Woodcock likes All Blacks' pick-and-go game

PETER MEECHAM/Fairfax Media

TONY WOODCOCK: "In the second half we tightened right up and got ourselves back into the game with good, old-fashioned up-the-guts stuff. In the past that's how we have started against the Aussies."

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Tony Woodcock reckons there was one good thing to come out of Saturday night's defeat to the Wallabies in Brisbane in the All Blacks' final pre-World Cup hitout.

The veteran New Zealand prop was in his element when the All Blacks decided to play it tight and with might in the third quarter as they fought their way back from a 20-3 halftime deficit to level at 20-20.

All right, the All Blacks did run out of puff a little, and the Wallabies did steal the game 25-20 with that fabulous Will Genia-inspired try to Kurtley Beale.

But there was no doubting that the way the All Black forwards got their pick-and-go game going, chewed up territory, cut down errors and eventually converted pressure into points had some serious overtones about it.

Maybe it even offered a World Cup blueprint, particularly if conditions are on the slippery side in New Zealand during September and October, as they were in Brisbane.

Woodcock, for one, wouldn't mind seeing the All Black forwards take the lead role as they did in that 17-0 unanswered run in that third quarter at Suncorp.

"The conditions were pretty greasy and we might have tried to play a bit too expansively," said the 30-year-old who played just his second test of the year on Saturday after battling back from a foot injury. "In the second half we tightened right up and got ourselves back into the game with good, old-fashioned up-the-guts stuff. In the past that's how we have started against the Aussies."

The 76-test loosehead was then asked if they might just have established a style for the big games looming at World Cup time.

"I think so," he replied. "Conditions have to be taken into account. If it works it works, we've just got to keep doing it I guess."

Woodcock also declared himself fit and firing for the Cup after getting through 80 pretty brutal minutes against the committed Aussies.

"The result aside, I was happy with the way the foot went and pleased to get through it," he said. "I was confident I'd done enough training and was ready to play, but with any injury you have a little bit of doubt in the back of your mind. That's well and truly gone now."

The taciturn Helensville farmer said he was "pumped" for the global tournament which was now a reality with the Tri-Nations over.

"I guess for a lot of the guys it could be our last chance to play in the World Cup tournament. You just can't leave anything behind and say 'what if?' [If we don't win] it's going to be a hard one to swallow in 10 or 20 years' time."

With so little footy under his belt this year, Woodcock felt he had plenty of petrol in the tank for what shapes as a busy tournament for the team's only specialist loosehead. He also understood the responsibility he had after tipping out the in-form Wyatt Crockett.

On the positive side he also felt the All Black scrum "got things back on track" against the Wallabies.

In terms of the secret to World Cup success, the 76-test prop agreed that was the "million-dollar question".

He added: "It's all about doing your job well, and individuals stepping up when called upon. We're going to have to have depth, because there are going to be injuries. There are going to have to be guys stepping into people's boots and they have to do the job just as well as the guy who was there.

"And in the game of rugby you've just got to hold the ball, make tackles and be dominant. If you do all that you're going be all right."

With a pack full of seasoned performers, the North Harbour veteran felt good about the next couple of months.

"We've all been playing together for a long time. You get put into a lot of situations and you learn from them which means you get the tools to deal with them. But all the other teams are thinking the same as well. It's not an easy cup to win but we're going to give it our best crack."

- © Fairfax NZ News