ABs now have a massive hill to climb

By LAURIE MAINS

The All Blacks are all of a sudden under immense pressure with their next Tri-Nations assignment in Sydney in two weeks time.

One thing you can't afford to do is lose a home game.

And if last night's loss wasn't bad enough, they now head across the ditch and take on Robbie Deans' Wallabies.

The pressure especially for the All Blacks coaches will now go up a notch.

And add to that pressure the fact that the Wallabies play a different style to that of South Africa and Graham Henry has a massive job on his hands.

The Australians are tactically smarter and they seem to be able to work the All Blacks out and counter them a bit better than the Springboks.

That doesn't necessarily make them more difficult to beat than South Africa but you do have to play them a different way and be a lot smarter.

The advantage we had in Dan Carter against South Africa was he's a smarter tactician than anyone they had.

It means field position against the Boks is a bit easier to get than against Australia.

And Australia will be more savvy and smarter than they have been for a long time now Deans has the Wallabies'reins.

Make no mistake, the stakes for the All Blacks coaches now they have to face Deans have been raised immeasurably.

Henry and co will feel more pressure because of what happened after the World Cup.

That pressure of wanting to do well will reflect through the team.

There are probably enough Crusaders in the All Blacks who have a great deal of respect for Robbie. But they will be going out there to win for the All Blacks not to beat Robbie.

They will be going out to beat the Wallabies and that is a positive.

But only time will tell if the Henry v Deans angle has a positive or negative effect on the All Blacks.

It's not panic stations for the All Blacks yet but clearly the `Boks could have won by a lot more last night if their passing has been more accurate and if they had a goalkicker in Carter's class.

The All Blacks didn't play badly but they did lack innovation on attack.

The Boks made it clear early that the All Blacks forwards were going to find Carisbrook a lot harder than the Cake Tin.

The Boks dominated physically and it stopped the All Blacks from getting that succession of good quality ball that Carter feeds on.

The All Blacks missed Brad Thorn and Ali William when he left the field but that wasn't the reason the All Blacks lost.

Our lineout was static and Adam Thomson needs to have a look at himself. He gave away too many crucial penalties and played too loose which meant Jerome Kaino was left to do the job of two men in tight tough stuff.

- © Fairfax NZ News