After 6 weeks of exciting rugby action, the Rugby World Cup
Final will be contested the two best sides in world rugby right now.
It is the dream result that World Rugby and many fans from
either side of the Tasman hoped for while some All Blacks fans will be nervous
of the prospect of facing their closest rivals from across the ditch.
After all, the Wallabies were the ones who inflicted the All
Blacks’ only loss this season – and in fact, their first defeat to the ABs
since 2011.
However, here are a couple of reasons why All Blacks fans
should be feeling a bit upbeat about next Saturday’s blockbuster final –
1. Experience in the Final
If all are passed fit, the All Blacks should be able to name 7
players who have played in a World Cup Final in their match 23 - Owen Franks,
Keven Mealamu, Sam Whitelock, Jerome Kaino, Kieran Read, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad
Smith and of course, Richie McCaw. Had Dan Carter not been hit by injury, he
would definitely have been part of that illustrious group of players.
It is not often that a side can call on one or two players
with World Cup Final experience, let alone 8 – only England and Australia have
been afforded that luxury, but even then, apart from Wilkinson, Gregan and
Larkham, many of their World Cup winning heroes were on the bench.
On the other hand, besides Mealamu, there is absolutely no
reason not to start the 7 aforementioned players with only injury a valid
reason for their exclusion. Even so, you would back Mealamu to do the job if
given the unlikely chance to start ahead of in-form incumbent Dane Coles.
As those guys would know, playing in a Final is unlike any
other international test match; the intensity and pressure will be much greater
than a Bledisloe Cup test. Rest assured, the All Blacks can count on having
half a team that knows how to win a Final and that will get them home ahead of
a young but talented Wallabies side.
2. Pocock (Non) Factor
David Pocock has been hyped up as the Wallabies’ breakdown
machine and one that who will invoke fear in the All Blacks’ backrow.
However, having seen Pocock’s stats against the All Blacks, I
can say that the hype around Pocock is just that – hype.
While there is no doubting his abilities in defence and
attack, in 15 tests against the All Blacks, Pocock has only been on the winning
side 3 times. Two of those games were deciders for the Rugby Championship/Tri
Nations – Brisbane in 2011 and Sydney in 2015, while the other was a dead
rubber Bledisloe Cup test in Hong Kong which the All Blacks should have won but
for Beaver’s boot.
Indeed, since the All Blacks back row has featured at least two
of Kieran Read, Richie McCaw and Jerome Kaino, David Pocock has never really looked
like the player everyone hypes him up to be.
Moreover, the ABs will be familiar with the hype around a
ball fetcher having had to face Schalk Burger last weekend.
While the double trouble of Hooper and Pocock cannot be
ignored, it is not the cutting edge that we are led to believe by the media.
3. Game Fitness
Time and time again, the All Blacks have shown to be the
fittest team in world rugby by a mile.
While games have turned on substitutions
made in the 2nd half, those fresh legs are a bonus to a starting XV
that could play beyond the full 80 minutes even as the intensity of the World
Cup has increased with each game before the Final.
The Wallabies have claimed to be the next fittest team
behind the All Blacks but questions around that claim have surfaced in the last
two games against Scotland and Argentina.
Indeed, the 2nd half may be a problem area for
the Wallabies who seem to stop playing between minutes 40 and 60 and let the
likes of Scotland and Argentina back into games.
On the other hand, All Blacks
side have proven to be very good in the 2nd half even with the odds
stacked against them.
Another thing that might count against the Wallabies is that
they have one less day to recover for the Final – and it seemed that after that
semifinal against Argentina, they looked puffed and relieved unlike the All
Blacks who could have played another 80 minutes.
4. History
Ok, a strange one to put here if you’re only considering the
All Blacks’ record against the Wallabies in Rugby World Cups – played 3, won 1,
lost 2. But given the time lapsed between matches, this is really an invalid
measure of history.
What is more valid is considering the All Blacks’ record in
the last 12 years that they’ve held the Bledisloe Cup. The losses can be
counted on one hand and the win:loss ratio does not make very good reading for
Wallabies fans.
Indeed, put the microscope on the last 4 years since 2011
and the record is drawn 2, lost 1, and won the rest. Consider too that we have always
played at least one extra test against the Wallabies in addition to the Rugby
Championship.
So yes, we know how to beat the Wallabies when the mind is
on it.
But what about the Tri Nations and Rugby Championship
deciders that we lost to Australia in 2011 and 2015? Firstly, let me remind you
that this year’s Rugby Championship was abbreviated and relegated to warm-up
tournament for the World Cup and that the Wallabies had two home games to the
All Blacks’ one home game.
Finally, there’s still the fact that no one has won the
Rugby Championship or Tri Nations, the most intense international rugby competition
in the world, in the same year of the Rugby World Cup.
5. Coaches
Steve Hansen might very well be the world’s best rugby
coach, and one of the best coaches in world sport. Indeed, he could be one of
New Zealand rugby’s greatest coaches ever and up there with the great late Sir Fred
Allen.
Hansen is a true leader in every sense. His calmness and
composure is a complete contrast to his contemporary, Michael Cheika, who is a
volcano on the verge of a pyroclastic flow.
This calm and composed demeanour clearly rubs onto his
charges and been effective in ushering the new generation of New Zealand’s
rugby stars.
While Michael Cheika has done miracles with a Wallabies side
that has been also-rans in world rugby, he is still a young coach albeit a very
good one and is still learning the knack of winning crunch games.
So really, no reason to panic but the excitement may still
be too much to contain.
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