{"id":145996,"date":"2025-09-15T22:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T22:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/145996\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T22:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T22:53:11","slug":"veteran-commentator-reveals-all-blacks-key-concern-before-wallabies-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/145996\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran commentator reveals All Blacks’ key concern before Wallabies Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Veteran Sky Sports commentator Grant Nisbett, who has called over 350 All Blacks<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> in Sydney.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we pride ourselves on our defence normally, I mean it\u2019s an individual thing, you either make a tackle or you don\u2019t make a tackle and we don\u2019t often have things running at us\u201d Nisbett told Daniel McHardy on Sport Nation\u2019s Afternoons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to find that out because the Wallabies are going to run at us, and they\u2019ll run all day because that\u2019s their style. Argentina did a bit of running at us, but we didn\u2019t fold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t put it down to any individual thing, I just simply don\u2019t know how we were missing tackles that normally you\u2019ve got to make that first up tackle. Once you miss that first up tackle, it gives them real front foot ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019ll sit down and analyse the whole damn thing till they\u2019re blue in the face. But, yeah, defence is a key part of the international game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout their storied history, the All Blacks have often enjoyed some incredible depth at their disposal, but Nisbett believes New Zealand<\/a> currently don\u2019t have the depth they once had.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I found myself thinking after the game that we don\u2019t have the same depth as South Africa. I mean, they made so many changes and we would never have done that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether we\u2019ve got the same depth as maybe we thought we had. We always pride ourselves on saying, well, you know, if someone falls over, there\u2019ll be someone else who can pick up and run with it. But I\u2019m not quite so certain about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the 2025 season for the All Blacks, there has been lots made of the constant aerial issues Robertson\u2019s men are having, as well as some negative tactical kicking that fans and pundits believe are creeping into the Kiwis\u2019 game.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Rugby Championship<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Australia <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nisbett explains on\u00a0Sport Nation that at times, the All Blacks lacked a proper kicking strategy against the Springboks in Wellington.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost looked to me like there wasn\u2019t a plan, it was sort of adlib, but here we find Beuden Barrett trying to chip it behind the defence, but he\u2019s actually got a lineup of blokes outside and with an overlap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously don\u2019t know where that\u2019s a strategy, there wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s 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\u2019t know what the kicking strategy is, if there
is one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Sky Sports commentator Grant Nisbett, who has called over 350 All Blacks Tests, has shared his thoughts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-145996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}