Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
Speaker 1: from News Talks edb.
Speaker 2: God Daddy about it's pick all Blacks after it scooped
Speaker 2: up Josh Morby one handed back up in the left
Speaker 2: wing border. This guy's class Josh Morby thirty three fourteen.
Speaker 3: It was fourteen all after sixty seven minutes, but four
Speaker 3: tries in the last thirteen minutes have inflated the scoreline
Speaker 3: or Blacks assistant coach Mike Blair is with us. Thanks
Speaker 3: for joining us, Mike. What's your overall assisement of game
Speaker 3: one of the tour.
Speaker 4: Nice to speak to you, obviously, we're really pleased to
Speaker 4: get the win. We played some good stuff in there
Speaker 4: and plenty to.
Speaker 5: Work on as well. That the bit we loved about it.
Speaker 5: There was some real resilience in there. So we went
Speaker 5: down to thirteen men, still went in halftime at fourteen all,
Speaker 5: and we kept a composure and took our opportunities later
Speaker 5: on in the game.
Speaker 4: But we're frustrated. Did a few of the missed.
Speaker 5: Opportunities as well that on other days we could have
Speaker 5: walked in but they didn't just quite click today.
Speaker 3: Did you always feel as though you had the gas
Speaker 3: in the tank to come over the top of them.
Speaker 3: At the end, it was still fourteen or or thirteen
Speaker 3: minutes to go, a real flurry of tries at the end.
Speaker 3: Did you always feel as though you had that gas
Speaker 3: in the tank.
Speaker 5: I think we've got to understand that teams, that it
Speaker 5: takes time to break teams down, and obviously we wouldn't
Speaker 5: want to leave it that late every week. But the
Speaker 5: fact that we did a lot of work, good work
Speaker 5: in the first half with our with our multi phase,
Speaker 5: stressed them a little bit, which meant that those opportunities
Speaker 5: were taken later on in the game, and we've got good.
Speaker 4: Athletes who can make the most of those opportunities.
Speaker 3: Did you get what you expected from the Stormers?
Speaker 5: Yeah, they were impressive, weren't they. A number of excellent
Speaker 5: performances from them. Thought Deon three was all over the place.
Speaker 5: I thought I thought that ten he was playing in
Speaker 5: one of his first pro games. I thought he looked
Speaker 5: composed and obviously their their set piece was a real threat.
Speaker 4: So yeah, they played a good game and a game
Speaker 4: that we expect them to to play.
Speaker 5: So some some positive stuff from us, but but definitely
Speaker 5: some some stuff to walk on.
Speaker 3: I know it's not necessarily your area, Mike, but the
Speaker 3: scrums were were really massy, especially in the first half.
Speaker 3: Any idea why that.
Speaker 5: Was, what makes you think I don't knowing about scrums, unbelievable.
Speaker 4: I used to be I used to be a scrum.
Speaker 3: Half in that case, then I'm looking forward to your assessment.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we we We've gone the wrong side of the
Speaker 5: penalty kind I think one of the really pleasing things though,
Speaker 5: was that, you know, the scrum in the last kind
Speaker 5: of three.
Speaker 4: Minutes of the game.
Speaker 5: We've got a young, young set of props on and
Speaker 5: we and we shunted Stormers off the ball, so that
Speaker 5: that showed great resilience and they find a way obviously
Speaker 5: around the scrum. There is some some work to do there,
Speaker 5: but you know, we've got some great coaches.
Speaker 4: You're going to do a good job with them.
Speaker 3: He mentioned before. A couple of work on areas and
Speaker 3: a bit of frustration around certain parts of the game.
Speaker 3: Anything in particular that you'll be that you'll be focusing
Speaker 3: on in the review.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we created opportunities and we've just got
Speaker 5: to be really ruthless with those opportunities. And I think
Speaker 5: we've probably left three or four tries out there that
Speaker 5: on other days it's just you know, performing the basics well,
Speaker 5: so you know there's a bit of rustiness as well there.
Speaker 5: Guys haven't played in a in a reasonable amount of time,
Speaker 5: so it'll be great that they've got that game under
Speaker 5: their belts and we'll see improvement going ahead.
Speaker 3: In the two, you had three yellow cards shown to
Speaker 3: your players. Any issue with any of those.
Speaker 4: Mike, I'm I'm not too sure to be honest.
Speaker 5: I think we almost felt that we would rather have
Speaker 5: given away the the try on that the storm is
Speaker 5: more rather than getting the yellow card and another five
Speaker 5: minute liner to defend. I think you know, when you
Speaker 5: when you stay high and there's a bit of head contact,
Speaker 5: you're always bringing the TMO into it. And I think
Speaker 5: the last one with with Josh was was was touch
Speaker 5: and go. I can see why it was given, but
Speaker 5: it was you know, it was it could have gone
Speaker 5: either way, I think.
Speaker 4: On that one how it was ruled. So no, no
Speaker 4: real issues with that.
Speaker 5: We've we've got to look after our own stuff and we've
Speaker 5: got to be squeaky clean there to not give the
Speaker 5: opportunity to penalize us for that from now.
