kiap
Steve Williams (59)
Interesting article from yesterday. . .
I deliberately left his name to the end, but it's from Stuart Barnes in The Times. The theme is not something new and he may be stretching the 'little' idea a bit too far — or a little too far with a bit of an idea? — but does have the basis of something in there.
The ABs aren't exactly small (and we don't have to stretch the memory on that). But they are not overly bulked and are optimised to play a faster, more skillful game for longer. It's the direction of Rugby now (unless some new 'interpretations' get introduced).
Little wonder Small Blacks are still thoroughbreds
Argentina have the unenviable task of trying to stop New Zealand making it 19 wins and one draw from their past 20 matches tomorrow morning. It is an incredible record. They are an incredible team. There can be few sports where one team maintain dominance for such duration as the All Blacks. And not just on the scoreboard.
The results are the consequence of an international team having the courage to ignore world trends and go their own way. In Darwinian terms, New Zealand professional rugby evolved one side of the mountain and the rest of the world the other. The rest of the world sees professional evolution in terms of size.
New Zealand are moving in another direction. Under Steve Hansen they are intent, to use horse racing parlance, on stripping fitter. The world’s best team are not trying to gain weight, but lose it. A couple of kilos here and there keeps them travelling at a speed that the rest of the world cannot maintain for the full 80 minutes.
Stuart Lancaster states that England’s players must be fitter. This is presumably a reaction to the summer tour and “lessons learnt”. But Kiwi fitness is only half the story. Their willingness to sacrifice size for speed breaks the mould that professional coaches have used to create their players.
The scenario is similar to the early years of Martin Pipe, the legendary National Hunt trainer. While the traditional world of jump racing was intent on admiring the size and scope of a steeplechaser, Pipe was revising the game with his adoption of interval training. Instead of a good old-fashioned canter, his horses were put on all-weather gallops and worked relentlessly like track athletes.
For a long time you could recognise a Pipe horse by the skinny frame, the absence of girth. Purists didn’t like the look of them but punters did. They won and kept winning until other trainers decided to adopt and adapt similar training techniques.
The All Blacks remind me of those early Pipe days. Their winning record is outstanding and their opposition seems intent on ignoring the obvious lessons to be learnt. They are — like Pipe’s horses used to be — fitter. The purpose of extra fitness is to play at a greater pace and the purpose of greater pace is to run teams off their feet, run them ragged as Pipe’s horses once did. The All Blacks’ great rivals, South Africa, have traditionally been bigger opponents and that physical edge was often to the Springboks’ advantage in the amateur days when the All Blacks went toe to toe. England have a pack that, in an arm wrestle, has the size and muscle to wear New Zealand down. This is why the All Blacks — and Hansen, in particular — have been redefining the way they play the game.
There are inherent risks. If Argentina can turn tomorrow’s match into 80 minutes of scrum and attrition, they have a chance, but if the South Americans are stretched . . .
. . .
To see the All Blacks at close range is to be astonished by the way in which they have laid to waste the clichés about size mattering quite so much as we are told it does. The half backs — the two Aarons, Smith and Cruden — would have been regarded as a diminutive duo in the 1970s. Their ability to keep the tempo of the game as high as possible is worth more than any amount of extra bulk.
Conrad and Ben Smith could have been All Blacks from 50 years ago. Tall and rangy, but blokes you would pass in the street without noting their physique. Their rugby brains are quite another matter.
Up front there is no better combination of locks at the moment than Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock. These are lean, angular men, as are Kieran Read and Richie McCaw in the breakdown. Dane Coles, their hooker, is the exception to the rule. He was told to find a few more kilos if he wanted to make the hooker’s shirt his, primarily because he is a natural lightweight.
At the highest level in rugby, speed is trumping size and brain beating brawn; until others understand and emulate, the All Blacks will remain on a higher plane of professionalism to the rest of the world.
I deliberately left his name to the end, but it's from Stuart Barnes in The Times. The theme is not something new and he may be stretching the 'little' idea a bit too far — or a little too far with a bit of an idea? — but does have the basis of something in there.
The ABs aren't exactly small (and we don't have to stretch the memory on that). But they are not overly bulked and are optimised to play a faster, more skillful game for longer. It's the direction of Rugby now (unless some new 'interpretations' get introduced).
