![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/all-blacks-go-back-to-basics-to-prove-reports-of-their-demise-were-greatly-exaggerated/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TELEMMGLPICT000315189986_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqAa384AGyadUGxFjNF_JcSpxfpYvVS6ocv5-4mfsqSmk.jpeg&description=Every time you think the All Blacks are beginning to fade as a force they seem to find a way to keep you quiet. Last week's tight win over Japan was not overly impressive and prompted a few questions about how New Zealand would fare in their three Test matches against Wales, Scotland and England. Those queries were answered empathically in Cardiff with a first-rate performance which displayed a quality that the All Blacks were missing earlier this year – that ability to bludgeon and pummel their opponents into submission upfront. Joe Schmidt was notably brought into the All Blacks coaching setup back in August but so too was Jason Ryan, forwards coach of serial trophy winners the Crusaders who has arrived and shaken up a dormant pack of forwards. The tone was set back in August as New Zealand prepared to face South Africa at Ellis Park. "We had a couple of sessions that were pretty heated and we were getting stuck into each other," the veteran second-row Sam Whitelock said at the time and those sessions appear to be paying off. Time after time against Wales you saw the evidence of that hard work, with New Zealand hammering over the gain line. No one set the tone better in that area than Ardie Savea – more on him later – but he was far from alone. Codie Taylor's opening try summed up New Zealand's best work – stopping a Wales maul, winning a turnover through Savea (who else), the line break from Dalton Papalii from halfway deep into Wales' 22 before New Zealand unleashed wave after wave of powerful carries: Shannon Frizell, Whitelock, Savea, Scott Barrett, Ethan de Groot, Savea (again) and finally Taylor. Eleven destructive, brutal phases which Wales simply could not stop. We are used to New Zealand cutting teams open with precision in attack out wide but this was something different, the kind of physicality every Test side desires to produce because by doing so, you become a nightmare for teams to defend against. Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric are both phenomena){kind=link}
Improvement in form comes just in time for Rugby World Cup – and at exactly the wrong time for their rivals
Every time you think the All Blacks are beginning to fade as a force they seem to find a way to keep you quiet. Last week’s tight win over Japan was not overly impressive and prompted a few questions about how New Zealand would fare in their three Test matches against Wales, Scotland and England. Those queries were answered empathically in Cardiff with a first-rate performance which displayed a quality that the All Blacks were missing earlier this year – that ability to bludgeon and pummel their opponents into submission upfront.
Joe Schmidt was notably brought into the All Blacks coaching setup back in August but so too was Jason Ryan, forwards coach of serial trophy winners the Crusaders who has arrived and shaken up a dormant pack of forwards. The tone was set back in August as New Zealand prepared to face South Africa at Ellis Park. “We had a couple of sessions that were pretty heated and we were getting stuck into each other,” the veteran second-row Sam Whitelock said at the time and those sessions appear to be paying off. Time after time against Wales you saw the evidence of that hard work, with New Zealand hammering over the gain line.
No one set the tone better in that area than Ardie Savea – more on him later – but he was far from alone. Codie Taylor’s opening try summed up New Zealand’s best work – stopping a Wales maul, winning a turnover through Savea (who else), the line break from Dalton Papalii from halfway deep into Wales’ 22 before New Zealand unleashed wave after wave of powerful carries: Shannon Frizell, Whitelock, Savea, Scott Barrett, Ethan de Groot, Savea (again) and finally Taylor. Eleven destructive, brutal phases which Wales simply could not stop.
We are used to New Zealand cutting teams open with precision in attack out wide but this was something different, the kind of physicality every Test side desires to produce because by doing so, you become a nightmare for teams to defend against. Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric are both phenomenal defenders and produced an absurd 53 tackles between them (28 for Faletau, 25 for Tipuric), but those efforts pale into insignificance when you look at the final score of 23-55, because New Zealand never let up with the relentlessness of their ball-carrying before Wales eventually cracked.