All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson is off to the perfect start, as the newly appointed New Zealand boss chalked up his first win in charge. The All Blacks battled to a narrow victory against England last night at the Forsyth Barr Stadium, with the hosts clinging to the 16-15 win at full-time.
As expected in such a high-stakes Test match, the fixture came down to the finer margins in Dunedin. England fly half Marcus Smith left eight points out on the pitch, with an assortment of missed penalties and conversions proving costly come full-time. There was plenty of kicking-related drama on the All Blacks front as well, as Damian McKenzie’s penalty was timed out by the non-existent shot clock late on in the second half.
However, the coach known as Razor’s primary feeling was that of ‘relief’, once the referee blew for the final whistle to confirm his side’s victory. Robertson was as charismatic as ever as he spoke to the post match media in Dunedin, with his focus starting to shift towards the incoming Eden Park Test with England next Saturday. Here are the five biggest talking points to come out of the press conference.
1. “Wasn’t Super Rugby, was it!” – Robertson reacts to his first Test match as head coach
Robertson is over the line for his first match as All Blacks head coach, and the former Crusaders boss certainly noticed the step-up from Super Rugby. Having dominated the domestic landscape with seven consecutive league titles decorating the Christchurch trophy cabinet, Robertson expressed his relief of getting the first win under his belt with the All Blacks.
SCOTT ROBERTSON: “It definitely wasn’t Super Rugby was it, especially when you get into two or three phases then a kick. You know, and just going into the little in battles and the work off the ball, and how brave you have to be in the air.”
“Well, it’s good to be one for one. Could have been obviously a little bit different what pleased. It wasn’t pretty, it was a bit like this wasn’t it, the first half we had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t take and played some great footy and they (England) hung on and were desperate.”
“Relief just relief. That’s the honest call. I think because, when we got into the second half, I thought here we go. This is exactly what they need. No, I thought it was amazing. There’s no red, we didn’t get any HIA’s there’s no cards, there’s no anything and we prepared for that.”
2. Scott Robertson addresses Damian McKenzie’s timed out kick
One of the biggest areas of contention from the match, was Damian McKenzie’s penalty kick being timed out despite the absence of any shot clock. The Chiefs man was given the full 60 seconds to have the shot at goal, yet failed to send the ball towards the sticks in his allocated time. Speaking on whether the All Blacks should have a shot clock ready for next weekend’s match at Eden Park, Robertson gave a witty reply on how he’ll contact the All Blacks CEO.
SCOTT ROBERTSON: “Yeah, it would be nice to have a shot clock to see it count down. But a million other teams, other sports do, yeah.”
“Will I be ringing Eden Park? Yeah, for the shot clock, I’ll get Matt Robinson to do that (laughs).”
“Those little, small margins here, you’ve got to just kick those goals, every point counts and every opportunity counts. Especially when you are inside someones 22m. Just those little margins were tight.”
“Yeah look, he thought in his mind, that he is all right. But it’s the ref who’s got the whistle isn’t it, so we’ll learn from it. He (McKenzie) takes a little bit longer than normal, said it was on the mark, and he just started the run up. Look, we’ve got to own it, he’s going to own it, we could understand that that’s where the game is going. We’ve got to be quicker.”
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