The more the All Blacks struggled in this area, the more they were targeted.
Super Rugby, with its emphasis on attack and ball movement, doesn’t traditionally prepare outside backs for the high ball demands they confront on the test scene.
But one of the major failings of Scott Robertson’s regime was the lack of improvement in this area.
Jordie Barrett takes a tumble after attempting to catch a high ball in Argentina. Photo/ Photosport
Enter Euan Mackintosh, the second Scotsman to join attack coach Mike Blair in Dave Rennie’s All Blacks management team.
Inverness-raised Mackintosh has a long affiliation with New Zealand.
One season playing for Christchurch club Belfast coaxed a return in 2017 for three years coaching at the Tauranga Sports club, with the Bay of Plenty under-19s and sevens team.
“If there was anywhere I wanted to test my coaching ability it was New Zealand,” Mackintosh tells the Herald.
After a stint abroad Mackintosh returned in 2022 to link with the New Zealand men’s sevens team for three years, working under now championship-winning Hurricanes coach Clark Laidlaw and Tomasi Cama.
He was then headhunted to join Todd Blackadder with Toshiba in Japan, before Rennie came calling with an offer to oversee the All Blacks skills this year.
In the age of hyper analysis and at times suffocating structures, honing finer skills can often be overlooked.
While assistant coaches Jason Holland and Tamati Ellison fulfilled these duties under Robertson, Andrew Strawbridge was the All Blacks’ last dedicated skills coach from 2022 through to the World Cup the following year.
From studying physical education in Edinburgh to his early injury-enforced transition to coaching, Mackintosh has long been inquisitive of the skills that underpin every rugby decision.
“There’s been huge shifts over the years around analysis on opposition and ourselves but we’ve got to continue to make sure we give players the best opportunity to grow their individual game.
“A lot of coaching for me is trying to speed up the process I refer to as how we learned to walk. We did that before we spoke and understood our first language. That’s the power of the brain.
“Although I can help, a huge part of it is individual. I coach a lot through feel and encourage players to be involved in the moment. That’s where the gold sits. If they can feel if something is too fast, too slow, too high, too low, they can make those adjustments.”
Fehi Fineanganofo wearing strobe glasses. Photo / Smartframe
One area the All Blacks must continue to grow is their high ball proficiency.
Witnessing the All Blacks’ kick receivers – from the back three to first five-eighths and Jordie Barrett – wearing glasses while leaping into the air at training is a strange sight but challenging sensory awareness is a specific shift Mackintosh has brought to this pivotal space.
Mackintosh says the strobe glasses, which he has used for the last six years, push boundaries by attempting to expedite improvement through challenging the brain.
“Depending on what setting they’re on, it cuts out half the information so when you’re trying to catch a high ball your brain must work harder than when you don’t have them on. It’s almost tricking the brain to go deeper so when you take them off, you’re more in a state of learning.
“A lot of players spend a lot of time doing skills. How can I help them get more from each rep? That’s a big philosophy of mine. If we do five high ball reps with the glasses on and then take them off hopefully we’re more alert.
“If you make them too hard you don’t catch the ball at all and you don’t get growth. If you make it too easy then you don’t get the challenge.
“There’s a big piece in there about how to use them and meeting the player where they’re at.
“Initially it’s quite a shock because it makes things really tough. That’s what puts the brain into the state of ‘I have to learn’.”
Mackintosh makes the comparison to extreme sports such as a snowboarder attempting to master a new halfpipe trick and the potential risk of suffering a broken neck if they don’t get it right.
“For us if we’re an 8/10 at catching, the consequences are not life-threatening. Extreme sports … they must tap into that deep learning state. When you put the glasses on it takes you back to a 3/10 and when they’re off the growth comes.
“If you keep repeating the same skill with the same thing that’s causing you problems, it’s tough to get growth.
“If we can break that down and find out … is it the tracking, catching ability, jump or form in the air? … we use the glasses to go deeper in that space.”
While Mackintosh’s main focus is improving the All Blacks’ individual and collective skills, he also assumes a wider brief to achieve the same across the New Zealand game – from age-grade teams to Super Rugby – which should enhance alignment.
“It will be an awesome opportunity to go into different teams and see how people are doing things to understand where we can make shifts, but for one specific team it won’t be dropping that into the next.
“There will be specific areas within teams and with individuals rather than working the same across every environment.
“I spend a lot of time working on multi-tasking and vision decisions so players can see pictures clearly, make decisions quickly and execute skills.
“Whether it’s a pass out the backdoor, a cross-field kick, running into the right space, all of that is gathering information in that moment.”
It’s early days in Mackintosh’s new national role but with a flash of light and a contrasting perspective, he could accelerate necessary change.
Liam Napier is a senior sports journalist and rugby correspondent for the NZ Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast.