All Blacks recapture spirit, speed: coach

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 34

All Blacks recapture spirit, speed: coach

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney The All Black coach, Brian Lochore, believes his team has recaptured the spirit and speed it showed in the World Cup, but he would still have liked a longer preparation to gain an extra edge on the Wallabies for tomorrow’s Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney.

The All Blacks arrived in Sydney yesterday and warmed up yesterday afternoon — if it was possible in the cold and driving rain — in a light training session at a school field near their motel. The Wallabies assembled last Sunday, instead of the normal three days before a home test, but Australian rugby administrators denied suggestions they were breaking International Rugby Board rules. Mr Lochore said he did not want to comment on the controversial Australian decision to assemble earlier but indicated that he, like most coaches, would have liked the maximum possible time to prepare for a big match. “We would have liked an extra day or two, of course,” he said. “But the New Zealand Rugby Union makes those arrangements and obviously they were working to what they believe is our normal entitlement. “Hopefully we’ll get done everything we want to do in the period of time we have been given.” Building up the All Blacks mentally and physically again after the climax of winning the World Cup has been a big challenge for Mr Lochore and his coaching assistants, Alex Wyllie and John Hart.

“It wasn’t just a matter of the first training run this week starting where

we finished off prior to the French game at the World Cup,” Mr Lochore said. “A lot of the team had played at a lower level of rugby over the last month, then obviously there was a tremendous mental and physical let-down after the World Cup. "They were a little sloppy and not quite as sharp as they had been at the time of the World Cup in the initial part of training this week. But now that we have had two quite strong runs together in Auckland I think we have recaptured the eagerness and speed that they had at the time of the World Cup.” Mr Lochore has no doubts that the Wallabies will prove formidable opponents tomorrow at Concord Oval and yesterday repeated his assertion that the All Blacks would have to raise their game higher than they did in the World Cup final if

they were to wrest the Bledisloe Cup off the Wallabies. Because Australia is keen to make amends for its below-par performances in the World Cup, Mr Lochore believes it will be all the more difficult to beat. “They have been sitting here thinking about what they can gain out of a match against the All Blacks on July 25 and that makes them an extremely formidable opposition,” he said. "They are a very even side and are going to be tremendous opponents for us on Saturday. If we are playing at anything less than our total capacity then we will come second.” Mr Lochore was guarded in his comments on the much-changed Australian backline since the World Cup — with Brett Papworth shifting out to the centre, Michael Hawker returning from a

three-year international rugby exile to second fiveeights, and Stephen James replacing the injured first five-eighths, Michael Lynagh. The New Zealand coach said the changes had not weakened the Australian team, but he was not prepared to say that they had strengthened it either. Hawker was persuaded to return to representative football for the first time since 1984 to front up for New South Wales against Queensland recently and then was surprised to get a call-up for the Wallabies. Mr Lochore did not see the positioning of the mercurial Papworth at centre instead of second five-eighths necessarily as a signal that Australia intended to move the ball quickly out wide. “I think there could be changes in their tactics as a result of their changes in personnel, but it’s very hard to anticipate the

type of rugby another side is going to play,” he said.

After two hard workouts in Auckland, the All Blacks’ training session at St Johns College in Camperdown yesterday was more low-key. A game of touch rugby was followed by training drills for forwards and backs. The Wallabies, although several are still nursing niggling injuries, had a comparatively vigorous training session at Rushcutters Bay yesterday morning.

The prop, Andy Mclntyre, suffering from a strained back earlier this week, and the hooker, Tom Lawton, who had a corked thigh, showed no signs of lingering injury. The young fullback, Andrew Leeds, who replaces the reliable Lynagh as goal-kicker, has had his practices frustrated by a sore instep but the coach, Alan Jones, has expressed confidence that Leeds will come right by tomorrow. The teams are. —

New Zealand: John Gallagher; John Kirwan, Craig Green, Joe Stanley, Warwick Taylor, Grant Fox; David Kirk (captain); Wayne Shelford; Michael Jones, Gary Whetton, Murray Pierce, Alan Whetton; John Drake, Sean Fitzpatrick, Steve McDowall.

Australia: Andrew Leeds; Matt Burke, David Campese, Brett Papworth, Michael Hawker, Stephen James; Nick Farr-Jones; Steve Tuynman; Jeff Miller, David Codey (captain), Bill Campbell, Steve Cutler; Andy Mclntyre, Tom Lawton, Enrique Rodriguez.