All Blacks acknowledge ‘reality’ of crucial shortcoming against Springboks despite ‘no shortage of talent’
All Black Anton Linert-Brown.
Experienced centre Anton Lienert-Brown revealed that the All Blacks have spoken about the shortcomings of their bench impact after two painful losses against the Springboks in South Africa.
On both occasions, the All Blacks were in a decent position in the game before being blown away by the Springboks infamous Bomb Squad in the final 20 minutes.
After giving up a 10-point lead in the first Test head coach Scott Robertson decided to beef up his bench with veteran duo Beauden Barrett and TJ Perenara but even that did not work.
“Honest conversations”
Lienert-Brown has been one of the stars featuring off the pine for the most part this campaign and he admits the team is addressing the issue.
“We’ve had those honest conversations about it,” he told the NZ Herald. “We know when the All Blacks are at their best, the bench comes on and finishes off the game.
“The reality is we haven’t. We probably could have iced two games in South Africa, but we didn’t.
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“We’re having the right conversations here, the right conversation to have is to acknowledge it, to know we need to be better.
“There’s no shortage of talent coming off the bench. It’s just the way we execute those last minutes.”
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“Team first”
The midfielder is no stranger to coming off the bench having done so on 32 occasions in 75 Test matches and while he admits he would like to start he insists the team comes first regardless of the role given.
“You always want to be starting,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about the team first.
“I’ve had conversations with the coaches about the reasons why. I understand that at the moment, it’s a bench role.
“It is what it is. I’ll push as hard as I can to be starting. But at the end of the day, I’m always grateful to be in the squad, and putting on the black jersey.”
The All Blacks lie in third spot on the Rugby Championship table with only one win from four and now their attention turns to the basement dwellers, Australia, for the Bledisloe Cup Tests.
