Murray Mexted highlights key factor which All Blacks have improved in and must master to beat Springboks
Josh Lord wins lineout possession for New Zealand against Ireland and ex-All Blacks number eight Murray Mexted (inset).
All Blacks legend Murray Mexted has highlighted how vital dominating the possession stakes have been for the men in black in winning their recent Tests and how crucial it will be on their tour to South Africa.
The former New Zealand number eight was interviewed recently on the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin, and he highlighted how important it was to have the bulk of the possession in their 40-21 Nations Championship victory over Ireland.
Mexted has been pushing for the All Blacks to bulk up their forward pack with bigger players for a long time as he believes it helps them to win a fair share of possession in matches.
The All Blacks had most of the ball in Saturday’s win over Ireland at Eden Park, and Mexted feels vindicated after imploring them to take control of that facet of play in a bid to win more Tests.
“So, to me before that game, I said publicly, if we can win 58% of possession, we’ll win the game by 10 points,” he explained.
“Well, I think the way it turned out, we won 59% of the possession, and we won by 19 points. So, you’d have to say that’s a big tick. Well done, lads.
“I mean, it’s a great start. It’s a great start for Dave Rennie. And I think they’ve made some decisions that already tell us that they’re going to be a good success, a good combination.”
While Mexted is encouraged by the All Blacks’ improvement in that area, he warned that another “challenge” lies in wait in South Africa during their upcoming Greatest Rivalry series against the Springboks.
“But hell, they’ve got a big bloody challenge ahead of them,” he said.
‘It’s going to be a real challenge’
“You know, this next step into Africa, into Africa rather than out of Africa in my view, geez, it’s going to be a real challenge. And a lot of people probably don’t understand it.
“I mean, even things like altitude, people will forget about. But half those players, three-quarters of those players in the All Blacks team don’t know what altitude is.”
New Zealand will head out to South Africa in early August with the All Blacks taking on all four of the United Rugby Championship sides ahead of three clashes with the Springboks in Johannesburg (twice) and Cape Town, before Baltimore hosts the fourth and final Test on September 12.
Regular lock Tupou Vaa’i was one player who shone for the All Blacks in their win over Ireland and what made his performance extra special was the fact that he was playing on the blindside flank – a position which Mexted has been urging for him to be selected at regularly for the All Blacks.
Vaa’i combined brilliantly with fellow loose forwards Ardie Savea and Luke Jacobson, and Mexted praised all three players for their contribution towards the end result.
“I think you’ve got to discuss the whole loose forward trio in one hit here, because loose forwards are a trio, you’ve got to have a trio,” he said.
“If you’ve got three individual players and they’re brilliant, the trio is going to be no good. You’ve got to have a trio that work together. And it’s got to be balanced. And today, the game is evolving much quicker.
“And you just need to look at the scoreboard. There’s a lot of tries and a lot of activity right across the field. So, it’s a different game to what it was a year ago, to what it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago.
“But the same thing remains that access to the ball from the scrum, you’ve really only got two players that can get to where the players where the action is. And that’s it provided it goes openside, that’s the openside flanker and the number eight. Now, we saw an interesting thing.
“We saw Dave Rennie come out straight away and play Savea at eight. Why did he play Savea at eight? Is Savea big enough as an international eight? The answer is probably no. Is he good enough? The answer is absolutely yes.
‘I think the game is about possession’
“Can he lead from there? Absolutely yes. Does he know the position? Absolutely yes. There’s an X-factor with Savea, but is he big enough? See, because I think the game is about possession.
“And without being a bloody squeaky record, 58% of possession, I worked out that if we could win 58% of possession against Ireland on the weekend, we would win by 10 points. Well, we won 59%.”
Mexted reiterated the importance of having the bulk of the possession for the All Blacks, particularly when they take on the Springboks later this year.
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“I think possession is bloody important, but there’s no journalists that I read in our newspapers that talk about possession, how significant possession is,” he said.
“So, an example is we went to South Africa about a year ago (2024 actually), just over, isn’t it? And we won 41% of ball and 42% of the ball and we got beaten. And we think that’s unusual. It’s not unusual.
“Everyone talks about us getting beaten. Why we got beaten? Well, we got beaten because we didn’t win enough ball. If you don’t get the ball, you don’t score points.
“You can’t go to South Africa and have all those outside influences that exist in South Africa. Don’t say they don’t because they do. There’s outside pressures that don’t exist anywhere else in the world.
“Altitude’s a big one. Environment’s another big one. And the third one is you’re playing against big men, big men that win possession and they base their whole game on winning the ball and having the ball and smashing the opposition and putting the ball up in the air.
“They play a different type of game. They say, ‘We will monster you in Africa’. And that’s what they’ve been doing for bloody decades.
“I was going to say hundreds of years, but decades they’ve been doing it for. And they’re not going to stop now. That’s their game.”