All Blacks ‘rusty’

Press, 7 June 1983, Page 40

All Blacks ‘rusty’

NZPA Sydney The All Blacks were rusty and did not play up to their best in their first test win .over the Lions, said the Australian rugby coach, Bob Dwyer, yesterday. Mr Dwyer, who had just returned to Sydney after watching Queensland beat New South Wales in a weekend interstate match, watched the test match on television. He said the All Blacks served up nothing new in their performance, but warned they would get better as the series went on. “By the time we play them in August, they will be back up to what they were when they beat us last season,” he said. “But compared with the third test against us last year, their game on Saturday was definitely not as good.” Mr Dwyer said he had predicted that the Lions’ strengths would match the

All Blacks’ in the same departments — the forwards — and that was how it turned out. “Their strengths coincided with New Zealand in the line-outs, the back row forwards and the scrums,” he said. “Well, New Zealand got the better of the scrums I thought, but I don’t think the Lions’ loose trio — apart from Winterbottom — played as well as they might have.” And Mr Dwyer believed the All Blacks missed some of the generalship of the former captain, Graham Mourie, although the replacement flanker, Jock Hobbs, showed plenty of commitment. “There was nowhere near the thoughtful use of the ball at the breakdown that there was with Mourie,” he added. “Sometimes his judgment was almost uncanny.” From what the All Blacks showed in the test, he expected them to rely on their

traditional strengths when they play Australia in August. Australia’s strengths were in different areas and Mr Dwyer said he was working on improving the forwards before then. “But first we’ve got the United States, and I’m not thinking too much past them.” After the international with the Eagles on July 9, the Wallabies prepare to meet the Argentine Pumas on August 7, before taking on the All Blacks on August 20.

“The All Blacks are the best in the world, I don’t think there’s much doubt about that - they’ve beaten everyone else in the last couple of years,” he said.

“In the first test on Saturday they were just a little rusty and they’re bound to improve ■ — home sides always do during tours and the tourists must always win the first tests or they will be in trouble.”