Former Wallabies were left in awe of Jordie Barrett\u2019s latest performance for the Bledisloe Cup-retaining All Blacks.<\/p>\n
Dave Rennie\u2019s side thrashed Australia 50-19 in Auckland last Saturday, bringing an end to the five-match unbeaten start that Les Kiss had enjoyed since succeeding Joe Schmidt as head coach.<\/p>\n
After Schmidt signed off with a win over Italy, Kiss had engineered wins over Japan (two), Argentina (one win and a draw) and South Africa to create an incredible level of hype heading into the Bledisloe Cup opener in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Despite the Wallabies not having defeated the All Blacks at Eden Park since 1986 and not having won the Bledisloe Cup since 2002, there was plenty of giddy optimism about them in the lead-up, especially as the hosts had recently been beaten 3-1 by the Springboks in Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry<\/a> series.<\/p>\n Australia, though, were served a lethal dose of humble pie with their seven tries to three hammering and the loss had former internationals Nick Phipps and Morgan Turinui singing the All Blacks\u2019 praises on the latest edition of the Between Two Posts<\/a> show.<\/p>\n \u201cWorld-class form\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Singling out midfielder Barrett for a \u201csublime\u201d performance that included his catch of a box kick in the creation of the opening try for Peter Lakai, show host Sean Maloney asked Phipps: \u201cHow do you stop Jordie Barrett? You\u2019ve been up against him like he\u2019s just a monster, right?\u201d<\/p>\n The retired scrum-half replied: \u201cHe [Barrett] is in world-class form at the moment. He\u2019s one of the best players in that space and everything is sort of starting to be directed through him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s interesting that box kick, and the one that we saw earlier in the game, 30 seconds in, (Joseph) Suaalii and Tommy Wright there, the positioning is just a little bit weird. Suaalii is sitting in that half space so when he\u2019s going to (try and) catch the ball, he\u2019s also chasing the ball over his shoulder.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re receiving a box kick, your biggest strength is attacking the ball, getting your knee up, and the person who has to go over his shoulder has to open up his vitals to try and take that ball.<\/p>\n \u201cSo just seems like a really weird positioning thing. I\u2019d prefer to see either Suaalii (further) back so he can attack that or Tommy Wright attacking that instead of just like the reverse over the shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n Sticking with the aerial battle dominated by the All Blacks<\/a>, Turinui added: \u201cThat\u2019s worth looking at again because it is a tactic that the All Blacks themselves tried a few times in South Africa.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: \u2018Sumptuous\u2019 All Black Jordie Barrett, \u2018swashbuckling\u2019 Saints and \u2018honeymoon over\u2019 for Les Kiss<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a little bit from the big teams around the world that now, because of the obligation to clear the space and not block to protect a catcher, more teams are wanting the Suaalii role to be running back and catching there. They want that to catch, so that Wright is in the slot to cover.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s such a hard take. You can see, especially with Joseph there, he\u2019s coming sort of in towards it, and then after that you know it\u2019s just really poor defensive decision-making from the Wallabies.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s a genuine tactic now to have the player going back with the ball, with Jordie Barrett, because you have equal right to the ball. There\u2019s no chance of blocking. It is, however, a much harder take and New Zealand, that was probably one of their big work-ons from South Africa and they definitely won that all-important aerial battle.\u201d<\/p>\n Away from the aerial game, Phipps was impressed by the number of post-contact metres clocked up by the All Blacks compared to the Wallabies, 391 to 280. It made a huge difference.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at the All Blacks, they get a real hard inside chop and then the second guy has the ability to just wrestle up top and finish him off. That\u2019s the brutality you\u2019re just speaking about,\u201d he reckoned.<\/p>\n All Blacks great claims Wallabies had \u2018false sense of security\u2019 as Dave Rennie\u2019s side faced the real Springboks<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe Wallabies are trying to get that physicality and that double punch up high, but with their leg drive and their ability to then latch on early and punch through that hole, we\u2019re just losing that advantage line.<\/p>\n \u201cThen when you have got the two up high as well, you\u2019re both falling backwards, you\u2019re on your back, there\u2019s no slowing the ball down. We didn\u2019t slow the ball down to the best of our ability on the weekend, and then they could just play tempo, tempo, tempo.<\/p>\n \u201cI was talking to a couple of the boys at the club this morning; they were just saying we didn\u2019t really get a chance to get on the ball. We weren\u2019t able to attack the ball and slow that down because they were so good at that breakdown, that clean, just getting over the ball that we know Dave (Rennie) loves so much.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the sort of difference at the moment. The stats around the leg drive post-contact metres were astronomical. The All Blacks were just constantly moving forward, even after contact, whereas the Wallabies weren\u2019t able to do that<\/a> because they\u2019re getting their legs just chopped out under them.\u201d<\/p>\n On the upside, Phipps had kudos for how Ben Donaldson performed as the Wallaby No.10, given it has been a position of much discussion with only a year to go before the start of Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.<\/p>\n All Blacks: Beauden Barrett opens up on the \u2018mental challenge\u2019 he faced during omission from Test side<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI thought Ben Donaldson had a great game,\u201d he enthused. \u201cTwo try assists, he was in and around the ball, a couple of kicks out on the full, a couple of mistakes, but he demanded the ball a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very chatty in attack. He was always communicating to that pod in front of him. And I thought in a period where everyone\u2019s asking who the 10\u2019s going to be, he\u2019s sort of stepped up in that space and he is playing really well.\u201d<\/p>\n Turinui was just as enthusiastic about scrum-half Ryan Lonergan, Donaldson\u2019s half-back partner. \u201cHe showed his work rate off the ball. I thought in a really challenging night at the breakdown, he managed that well in terms of his service to both his forwards and to Ben Donaldson. He\u2019s just a consistent performer at Test level.\u201d<\/p>\n Both ex-Wallabies were effusive in their praise for skipper Harry Wilson. \u201cThe stats are there: tackles, carries, he just put in a captain\u2019s knock, he put in a real shift and in times of the game when it was ebbing and flowing, he was the one leading that charge,\u201d reckoned Phipps.<\/p>\n \u201cThat try that he scored before half-time, if we didn\u2019t score that, it would have been a pretty tough start to the second half as well. But leading from the front, he\u2019s well and truly answered the small amount of critics through the season about his spot in the team and he\u2019s playing some really good footy.\u201d<\/p>\n Les Kiss backs Wallabies to \u2018return fire\u2019 in Bledisloe Cup rematch in Sydney after heavy Eden Park defeat<\/a><\/p>\n Turinui added: \u201cA lot of the chat is the fear about taking Rob Valetini out of his preferred position as much as it is anyone worrying about the way Harry plays. That\u2019s a tough match for a captain.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go to Eden Park, you\u2019re playing the All Blacks, it\u2019s not going well. And it wasn\u2019t words, it wasn\u2019t arguing with the referee \u2013 he put his head down, worked for 80 minutes and that\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Show host Maloney chipped in: \u201c28 tackles made, zero missed from the red head gear<\/a>. Just watching the way he moves around the field at the moment\u2026 he looks sharper. He just looks that couple of percentage points sharper with everything he does, the way he carries himself. He\u2019s in such good form.\u201d<\/p>\n