Murray Mexted has reiterated the importance of tall loose forwards for the All Blacks when they take on England in Saturday\u2019s Autumn Nations Series Test at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.<\/p>\n
This is a topic which the legendary All Blacks number eight has highlighted on several occasions over the past year and although All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson has introduced the likes of regular lock Tupou Vaa\u2019i and Simon Parker in his back-row in 2025, he opted for short loose forwards in Ardie Savea, Wallace Sititi and Peter Lakai to start their last Test against Scotland at Murrayfield with Savea the tallest of that loose trio at 1,90 metres.<\/p>\n
The All Blacks<\/a> made a bright start to that game and raced into a 17-0 lead at half-time before Scotland launched a fightback after the interval and drew level at 17-17 by the hour-mark before backline replacement Damian McKenzie scored a try and slotted a penalty in the final quarter to secure a 25-17 triumph for the men in black.<\/p>\n And Mexted<\/a>, who made 34 Test appearances for New Zealand between 1979 and 1985, believes Scotland took advantage of the All Blacks\u2019 lack of length in their back row, which helped them to come storming back in the second half.<\/p>\n \u201cI reckon we had the smallest loose forward trio, the shortest loose forward trio in the world that played last week,\u201d Mexted told DSPN<\/a> with Martin Devlin.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in the \u201970s, we might have had two players that were short. I think Alex Wiley had the number eight berth at that stage.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of guys that were just openside flanker size, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve actually got at the moment. Now, you can\u2019t play the game where possession is king if you\u2019ve got three loose forwards who are short, unless somebody else is winning ball. Now, my big problem with the game against Scotland is we\u2019re up 17-0 at half-time.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty impressive, wasn\u2019t it? 17-0 at half-time, you know, and I thought that\u2019s pretty good. What happened in the second half is the Scots came back. Now, why they came back, there are a number of reasons for that.<\/p>\n \u201cOne, we may have let them back into the game. That\u2019s one reason. Number two, they won a hell of a lot more ball than us.<\/p>\n So, at half-time, we\u2019d won 53% of the ball. At the end of the game, the Scots had won 53% of the ball, and we\u2019d won 47%. So, we didn\u2019t win enough.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we played Scotland at Edinburgh. So, if you\u2019re an All Black team, and you go away, and you want to beat every team in the world like we\u2019ve wanted to for 100 years, then you\u2019ve got to go to their ground, with their atmosphere and with sort of local referees.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I say local referees, you know, there may be English referees who are used to refereeing in the Northern Hemisphere, different from the rugby (in the) Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s lots of things that favour the home team.<\/p>\n \u2018You\u2019ve got to get more than your share of possession\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo, to go and beat the home team, you\u2019ve got to get more than your share of possession. You have to get over 50%. So, against Scotland, we only got 47%.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, you\u2019d have to say \u2018Is that enough?\u2019 Absolutely not. Is it good enough for an All Black team? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n All Blacks: Five ways Scott Robertson can handle Caleb Clarke\u2019s absence against England<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAre we going to beat everybody if we get 47% of the ball? Probably not. So we need to get more ball. So, how do you get more? And you\u2019ve got three loose forwards who are all sort of really good with the ball in hand, but they\u2019re not winning much ball in the air.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, by half-time, the Scots had worked out that we only had two guys in the line-out. So, they started throwing it towards the back. So, most of their ball was won at the back of the line-out by this guy called Brown, you know? And he was, I don\u2019t know, Gregor Brown.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, that sounds pretty bloody Scottish to me. So, I looked up the stats on him. He\u2019s been around for a while.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s only 24, but he played for Scotland U20s. And, you know, he\u2019s about 1 metre 94, I think. So, he\u2019s tall.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s where they were winning ball. They were winning ball at the back of the line-out, which is really dangerous ball because you open up the short side. And so, I think that was the problem, was the possession factor.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd of course, the game is influenced by decisions that are made by the referee, whether they\u2019re good or bad. It doesn\u2019t matter. Decisions are made.<\/p>\n And I thought (referee) Nick Berry, I thought he had a great first half. I thought he had a terrible second half. And why that was, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s another reason, too. I think, you know, not only did the Scots work out that we were short a line-out forwards and moved it to the back, but they also contested the ball in the air. They didn\u2019t kick the ball out.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were kicking the ball out in the end. And the line-out count at the end, they beat us in the line-outs total. It was 13-10, I think it was, in line-outs.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, there\u2019s a lot wrong with what we did. One little thing I want to add, too. It\u2019s possible that this team, this team is quite a young team.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the game they played on the weekend against Murrayfield, there are a lot of players that are pretty new to the game at that level. Now, I\u2019m a great believer in mental strength.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019m wondering whether we have the mental strength at the moment.<\/p>\n \u2018That showed me that we\u2019ve got character\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo you go out, you win the first half 17-0, you come in and you lose the second half. You know, in the end, we made a fight, a comeback at the end. So that showed me that we\u2019ve got character.<\/p>\n \u201cThat showed me we\u2019ve got spirit. But the first 20 minutes or 25 minutes of the second half, Scotland beat us. There\u2019s no doubt.<\/p>\n We were up 17-0.\u201d<\/p>\n The All Blacks are chasing a Grand Slam and after beating Ireland and Scotland in the first two Tests of that campaign, they still have England and Wales to face before completing that campaign.<\/p>\n They are up against England<\/a> at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on Saturday, and Mexted feels they can\u2019t head into that encounter with the same tactics which they used against Scotland.<\/p>\n