Speaker 3: Then it's quite a unique challenge, isn't it for the
Speaker 3: coaching group, in terms of the fact that you now
Speaker 3: need to prepare an almost entirely different group of players
Speaker 3: for Phoenix Challenge or what sort of challenge will that
Speaker 3: present to you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, things things speed up now for sure, and you
Speaker 5: know the work rate's going to be where the workload's
Speaker 5: going to be be high for the players and the
Speaker 5: coaches as well. So we just got to be really
Speaker 5: sharp around our reviews, our previews of what's coming. You know,
Speaker 5: we've got some excellent players, so their ability to pick
Speaker 5: up information and.
Speaker 4: Take that on and apply it should be really good.
Speaker 5: So it's a very challenging and when we're really looking
Speaker 5: forward to taking.
Speaker 3: On I know that there was never any doubt, but
Speaker 3: did today confirm that this is going to be a
Speaker 3: heck of a tour?
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: It was a brilliant atmosphere here, really competitive game, really
Speaker 5: physical game, and you know we've got another one coming
Speaker 5: up on Tuesday.
Speaker 3: My congrats on getting the first one on the board.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you taking the time for a chat.
Speaker 4: Awesome, thanks mate, No, thank you.
Speaker 3: Mike. Mike Blair, All Blacks attack coach, out of Cape Town,
Speaker 3: where the All Blacks have kicked off the greatest rivalry
Speaker 3: tour with the thirty eight to twenty one went over
Speaker 3: the Stormers. It looked like a side that hadn't played
Speaker 3: together very often, containing several players who haven't played any
Speaker 3: rugby for a while, which, of course it was. It
Speaker 3: was good to get the win to start the tour off,
Speaker 3: even if it did need that late flurry of tries
Speaker 3: to get the All Blacks across the line. Good to
Speaker 3: give some guys some rugby, good to add a couple
Speaker 3: more debutantes. But if there was any out about how
Speaker 3: tough this tour is going to be, and I don't
Speaker 3: think there was any doubt, but if there was, it
Speaker 3: was well and truly dispelled today and there is plenty
Speaker 3: to work on as the All Blacks now plot the
Speaker 3: rest of this tour, starting with the Sharks in Durban
Speaker 3: on Wednesday morning Tuesday night over there areas of particular focus.
Speaker 3: I've got four main ones. Number one the aerial ball,
Speaker 3: it is still an area of concern for the All
Speaker 3: Blacks and one which will absolutely without a doubt be
Speaker 3: targeted by the South African teams. Spring Box in particular
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, we just can't seem to effectively and
Speaker 3: consistently diffuse aerial threats. And when a kick goes up
Speaker 3: and one of our players goes up to get it
Speaker 3: and doesn't, the rebound almost always seems to go to
Speaker 3: the opposition. So the battle in the air Number one,
Speaker 3: Number two the scrum look, most of us don't have
Speaker 3: the depth of knowledge to know what goes on in
Speaker 3: there in minute detail. But they were a bit of
Speaker 3: a mess, weren't they. We were penalized a lot at
Speaker 3: scrum time, and the Stormers showed plenty of power, which
Speaker 3: all of the South African teams will over the next
Speaker 3: six weeks, not least of all the spring box. Number
Speaker 3: three more defense. The Stormers put pressure on from the
Speaker 3: lineouts close to the All Blacks line. The spring Box
Speaker 3: will do exactly the same, so giving away penalties which
Speaker 3: allow the opposition to kick for the line and set
Speaker 3: up for a driver, something that just can't be afforded
Speaker 3: by the All Blacks. And number four discipline three yellow carts.
Speaker 3: I thought the first one was questionable. Actually, Antonine Brown
Speaker 3: makes contact as he goes into the tackle with the
Speaker 3: upper chest first, and then it kind of slides up
Speaker 3: and makes contact with the head. Simon Parker, Josh Moreby
Speaker 3: also spending time in the bin. Look, it's hard enough
Speaker 3: to win in South Africa with fifteen guys. You can't
Speaker 3: be going to add to fourteen for large periods or
Speaker 3: thirteen as was the case for a while in this one.
Speaker 3: And on the discipline side of things, sixteen penalties conceded,
Speaker 3: including five in a row in the second half. So
Speaker 3: as they depart Cape Town for Durban and the Sharks
Speaker 3: Wednesday morning out time, there is a bit to chew over,
Speaker 3: plenty of room for improvement. Thankfully, I firmly believe the
Speaker 3: capacity for that improvement is there and the side that
Speaker 3: runs out against the Sharks on Wednesday morning will be
Speaker 3: demonstrably different to what we saw this morning. A lot
Speaker 3: of cobwebs shaken off this morning. It felt to me
Speaker 3: by players, as I say, who haven't had a heck
Speaker 3: of a lot of rugby. Look at guys like Simon Parker,
Speaker 3: Bowden Barrett, they hadn't played it all in July. The
Speaker 3: last time those guys played was the back end of
Speaker 3: Super Rugby. Boteen Barrett hasn't a game for a couple
Speaker 3: of months. Others in the same boat. L Preston didn't
Speaker 3: get any rugby during July, he got out there. Josh
Speaker 3: Jacob on debut. C ALILAWAKEI on debut. Combinations in the
Speaker 3: loose forwards and in midfield that haven't been used often,
Speaker 3: so there was always going to be a bit of clunkiness.
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