Advantage ABs: It's swagger v stagger

Advantage ABs: It's swagger v stagger

Marc Hinton, RugbyHeaven - New Zealand's home of Rugby news, coverage, video & pictures | September 5, 2008 - 10:22AM


Robbie Deans has the All Blacks right where he wants them. Confident. In form. Firing. And, if they're not careful, primed for a Ned Kelly-sized ambush at the Battle of Brisbane on Saturday week.

It was hard to shake the feeling, watching the All Blacks run all over the Samoan possums shipped in to the Bullring for their Wednesday night pre-Brisbane shakedown, that Deans wouldn't exactly have been disappointed to see his countrymen run up a cricket score.

In the end it was 101-14 to the All Blacks as the Samoans presented pretty much the level of opposition their pedigree predicted. Fair's fair, as well, it's pretty hard to shake too big a stick at 15 tries and a century of points in any rugby "international".

Sure, there were the odd loose bits and pieces by the ABs - their scrum work was a bit shoddy, and they would have been annoyed to cough up a try each half to their green visitors - but by and large it was a pretty impressive hitout. Some of the handling was sublime, their continuity play was impressive and the New Zealanders would just have been happy to get through 80 minutes of high-tempo football.

Individually, there was plenty to enjoy. Mils Muliaina, Richard Kahui, Anthony Tuitavake, Conrad Smith, Jerome Kaino, Ali Williams and, off the pine, Isaia Toeava all showed their stuff with some elan.

Certainly it was a lot better than the Australians enjoyed at the weekend at the old Ellis Park when they went through the rugby equivalent of having the Boks sneak up behind them and pull their pants down.

So, it's the swagger versus the stagger in the Sunshine State on September 13. One team rumbling, the other stumbling. But, surely, no one figuring it will be anything but another Bledisloe classic when the trans-Tasman foes square off with it all on the line at Suncorp.

In fact, it's hard to know how the preparations of the two protaganists for the Tri Nations' grand finale on Saturday week could be any more contrasting if they tried.
The wobbly Wallabies succumb by a record score to the out-of-sorts Springboks in Johannesburg on the Saturday, and just four days later the All Blacks run in 15 tries in a record rout of a side masquerading as Manu Samoa
Advantage All Blacks. Er, sort of.

Surely Deans has something up his sleeve. Surely.

OK, he didn't send the Wallabies out last weekend to roll over and play dead the way they did. Anyone who suggests he "threw" the match needs a good slap.


But neither did he prepare a full-strength, fully-pumped, totally-focused outfit to the degree he will in Brisbane. They had no "edge" and that to me was deliberate.
The All Blacks know that. Or they had better. Because if there's one thing I'm sure of, other than the fact that was only 15 Australians pretending to be the Wallabies in Jo'burg last weekend, it's that Deans has one more trick up his sleeve for a match that will decide the Tri Nations and possibly go a long way to sending the Bledisloe back across the Tasman.

(Actually, as an aside, I firmly believe whoever wins this competition-deciding match should claim the Bledisloe, as well as the Tri Nations silverware. To say that a meaningless Hong Kong money-spinner at the end of October should be part of the series is a copout. If they're that desperate for it to have status, make it a one-off that the holder has to put the Cup on the line for. But I digress.)

Maybe I'm giving Deans too much credit. But I think not.

At the Super 14 level, time and again, he's shown an uncanny ability to draw a big one out of his team when it's most required. Plus, nobody knows how to hit back from a defeat better than this bloke. He makes adjustments better than anyone coaching this game.

None of that should matter to Henry who must - absolutely must - assume that Deans will produce a side more like Sydney or Durban than Auckland or Jo'burg.
So, for all the talk about the merits of this Samoan sashay, it was a wise fixture to stage (though I agree with the pundits who have cried that this fixture should have been played in the islands). The All Blacks needed a hitout. Even a breeze like this. They have a month's worth of rust to shake out.

The big challenge is to take on board a 100-point cakewalk and use it to get them ready for a match that will be the challenge of their lives.

More out-of-World Cup bounty awaits the All Blacks. Providing they do two things: realise that New Plymouth meant nothing; and those Aussies are coming with the kitchen sink at Suncorp.


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