Source: Radio New Zealand
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Wales v All Blacks
Kick-off: 4:10am Sunday 23 November
Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Live blog updates on RNZ
Analysis – A high pressure system has arrived directly over the All Blacks this week, ironically as they prepare to face easily the weakest team on their schedule in the last test of the year. Wales are arguably at the lowest ebb in their long, proud history, but that’s a conversation for that side of the world – right now, we’re one poor result away from a full on All Black crisis.
On the surface, nine wins from 12 tests doesn’t look too far away from the Springboks’ 10 from 12. However, Rassie Erasmus’ side is the gold standard after a big win against France and ability to roll out almost two completely different starting teams of equal quality.
Quite simply, the Springboks are only getting better as the season progresses, while you can’t say that about the All Blacks at all. In fact, in some tactical areas they’ve definitely gone backwards, and this weekend in Cardiff will show just where Scott Robertson’s overarching strategy regarding depth is at.
Photosport Ltd 2021/ Matt Impey
Robertson has already confirmed that the team will be rotated, which admittedly anyone could have guessed once the tour schedule was announced. There are several players in the squad that have been waiting for their turn to impress, while a couple more that have had to be put into the main test lineup already.
Whether the All Blacks like it or not, this test is going to be the one that could really expose a far more structural weakness and it’s a bit of a no-win situation anyway. It’s not like they’re going to lose – Wales are so bad they’d struggle to make the NPC playoffs – but they do have the ability to frustrate the All Blacks into playing poorly themselves.
Think back to the corresponding fixture last year, against Italy in Turin. It was a stinker in every sense of the word, with the Italians once again dragging the All Blacks down to their level and producing one of the least memorable displays of rugby in recent history. It says a lot that the most notable performance to come out of it was TJ Perenara leading the haka.
TJ Perenara, centre, leads the All Blacks haka ahead of their rugby test against Italy in Turin. November 2024. PHOTOSPORT
The All Blacks can’t afford a blundering stagger to the finish line, but even if they do smash Wales convincingly, it won’t be the main team that did it anyway. So really it rests on the performances of the newly rotated players to answer any questions regarding depth, but even then the ones over the coaching and direction will remain.
In their defence, the depth perception has been clear already in second row. Josh Lord has stepped up in Patrick Tuipulotu’s absence and Scott Barrett’s injury and showing just why the All Blacks have persisted with him despite the numerous injury issues of his own.
So now hopefully we’ll find out about a few more and what it might mean for the future, but even then, it might throw a spanner in the works regarding how valuable the All Black high performance set up is. George Bell and Sam Darry will get decent game time and if they go well, it’ll say more about the usefulness of them playing almost an entire NPC campaign with Canterbury.
This will very much be a test of how well prepared the All Black system is at priming the wider squad. Let’s just hope it’s more aesthetically pleasing than the shocker last year in Turin.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
