All Blacks legend pins Argentina loss on ‘strategic’ shortfalls, urges Scott Robertson to follow Rassie Erasmus’ example
Murray Mexted believes that the All Blacks should look to Rassie Erasmus' tactics with the Springboks following their Rugby Championship loss to Argentina.
Murray Mexted believes that the All Blacks paid the price for throwing caution to the wind in their defeat to Argentina in the Rugby Championship.
Following the shock loss to Los Pumas, the back-rower has also urged All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson to follow the lead of his Springboks counterpart, Rassie Erasmus, in order to win more Test matches.
All Blacks’ shortfall
The former back-rower, who played 34 Tests for the All Blacks, was critical of Robertson’s tactics in the Rugby Championship opener against Argentina but also noted that the side has lost key individuals following the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick’s retirements paired with the injury to Scott Barrett meant that New Zealand had a youthful trio of locks in action against Los Pumas which impacted their set-pieces.
Mexted believes that the fresh faces in the second-row will now need to mentally adjust, having learnt what Test rugby is all about.
“The first thing we have to accept is this is a Test match and it is called that for that exact reason, it is a test,” he told SENZ.
“And when you are tested, you find weaknesses. All of sudden we have lost two of our iconic locks in Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock which is hard to lose.
“So, it is a big deal and we have new players who now probably understand what a Test match is really all about. It will require a mental adjustment.”
Learning from the Springboks
But Mexted was not willing to stick the blame of the result on the youthfulness of the squad and the shaky performance of the lineout.
He did point to the size of the All Blacks coaching staff as well as the lack of strategic tactics, adding that Robertson could learn from Erasmus and how the Springboks approached the Rugby World Cup final.
“Strategically, the coaches, and there are a lot of them with the All Blacks, probably too many coaches frankly, if everyone is putting their five bob in and you get a compromised solution,” he said.
“They do need to look at the game strategically and how they played that game by throwing caution to the wind and they paid the price. In other words, they moved the ball and played to play – which we are the best in the world at – but they threw caution to the wind and you can’t expect to win a big Test match by doing that.
“Rassie Erasmus is the best example of this, the South Africans didn’t care whether they didn’t throw the ball around in the final of the World Cup. All they wanted to do was win the World Cup and I was sitting there thinking ‘Here is a team playing to win and we are playing to play’.
“We were undone by that and everyone has forgotten the strategic game that the Springboks played and I believe that we need to start playing a strategic game to start winning Test matches.”
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Half-back struggles
Mexted believes that the All Blacks’ half-backs are partly to blame for the lack of strategic direction against Argentina as he felt that TJ Perenara and Damian McKenzie were simply shifting the ball on without much direction.
“You can really question the decision-making of our nine and ten at the moment – they are very decisive positions – but for the bulk of our game, there seems to be a lot of just catch and pass and not a lot of strategic play. It will have to be looked at,” he added.
“There isn’t anything wrong with McKenzie or TJ, they are bloody good rugby players but the gameplan and their ability to execute it was just not there for this Test match and that’s why we lost the game.”
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