's no longer there.
So Jason Ryan is now in charge of everything to
do with the forwards. And that's a huge brief, you know,
from you know, winning line out, setting scrums, defending line out, drives,
(05:01):
collision work.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
All of that is under his brief now. And it's
maybe not a of whether.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
They've got too many cultures Orthough I suspect maybe they do.
It's probably more about what specific roles they've been given
and perhaps an imbalance of too many guys looking in
too small an area and one guy being left with
too big an area.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Gregor Paul from the New Zealand Herald, it joins us
the All Blacks panicked a little toward the end of
that match. There were some uncharacteristic errors and decisions being made.
Is Raisor Robertson likely to hit the panic button with
his selection tomorrow? Can you see major changes within that
side that maybe you didn't predict? Because he's been relatively
(05:45):
safe so far A great.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I don't think we'll see enormous changes.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Look, there's multiple things our coach will have to look
at after a performance like that. Selection is clearly one
of them. But I think to imagine that you can
fix where they are are purely by changing a significant
number of players along would be a mistake because I
don't necessarily think that was a case of all the
wrong players being on the park. There'd be one or two,
maybe three positions. I would say that will definitely have
(06:13):
to be reviewed, and I would be making changes if
I was one of which is halfback, where it's clear
to me that I didn't understand the recalls TJ Perrinara
Love the guy. Love is competitive nature, Love is battling ways.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
He's such a feisty player.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Love all that, But he's playing international rugby at a
pedestrian pace, and he is relying on a box kick
that is not accurate enough, and he is playing in
a way that doesn't facilitate the high tempo attack that
the All Blacks have produced when Cortez Ratoma or Noah
Hotham have been on the field. And I think TJ's
(06:50):
style is drawing the all Blecks into these arm wrestles,
so I think they need to abandon that. Pick Cortez
Ratama and empower him to speed things up would be
pretty helpful. I think a bit less box kicking, a
bit more passing, a bit more running, bit more aerobic
content that will get the old Blacks moving a bit better.
I think there's probably a change coming at wing because
(07:11):
Will Jordan needs to start, probably after you know, twenty
minutes on Saturday. He's looking quite sharp already, but they'll
probably start him in place of Safey Reese, who hasn't
played particularly well, so there would be a legitimate change there.
And I think there need to be changes made in
the loose forward combination. It's not easy knowing without being
(07:33):
you know, without having access to the players, that what
the right combination is going to be. It feels like
there might still be an element of jiggling around for
a while to come before they find it. I'd bring
back Sam King because I think you definitely want him
in your team in South Africa. Big defender and a
strong ball carrier in heavy contact, so I think he
(07:55):
needs to play, whether it's off the bench or starting.
At Eden parks where he's ready to go in South
Africa and you know, I don't know, you've got Wallace
Satiti there. He's a big lump of a human. I'm
wondering if if he starts somewhere in the mix and
they start looking at him to give them some ball
carrying oomphs that they don't currently have.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
As far as Addie Savi has concerned, an uncharacteristic display
from him. You'd expect if anyone was going to keep
the leagues pumping brutal right the way through, it would
be him. But he wasn't there is this is just
a one off that it's going to occur from time
to time.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
Oh look, he's the best player in the world. He
didn't have his best game on Saturday night. There's no
doubt about that. He looked a bit flat, very unarready,
like we normally, no matter what kind of performance the
team are putting in, you can sort of usually rely
on him, you know, to be a sort of nine
nine and a half out of ten, and certainly rely
(08:48):
on him to provide two or three explosive ball carries
to change the dynamic of the game a week. But
he's inspirational a way he could do that. We didn't
see that. Really, he was guilty of that terrible pass
that started that awful chain of events that led t
Argentina scoring the try to win the game again. Very
unlike Ardie's got a great skill set. So look at
(09:11):
my gut feel, it's a one off with him. He's
you know, he's never played like that before. I doubt
whether he would play like that particularly often in the
entirety of his career. So he'll be hurting a little
bit personally, and i'd expect him to lead a fairly
brutal clinical response from the All Blacks.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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