{"id":258617,"date":"2025-11-03T00:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258617\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T00:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:34:10","slug":"pundit-weighs-in-on-where-the-all-blacks-struggled-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258617\/","title":{"rendered":"Pundit weighs in on where the All Blacks struggled in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For long periods of the All Blacks<\/a>\u2018 Test victory over Ireland<\/a> in Chicago, Scott Robertson\u2019s side struggled to wrestle momentum in their favour, and couldn\u2019t build phases to hurt Andy Farrell\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

But then suddenly, with about 20 minutes to go, like the All Blacks of old, they clicked into gear with the bench making a real impact to take the game by the scruff of the neck.<\/p>\n

This was the turning point of the encounter, after Ireland had frustrated the Kiwis in the opening half by trying to slow the game down.<\/p>\n

Current Sky Sport commentator and former Bay of Plenty<\/a> prop Ben Castle says that Farrell\u2019s side found a way to try and slow the All Blacks down, which worked well in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough, when you look at this performance for Scott Robertson<\/a> and this coaching team, they might be thinking to themselves, they\u2019ll like what they\u2019ve seen in parts, but they won\u2019t like how teams have found out a way to slow them down,\u201d Castle said on The Breakdown on Sky Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cKick the ball out, slow down that line out, get it into the crowd so they can\u2019t go quickly. Slow down the defensive play. Slow down the ruck, get the ball away, make them chase back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think from an All Black point of view, we\u2019d love to attack and love to counter attack but it\u2019s often taken away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt frustrates them, and we saw in the first half, but what they will see on the other side is how good it was in that second half. There\u2019s still stuff to work on, but how good it was in that second half, how they controlled possession, and that got the width and tempo into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former All Black centurion Mils Muliaina<\/a> believes that the bench players are starting to understand their bench roles, as well as applying the game plan effectively.<\/p>\n

Both Tamaiti Williams<\/a> and Wallace Sititi<\/a> came on and affected the Test match in a positive way, scoring a try each to close out the game for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Scotland <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re starting to understand, those lessons that they\u2019ve sort of had from that not being able to finish with guys understanding their roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to build really good depth, in some cases right now, when your captain and vice captain go down, but the guys that sort of step in are beginning to become comfortable, being uncomfortable now.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom not being able to finish guys understanding their roles, and possibly the coaches are also starting to understand what game plan they want to sort of implement around these guys, so the game was was messy, but they won in a fashion that sort of showed, hey, we have a plan and we\u2019re going to stick to it, and everyone is aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For long periods of the All Blacks\u2018 Test victory over Ireland in Chicago, Scott Robertson\u2019s side struggled to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-258617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258617","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=258617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}