All Blacks coach admits to shortcoming caused by South Africa’s Super Rugby departure
All Blacks squad in a huddle during the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
New Zealand coach Jason Ryan concedes that the loss of the South African teams from Super Rugby has had an impact on their forward play.
Their teams were a staple of the competition since its inception in 1996, but they were dropped when Covid hit in 2020.
Australia and New Zealand have ploughed on since then, setting up Super Rugby Pacific which includes Pacific Island franchises Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika.
However, Ryan believes that the omission of the South African outfits has had a negative impact on both Super Rugby and the All Blacks themselves.
Improve in training
“It was always enjoyable playing the Boks in Super Rugby, in my experience, because of those big forward packs,” he told reporters. “You probably don’t have that sort of demand in Super Rugby as much as you used to.
“What’s important is that you just have to run scenarios in training and you have to make sure that you’re setting guys up to succeed through different situations that you can create.
“Super Rugby is probably not what it used to be, to be fair, but we can’t use that as an excuse. We have to get ourselves right in training. We learned that from the Test at Twickenham (which they lost 35-7 to the Springboks).”
New Zealand followed up that loss to South Africa with another defeat after they went down to hosts France in the opening game of the Rugby World Cup.
That means the All Blacks have a must-win encounter against Italy coming up on Friday and Ryan insists that they have to “step up.”
“We’ve got to move forward. We thought at the camp (in Bordeaux) it was really important for us to change gears, and as a forward pack we’re in a great spot to do that. We’ll have no excuses around that,” he said.
“It has to be a marker game for us as a pack. The boys have prepared well and we’re looking forward to executing what we’ve been working so hard on. Bordeaux had some good physical exchanges, and I blew the whistle a couple more times than I usually do. It’s a good sign.”
Impressive Italy
The All Blacks are clear favourites against Italy but they are wary of an improving Azzurri outfit, who have a number of talented young players in their matchday 23.
“They’re a strong side, they play with a lot of creativity, they use the ball really well, play fast at the ruck and have some good lineout variations,” Ryan added.
“They’ve shown in the last 12 months they are well coached, they’re physical and they pride themselves on a lot of energy they get off each other. They play with a lot of excitement and passion.”
