Eddie Jones says that the All Blacks’ misfiring attack is a sign of a team growing and has pinpointed Beauden Barrett as part of the issue.

New Zealand were comprehensively beaten in Wellington in round four of the Rugby Championship with the Springboks outscoring them six tries to one in a 43-10 thrashing.

Head coach Rassie Erasmus selected a youthful backline for the fixture, with the Boks backs shining in the victory, particularly in the final quarter as South Africa ran riot.

In contrast, the All Blacks‘ phase-play attack stuttered, and Scott Robertson’s charges lacked the same accuracy and ruthlessness they had at Eden Park seven days prior.

All Blacks have ‘functional issues’

New Zealand notched the same number of 22 entries as they did in Auckland, but while they failed to capitalise just once in round three, in round four the statistic was flipped, with just one try from four visits to the Springboks‘ 22.

Japan head coach Jones and former Wallabies boss Ewan McKenzie reviewed the match on the Rugby Unity podcast, where the latter stated that “New Zealand just looked a bit off the pace everywhere,” adding that he “felt sorry for them” as they succumbed to their heaviest-ever defeat in Test rugby.

Jones was far more brutal in his review of the All Blacks’ performance and took aim at their desire to constantly give the ball width.

“The key stat is that South Africa had 110 carries for 629 metres, and New Zealand had slightly less, 95 for 262 metres. Unfortunately, you don’t get any points for going to the sideline,” he remarked. “So that’s the game, mate.”

It wasn’t just the accuracy on attack where the Springboks got the upper hand, according to Jones, who praised their work in the air and their set-piece, with South Africa effectively firing on all cylinders, leading to only one result.

“South Africa won the aerial contest, I think the first 10 balls, they won eight or nine of them, they won the lineouts, they had the advantage in the scrum in the first half – so, you put all that together, it’s a pretty conclusive victory,” he added.

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McKenzie also weighed in on the All Blacks’ woeful attack in Wellington, stating that far too often, the playmaker behind the pod of forwards was stationary, which meant that they got caught behind the gain-line.

“When you are watching the All Blacks’ games now, on their phase attack, they drop the pass out the back to a playmaker, but it’s a very stationary action, so yes, they they they toss the ball out the back, but it’s to a guy standing still,” he explained.

“So there’s no momentum to capitalise on. You compare that with what Argentina do, where there’s someone coming onto the ball hard and they’re able to capitalise on the pace and get wider of the ruck – I didn’t see any value from that phase attack and they’ve been doing it for a while and it’s been successful, but I got a feeling that maybe they have to have a rethink about how they are setting up their phase play because it just looked a bit predictable and and they’re unable to get to the advantage line.

“There was one occasion when they had a deep backline set, and I think they kicked from 12, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s clearly no communication because there was no chase’ – there are functional issues going on there.

“I know they lost their half-back early, but Christie has been playing pretty much all the games, and he’s been pretty solid, but there are clearly some functionality issues in the way they are trying to play the game. When you look at what is going on elsewhere, they are looking off the pace.”

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Barrett contradiction

While he was rather bullish in his opening remarks on the All Blacks, Jones did have sympathy for Robertson and his men and said that there are signs that they are improving. He believes that they are still trying to iron out the finer details on how they want to attack but added that Barrett’s switching between full-back and fly-half in recent years has not aided their cause.

The veteran back was pushed back to the number 15 jersey before the 2023 Rugby World Cup under former head coach Ian Foster but has returned to the first-five position with Richie Mo’unga ineligible for the All Blacks afer joining Toshiba Brave Lupus after the global showpiece. In Mo’unga’s absence, Robertson has turned to Damian McKenzie and Barrett to fill the void.

“New Zealand are an interesting team in attack, I think they’re still trying to find their way, and I don’t think they’re quite sure how they want to play, which is symbolic of a team that’s growing,” he said.

“Scott Robertson has only been in the job for 18 months. It’s a new coaching staff, they don’t have really established players at 10 and 15.

“Now that’s a bit of a contradiction because Barrett has played over 100 Tests, but hasn’t played a lot of rugby at 10 over the last period of time, and he seems to loathe taking the ball as a first receiver.

“He seems to like taking it as a second receiver, and that means now they’re playing so deep that unless everything absolutely clicks, they’re a long way from the gain-line and their forwards have got a long way to go back to attack again, and that resulted in the smaller number of metres they gained.”

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