This was a game of 2 halves. The All Blacks started well and were quite dominant early on without much reward but all this changed when Jamie Heaslip was sent off for attempting to knee the head of an opposition player. Not only did Ireland need to be at full strength to win this one they also needed to have all fifteen men on the field! Combined with O'Gara's sin binning, which reduced the Irish to thirteen men for ten minutes, the floodgates opened and by the time O'Gara came back on they were behind 38 points to nil. To their credit the men in green fought back strongly and actually finished with 4 converted tries but arguably much of this could be contributed to the fact that the All Blacks emptied their bench to give everyone a run.
The game actually became very messy toward the end and one can only wonder what the benefits are in giving everyone a run in such unstructured Rugby. In the end it started to resemble a trial more than a test match and became almost farcical. The All Black jumper is becoming somewhat cheapened by the day. How many players are they going to use before they settle on their best XV? Yes, supposedly they have great depth and their best team wouldn't be much different than their 3rd or 4th ranked team but that's where the problem lies.
In days gone by there was daylight between the starting fifteen and the rest but that's when the All Blacks were at their best, when almost all their starting players would make any side in the world. Now, with the possible exception of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Conrad Smith no one else would feature. That's a travesty in my book and the current administration of Graham Henry and co has to portion some of the blame. They are making the same mistakes all over again.
All time effort and energy should be spent on developing the best possible side and if you don't make it, too bad. In the past, when a player got dropped it was a big deal but not anymore. There are too many All Blacks on the scrapheap to even mention here. What is their obsession with rotating and experimenting with players each and every game?
Just select a side and be done with it already! Select players in their specialist positions and get on with it. Take time to nurture them and watch them grow. Out of all the players new to the All Blacks last night the 1 that stood out the most was Benson Stanley. Ironically, he stood out because he didn’t stand out. The selectors can hardly take credit for it either because almost by their own admission he was chosen by default. He was simply chosen in his specialist position and just did the basics well. He even made Conrad Smith look good. Too often Ma'a Nonu's game has overshadowed Smith's and even the wingers to some extent. In the words of Wayne Shelford, the All blacks are at their best when everyone does their job i.e. 14 men helping to put the 15th man over the line. In other words, GET BACK TO THE BASICS!
Shouldn't their aim be to beat the Springboks by 1 point rather than Ireland by 31? At this rate they won't. Although they appear to be going forward they are actually going backwards. It's an illusion that will be tested by the Wallabies and shown up against the Springboks this year. You heard it here first.
