{"id":511158,"date":"2026-07-05T17:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T17:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/511158\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T17:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T17:18:15","slug":"all-blacks-v-france-assistant-coach-mike-blair-on-the-all-blacks-attacking-blueprint-moving-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/511158\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks v France: Assistant coach Mike Blair on the All Blacks\u2019 attacking blueprint moving forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t always stick<\/a> and the skill execution, the option-taking, needs refinement but with their speed of ruck, ball movement, freedom, offloading and bodies in motion, the All Blacks\u2019 attack evoked memories of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

One match into Rennie\u2019s tenure and New Zealand have a clearly defined direction.<\/p>\n

In many ways, this approach makes sense.<\/p>\n

Rugby in the modern age,<\/a> in its constant quest to improve the on-field product, continues to embrace law tweaks such as free kicks from scrums to minimise stoppages and speed up the game.<\/p>\n

\"CamCam Roigard scored two tries for the All Blacks in their win over France. Photo \/ Alyse Wright <\/p>\n

New Zealand rugby players inherently want to use the ball. This is true throughout history. But so, too, is this approach now prevalent in both hemispheres, with this year\u2019s Six Nations dominated by high-scoring contests.<\/p>\n

Rennie and new All Blacks attack coach Mike Blair, while only one match into their budding national partnership, grasp where the game is going.<\/p>\n

Combine that with a quest to embrace New Zealand\u2019s natural athleticism and, with more time together, there is already a sense the All Blacks could soon rekindle their elite attacking potential.<\/p>\n

Peter Lakai and Cam Roigard\u2019s tries are examples of how lethal the All Blacks can be when they get it right to capitalise on quick, clean ruck ball.<\/p>\n

An area that consistently struggled to fire the last two years, with individual brilliance relied on far too heavily, has rapidly improved \u2013 and should only get better as cohesion builds, ruthlessness increases and conditioning comes to grips with Rennie\u2019s demands for repeat efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you coach a team, you look at how the game is being played, the direction it\u2019s going, the quality of player you\u2019ve got, the skills they\u2019ve got and then try and mould and formulate a plan to get the best out of them,\u201d Blair said one day after the All Blacks\u2019 34-32 win.<\/p>\n

\"QuinnQuinn Tupaea tries to break out of a tackle in the All Blacks’ test against France in Christchurch. Photo \/ Alyse Wright<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about momentum and how you can play with that. We\u2019ve talked about multi options and everyone being alive. It\u2019s giving the players a bit of freedom and not being really structured, letting guys express themselves. They\u2019ve got huge natural ability, so letting that be at the forefront of our attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty pleased. We created a lot of opportunities, some of them we didn\u2019t take. That\u2019s a bit of rustiness, a bit of cohesion, with the players. It\u2019s not a huge amount of time we\u2019ve had together. We\u2019ll build on that next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time in the saddle, training together, working together to get that cohesion.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid they enjoy the speed of the game? I\u2019m not too sure. They worked really hard and they\u2019re feeling it this morning, but we\u2019ve shown the players where we have to be to play that type of game. We\u2019ve got a good idea of it now, and some hard work ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a hard and fast track under the Christchurch roof, the All Blacks relished the chance to play. Their ball-in-hand approach was starkly evident as they kicked just six times in the first half. The box kick, in particular, was largely shelved.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe All Blacks began their season with a win over France in Christchurch. Photo \/ Alyse Wright<\/p>\n

With Wellington forecast to whip up its usual wind and rain, the All Blacks may need to adapt, slightly, against Italy next weekend but during their breathless championship-winning run, the Hurricanes proved attack does not have to be hindered by conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think we\u2019re dangerous with ball in hand and we can stress opposition with that,\u201d Blair said. \u201cWe probably could have kicked a little bit more to have a bit more balance to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cKicking isn\u2019t a negative thing. It can be used to break a game up, to create unstructured turnovers and counter-attack. We need to get the balance right with that but I love the mentality to go after the French team, hold on to the ball and create stress on their defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attacking blueprint is set. Finish a few more chances and the All Blacks could again become a potent beast.<\/p>\n

Liam Napier<\/a> is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t always stick and the skill execution, the option-taking, needs refinement but with their speed of ruck,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5263,2731,155261,8136,80303,34635,4487,1320,19134,1221,20409,1456,2686,3607,111,43,139,69,90,223],"class_list":["post-511158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-all","tag-assistant","tag-attacking","tag-blacks","tag-blair","tag-blueprint","tag-christchurch","tag-coach","tag-forward","tag-france","tag-liam","tag-mike","tag-moving","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}