Rugby: Five key points - All Blacks v Wales

New Zealand's Conrad Smith (right) tackles Wales' Jamie Roberts during their Autumn International...
New Zealand's Conrad Smith (right) tackles Wales' Jamie Roberts during their Autumn International rugby union match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Photo by Reuters

ODT Online rugby writer Jeff Cheshire analyses five key points from the All Blacks' match with Wales at the weekend. 

The last twenty minutes

It is always the last twenty minutes where you have to stick with the All Blacks. So often teams will stay with them for the first hour, only to fall away as they get tired and the game loosens up. It begs the question of why teams cannot get fitter to match them.

We have seen time and time again how big an advantage it is for the All Blacks. They do not have to take their game to another level, merely keep it at a constant pace, knowing that gaps will open as the opposition defence tires.

On this occasion the All Blacks ran in four tries in the final twenty and while they did get the bounce of the ball, it certainly had a feeling of inevitability to it.

Slade the best option at 10?

There has been much talk about who should start at first five-eighth. But Colin Slade's name has hardly been mentioned. He has had an injury-ridden past four seasons, but 2014 has seen him back to his best and it would be hard to knock him on anything he has done on this tour.

Most crucially his goal kicking has been good, whereas the other three's has not. Defensively he is solid, his general play has been tidy and he has the ability to create.

In contrast Beauden Barrett has struggled with the boot, both when kicking at goal and in-field, as has Aaron Cruden. Dan Carter has not proven he is still the player he used to be, making a handful of errors and not kicking well.

So why ignore the form player who has been reliable every time he has been used this year? Of course things may change between now and the next time this group assembles, but as far as this tour was concerned, Slade looks to have been the pick of the first five-eighth's.

Why take off Piutau?

With the team struggling to spark anything early in the second half, it was an odd move to take off the one player, Charles Piutau, who actually did look threatening. It had "planned substitution" written all over it and it was unnecessary.

Bringing Colin Slade into first five-eighth was not a bad move. But rather than reshuffling the backline, would it not have been better to have made a straight swap for Barrett, who was not having his best game? Admittedly Barrett played well at fullback once the game loosened up, but it would not be hard to imagine Ben Smith having a similar impact had he been left there.

Need to play tighter before going wide

Wales defended well, but so much of that came from the All Blacks maintaining their same attacking pattern which is getting far too predictable. The Welsh defenders were able to rush the forward runners and disrupt the short balls, stopping the All Blacks getting any momentum. Consequently their backs never got the ball on the front foot and the Welsh defensive line was never unorganised, making it tough to break.

It all looked a lot better during a passage late in the first half when the forwards utilised the pick and go to great effect. With opposition defences fanning out, there is space in close, meaning metres can be gained more easily.

Along with this, it negates the rushed defence. Once you have done this for a while, the defence will begin to come in closer to prevent the easy metres, meaning gaps will open up out wider and the backs will have more room to work with.

But the All Blacks did not persist with it for long enough for it to have this effect. That's not to say they should do this the whole time, just that they should mix things up to avoid becoming too predictable.

No rugby played in the first half

Was anyone else wondering why they bothered getting up to watch the game half an hour in? What an awful first half it was from both teams.

It was dominated by a resilient Welsh defence which pressured the All Blacks whom made too many mistakes and hardly strung three phases together. Neither team really looked like scoring a try and it became a game of handling errors, poor kicks, collapsed scrums and inaccurate lineouts. Yawn.

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