The second-half woes of last year’s All Blacks appear to be persisting in 2025, prompting changes for this weekend’s Bledisloe Cup clash at Eden Park.
The team’s attack coach, Jason Holland, spoke to the media following training at North Harbour Stadium on Tuesday, addressing several key talking points following their 43-10 defeat to the Springboks in Wellington – a game that saw the Boks pile on 36 unanswered points in the second period.
The kicking game, decision-making, and inability to score points late were all broached, and the latter yielded a definitive response from the assistant coach. When asked whether the use of the bench needs a rethink, Holland was clear.
“We’re changing that,” he said. “But look, that’s a feel thing from the coaches, isn’t it? And making sure that guys are in good spots to add when they come on.”
Team Form
Last 5 Games
4/5
Race To 10 Points
1/5
Both the selection of the bench and timing of its injection have been addressed by the coaches since the Sky Stadium loss, and it’s a particularly relevant weakness coming into a mini Test series against the Wallabies.
Australia have been scoring in bunches late in Tests throughout this Rugby Championship, overcoming significant deficits to at least push opponents to the very last minute, if not overtaking them on the scoreboard.
It’s not a sure-fire winning recipe, but it has Joe Schmidt’s men looking as competitive as any team in the 2025 tournament, with all four southern heavyweights sitting on two wins and two losses with two rounds remaining.
Holland said he and the All Blacks staff were well aware of Australia’s scoring tendencies.
“That’s been part of our conversations on Sunday. We saw similar stats, have gone deep on what halftime looks like, and what our first 10 minutes after halftime look like.
“It’ll come back to those things you keep hearing from me; our ability to apply pressure by having the ball.”
The Wallabies have scored 13 tries in the second half of games over the opening four rounds of the tournament, compared to New Zealand’s four. Holland labelled stats like those “powerful.”
“It’ll come back to our fundamentals around how we play. We’ve looked at a couple of things around how we stay focused on the little parts of our game when we’re fatiguing.
“But we’ve got to get back to our processes, our systems, and what works. Whether that’s in the first half or the second. But we’ve got a couple of things that we’re going to focus on around that second half.”