Why are the All-Blacks so bloody good? Ronan O'Gara takes a look
How do they manage it? That’s the burning question. How does New Zealand remain at such an imperial level season-on-season?
So much of what they produce is derived from the player-driven culture of the All Blacks.
The coaching structure is fundamental but they place massive emphasis on trust and peer pressure and people working hard – and what’s acceptable within the group. These are all words unless they become core principles. It’s not an us-and-them situation within the group, with the coaches.
The senior players have as much responsibility as the staff. That filters down into decision making on the pitch. It has been handed over from McCaw to Read, and little changes.
Talking to Dan Carter and the New Zealand lads at Racing this week, they underline the All Blacks don’t do jollies, in Chicago or anywhere else.
They will be focused, because of competition for places which is what drives the intensity within the group. But more so, for the fear of making history as being the first New Zealand team to lose to Ireland.
We perceive the greater pressure to be on Ireland to get the monkey of never beating the All Blacks off our back, but it’s greater on the All Blacks.
Are you going to be on the first All Blacks team beaten by Ireland? Not alone are they as hungry, they are hungrier. That’s what they will be judged on. That’s how the will be remembered in the New Zealand rugby annals.
The group that annexed the 2015 World Cup had been in the trenches for a decade, so it’s early to be describing those following in their footsteps as more ruthless and efficient. Let’s see where this All Black team is in three years’ time.
Beauden Barrett has enjoyed a stellar year with club and country, and if one wobbly kicking performance against Australia last week is considered a psychological hurdle to overcome, he hasn’t faced anything yet.
When he’s out for months with injury and Aaron Cruden has stepped in seamlessly and Barrett is forced to confront doubts that blindside him, then we will get a better sense of where he is in terms of leading the All Blacks to Japan.
Compared to a year ago, when New Zealand valued penalties and the breathing space they delivered, now they are saying, okay we are just going to score more tries than you. For the moment, everyone is trying to hang onto their coat-tails while they find ways to level the pitch. There are enough naysayers within the game to be finding fault with their dominance. They are a joy to watch so appreciate that. But don’t believe they are beyond reach for everyone.
The absence of Iain Henderson, Sean O’Brien and Peter O’Mahony in Chicago suggests Joe Schmidt envisages a central role for all three in the November 19 meeting of the countries in Dublin, but no-one should conclude from that decision the Irish coach has made this a gimme for Steve Hansen. It’s a trait of a Joe Schmidt team — that they never get humbled. And I don’t see it happening tomorrow night. I’d remind people to have a look at the first 40 minutes when the sides meet at the Aviva three years ago, Ireland blitzed New Zealand and made it look very easy and the All Blacks very ordinary in every department. Ireland were so good around the ruck, so dominant in the front five – an area the All Blacks must make changes in this weekend.
Because of who they are, you’ll have respect for the New Zealand player in front of you, and there’s a big fear factor there in terms of playing them and what could happen. But there will be no Irish player at Soldier Field crossing the white line with a defeatist mentality.
You want to test yourself against the best, you prepare your best to face the best, and if that takes a fair bit of emotional energy out of you before a ball is kicked, then that’s an unfortunate fact. With experience, that dissipates.
I got better at managing it, you don’t waste it all before the game. If Ireland’s players get their emotional and psychological pitch spot on, these are the sort of important below-the-line factors that gives them a real chance of beating New Zealand.
And the All Blacks are a one-off, the only team that demands that sort of mental preparation, the only skittle Ireland hasn’t knocked over. Like the Heineken Cup for Munster in 2006, until you actually do it, you can’t get the value, the incredible self- belief that flows from it.
New Zealand are out on their own but the only way to sort that is not by talking about it, but doing it with actions on the pitch.
Ireland will have a better chance of beating the All Blacks in November than they would in June. International players are so well looked after now even at the end of their season, the All Blacks won’t be limping into Chicago, but they won’t be as fresh as Joe Schmidt’s squad.
The All Blacks come to France at the tail end of the November series but the accord between Top 14 clubs and the French Rugby Federation on player welfare kicks into gear this weekend.
Racing entertain Montpellier tomorrow night – a Tomás O’Leary reunion for me – without the internationals who are part of a 30-man French squad for games this month. Instead they will be in camp preparing for the Nov 12 game against Samoa. The clubs will be compensated to the tune of around €200,000 a season per player, but money aside, it’s a noteworthy step.
Racing picked up its first away win of the season in Bayonne, but it should have been a five-pointer. It had nothing on Munster’s win in Ravenhill in terms of the bounce it might give our dressing room. To turn a 14-0 deficit in Ravenhill into a 15-14 victory says a lot for the transformation underway at home. If Munster disappointed a little in the green zone, it was all they lacked. The sense that a corner’s being turned is difficult to ignore.
