I wrote this article on Sunday for another web site, and thought the guys on Rugby-Talk wouldn’t want to hear how good the All Blacks are, but seeing that superBul provided us with such an enlightening article about the infringements at the breakdown, I thought I’ll put my 2 cents in.

Why are the All Blacks so good? In my opinion it is due to the following factors. They plan for every facet of play, they break it down to its simplest form and every player arriving knows exactly what to do. What I mean by this is not that each individual has a specific task, it depends who is the tackler, then the next to arrive and so on. It stands them in good stead and due to this pre-planning every player knows his role and that causes implicit trust in each other, knowing that the next guy will do the right thing.

Key players
There are a number of them in this team, but for me Dan Carter is the stand-out. He has shown that the hype around Quade Cooper is just that, hype. Make no mistake, Quade Cooper is a very good player, where he has “flash”, Carter has consistency. Where he can under-perform when under pressure, Carter is Mr Cool. Carter has an ability to create doubt for the opponent’s defence and create opportunity in the attack. He will distribute the ball 75% of the time and the other 25% will be used to attack the gain line, often finding the gap, or using his kicks very effectively. Defensively he must be the best No 10 in world rugby.

Richie McCaw for me is not the athlete he was two years ago, but his experience, leadership and intelligence as player inspires and provides confidence to his team.

Then to me Conrad Smith is just a superb player, great ball skills, and a very elusive and intelligent player. His positional play and support play is of the highest order.

Overall you can probably say something good about most of their players, but for me these three are stand-outs.

Calm under pressure
A number of times the All Blacks were under pressure when a pass went loose and with one man having to run back they never allowed the pressure to get to them. Piri Weepu especially had to do this a number of times. This is often where Australia, in particular, would use that pressure situation to create turn-over ball, but by staying calm they seldom make mistakes.

Efficiency at their breakdown ball
When it is their breakdown ball, the first All Black arrival does not go for the ball, he goes to clear the “fetcher”. What many other teams do in situations like these is their player starts to compete for the ball, and often it is too late as the “fetcher” already has his hands on the ball.

Opponent’s ruck ball
When the All Blacks arrive at the breakdown with superior numbers, they immediately counter-ruck, they don’t go for slowing down the ball, they go in to create immediate possession. If the breakdown has been won, they don’t contest, they simply stand off, immediately getting ready for the approaching attack.

Then there is the McCaw factor, because of the counter-rucking, he only contests for the turn-over if the opportunity presents itself, and what makes them so efficient at the breakdown is the fact that they are the most intelligent players at the break down. You can’t “fetch” at every breakdown, you have to read the situation and then effect the best option.

On attack
Popular opinion about All Black’s attack is that the All Blacks play wide all the time. That is not entirely accurate. They tend to run a lot of balls in the close channels, where accurate off-loading and supporting ball carriers provide various options. Only once they have gone through enough phases to draw the defence in, do they go wide. By doing this they keep the defence guessing and makes them efficient on attack.

Negating opposition’s play makers
In this match, most of the time they had two defenders coming onto Quade Cooper on the angle, this effectively cuts off Cooper’s ability to jink or drift left or right. When Cooper was running on the angle or drifted they simply gave him the space outside, and slowly drifted him into limited space, the placed he could pass to was “predicatble” and the All Black defence was up to it. The other important factor is that Dan Carter is a class above most flyhalves when it comes to defensive ability and execution.

Clever players
A number of times, yet not every time, they “restrict” a defender to roll clear of the ruck, in such a manner that it is perceived by the referee that the defender didn’t attempt to roll away. They subtly block defenders, impeding running lines etc. Every now and then they will also be just that tad offside at their own attacking breakdowns to impede counter rucking or defenders close to the ruck.

Opportunities for opponents
The All Blacks are definitely not invincible, but they do plan and execute efficiently but although they are defensively well organised, they do tend to slip first time tackles. In this match they missed an extraordinary number of tackles. Their lineout is still an opportunity for teams to exploit and I also believe they can be closed down with solid defence. Starve them of possession, close down their space and be aware of the support runners and the off-loads. There are also a miriad of opportunities for counter-attack by means of intercept opportunities.

Summary
It is said by Gary Player, that the more you practise the luckier you get, call it momentum, luck, bounce of the ball or whatever phrasing you prefer, but it seems to favour the all Blacks in spades.

Overall the Wallabies weren’t bad in this game, they were perhaps a little intimidated by that very passionate Haka, and took a while to get into the game. They perhaps needed to control possession a bit more and played more phases before going wide and even though they did run great angles, with Cooper being under pressure, they tended to become predictable in just going wide. But because the All Blacks made fewer mistakes, there weren’t enough counter-attacking opportunities for the Wallabies, a place where they normally thrive. The upshot for other teams to play Australia is that the All Blacks showed how, even with missing many tackles, if you don’t make mistakes and kick needlessly into space, the Wallabies can’t counter-attack, and to me that is when they are at their most dangerous.