Sun rises in New Zealand despite All Blacks loss
BySo the French have done it again. In what was supposed to be a simple warm up game for the Tri-Nations, and let’s face it the French have not sent a full strength team down under for a long time, the unthinkable has happened again and the All Blacks lost.
Now there is the usual public wailing and gnashing of teeth, as well as the coaching staff coming under intense scrutiny. This is not helped by the whispers going around that the coaching staff were to be reappointed through until the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
But with an injury list a mile long, is it time to panic just yet? Losing senior players like Richie McCaw, Ali Williams, Rodney So’oialo and Sitavini Sivivatu leaves the team in a bit of a hole for leadership. Throw in the absence of game breakers Dan Carter, Conrad Smith and Richard Kahui and it’s not exactly surprising to see the team struggle across the park.
There are a number of issues facing the 2009 incarnation of the All Blacks, but the most pressing one can be summed up in three words: lack of depth.
We’ve known for a number of years that our stocks at first five and openside flanker, two key positions, have been quite weak with those stuck behind incumbents Dan Carter and Richie McCaw leaving for overseas contracts and this was shown up once again on Saturday night.
Adam Thompson, while a fantastic player in his own right, is not an international opensiders, being consistently beaten to the breakdown by his French opposite. In fact, those playing close attention at home will have notice the entire All Black loose forward trio that played on Saturday are specialist blindsiders.
Then we have the debacle that is first five. Stephen Donald showed once again that he just isn’t up to the job at the international level even after a stellar Super 14 season. His hurried understudy, Luke McAlister, looked very much like a player who hasn’t played in three months and one wonders about the wisdom of bringing him straight into the All Blacks without a game since April.
Perhaps it could be argued that the coaching staff is doing the best they can with limited resources, and this certainly seems like a sound argument. But those resources are the same ones who will be playing the rest of the Iveco series against France and Italy, and that could prove a bigger challenge than it looks on paper.
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The Sun rises in New Zealand despite All Blacks loss by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
