Grand Slam? A task too far

Usually, after a loss to England, some senior member of the All Blacks could be imagined getting the team together and telling the players to remember the feeling and to use it every time they play England in the future.

That’s how the All Blacks thrashed England, courtesy of a four-try demolition job by Jonah Lomu at the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

That’s how Andy Haden and Graham Mourie prepared their team to beat England in 1978 to remain on course for the first All Blacks Grand Slam, and it’s how other sides prepared themselves, especially for the Twickenham challenge.

Ever since the All Blacks’ coaching staff proclaimed that this year’s northern hemisphere campaign was going to be a Grand Slam tour, they built themselves a mountain that was potentially going to be too high for this modern generation of All Blacks to climb.

Their inconsistency is their South Face, that area of the game where they can’t afford to slip off their mountain. It was nearly the case against Ireland, and only Damian McKenzie’s skill prevented Scotland from claiming their first win over the All Blacks.

But having succumbed to an England team that applied basic principles without being dominant, the question is whether there is someone in this All Blacks team capable of, or aware enough, to ensure the hurt of Twickenham 2025 is not forgotten by the modern generation of players?

All Blacks great Colin Meads, when managing the side in France after a first Test loss, in the early days of professionalism, cleared the meeting room of all but the players and laid it down to them.

The sides he played for may never have been as skilled or as well-supported while touring as the 1995 version was with their trainers, physios, bag carriers, et al. However, they had never been scared, and that was what the All Blacks had looked like when they lost.

It was a chewing out that embarrassed even the hardest nuts in the side, and resulted in an outstanding second Test turnaround.

But it takes something, or someone, special to flick that switch to achieve that effect.

The evidence of continued failures to avoid committing mistakes at key moments suggests that any messages aimed at eliminating unforced errors are not having the desired effect.

These All Blacks have talked about the DNA that binds them to the All Blacks’ heritage, that factor that has imprinted the All Blacks as one of the great sides in world sport.

But do they understand what that means?

Do they understand the legacy of the jersey they say they are looking after in the moment for the next person that gets to wear it?

Can they comprehend the sacrifices some outstanding players, who never got to wear that jersey, would have made to have one opportunity to wear it?

It all seems too easy to park mistakes of the moment and concentrate on the next task, rather than owning those mistakes, learning how to correct them so that auto-correct takes over and avoids them from happening again.

A look at the statistics from the weekend’s Test shows how much ball the All Blacks had:

Possession: England 45, NZ 55

Lineouts: NZ 13, England 8

Lineouts lost: England 6, NZ 2

Scrums won: England 4, NZ 6

Rucks won: England 74, NZ 108

Passes made: England 117, NZ 173

Tackles: England 193, NZ 119

Tackles missed: England 24, NZ 16

Turnovers won: England 5, NZ 3

Turnovers conceded: England 10, NZ 11

Penalties conceded: England 12, NZ 6

That should be enough of an advantage for most teams, All Blacks or otherwise, to win.

But after achieving their first quarter lead of 12-0, the All Blacks rarely looked like maintaining control.

With all that lies ahead for New Zealand over the next two years and beyond, some tough decisions will have to be made to overcome the apparent inability to apply themselves to the concentration, intent, and sheer bloody-mindedness required to achieve an 80-minute game.

That’s something retreating into the distance with each outing, and which is not part of the DNA of committed All Blacks sides.

A final note: Some excellent All Blacks sides have not achieved Grand Slams. They are hard to do. Signalling in advance that that is the goal, when lacking the sort of consistency it requires, merely adds another unnecessary layer of pressure upon performance.

And that is what this loss to England looked like.