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Ian Smith: Have we learned enough from Razor's first year in charge of All Blacks?
Ian Smith • November 22nd, 2024 2:00 pm
Photo: Photosport
Well, finally we get some answers as to what Razor is all about and what year one has been about.
Let's face it, Razor at the elite level, has only ever coached All Blacks or All Blacks in waiting. The cream of the crop.
Razor is used to winning, single minded about it actually. He's not prone to sacrificing the short term for the sake of the long term.
Hence, his most powerful side available will front up against potentially his third weakest opponent of the year. After Fiji and Japan, Italy surely would rank slightly higher than both of them.
Which leads to these three questions for me. What have we learned about the playing personnel, the coaching personnel and the game plan through this stretch of 14 Tests?
I think we can now safely say, before Sunday morning has happened, it's been a muddling year with a finishing record that Joe Schmidt might be happy with for the Wallabies, but not so for the All Blacks.
We can also probably assume that Leon MacDonald wanted to try new things with players and combinations with a mind for the long term, so he had to go.
There will be those who say that a Test is a Test only the best should play them out of respect, and only one outcome is acceptable.
I run with that kind of ball, but couldn't we have found out a little more whilst we were trying to win?
It's a playing goodbye to Sam Cane and TJ Perenara. There will be some tears in some eyes - but not all.
And we are clearly in a Richie Mo'unga holding pattern that way around that No. 10 jersey because we have learnt pretty much nothing there after 14 cracks.
Tupou Vaa'i definitely gets a pass mark definitely. Tamaiti Williams the same and Wallace Sititi a clear best-on-show.
The scrums have been good - better than good - but experimentation and the flair in the backs is still a mystery.
Aside from an average year, let's take our hats off to the match officials and the lawmakers. You must be so proud of the spectacle you have created through interference and inconsistency.
We all raise a collective yawn to you.
