Veteran Sky Sports commentator Grant Nisbett, who has called over 350 All Blacks Tests, has shared his thoughts on what could trouble the All Blacks in the upcoming matches against the Wallabies, starting on September 27 at Eden Park.
The All Blacks will need to bounce back with a huge performance to keep their 51-game unbeaten streak alive at Eden Park in just under two weeks time, as the Wallabies will also be hoping for a response after a disappointing defeat to Argentina in Sydney.
It’s uncharacteristic for the All Blacks to miss over 40 tackles in a single Test match, which for Nisbett, is the root of the problem for Scott Robertson’s side.
“Yeah, we pride ourselves on our defence normally, I mean it’s an individual thing, you either make a tackle or you don’t make a tackle and we don’t often have things running at us” Nisbett told Daniel McHardy on Sport Nation’s Afternoons.
“We’re going to find that out because the Wallabies are going to run at us, and they’ll run all day because that’s their style. Argentina did a bit of running at us, but we didn’t fold.
“I can’t put it down to any individual thing, I just simply don’t know how we were missing tackles that normally you’ve got to make that first up tackle. Once you miss that first up tackle, it gives them real front foot ball.
“I’m sure they’ll sit down and analyse the whole damn thing till they’re blue in the face. But, yeah, defence is a key part of the international game.”
Throughout their storied history, the All Blacks have often enjoyed some incredible depth at their disposal, but Nisbett believes New Zealand currently don’t have the depth they once had.
“Well, I found myself thinking after the game that we don’t have the same depth as South Africa. I mean, they made so many changes and we would never have done that.
“If we’d lost it at Eden Park we might have had a little tweak here and there. I know we made a couple, because we had two, and that necessitated maybe changing other players around.
“But the Springboks were bold enough and brave enough to make so many changes and also telegraph it about five days out before game, which sort of gave the opposition plenty of time to think about it.
“I don’t know whether we’ve got the same depth as maybe we thought we had. We always pride ourselves on saying, well, you know, if someone falls over, there’ll be someone else who can pick up and run with it. But I’m not quite so certain about that.”
Throughout the 2025 season for the All Blacks, there has been lots made of the constant aerial issues Robertson’s men are having, as well as some negative tactical kicking that fans and pundits believe are creeping into the Kiwis’ game.
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Nisbett explains on Sport Nation that at times, the All Blacks lacked a proper kicking strategy against the Springboks in Wellington.
“It almost looked to me like there wasn’t a plan, it was sort of adlib, but here we find Beuden Barrett trying to chip it behind the defence, but he’s actually got a lineup of blokes outside and with an overlap.
“I obviously don’t know where that’s a strategy, there wasn’t as much box kicks from us anyway, as we saw at Eden Park. But that may well have been because of conditions at Eden Park because when it is winter, you really want to play field position.
“But there’s no sort of excuse on Saturday night for endless box kicking. The Springboks did it because they knew that we were struggling to catch them, but look I simply don’t know what the kicking strategy is, if there
is one.”