Scotty Stevenson: All Blacks must seek simplicity in second Test

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7 hours ago

The challenge for Scott Robertson and his coaching staff this week will be to resist the temptation to add more and to dial in on the fundamentals for the second Test, writes Scotty Stevenson
'The more you add, the more you are taking away.'
So said the classically-trained chef Marco Pierre-White, who may have started his kitchen career whisking veal stock reductions and stuffing pig's trotters in a steaming haze of French profanity and haute cuisine, but who these days would rather you just cooked a potato in a metric tonne of butter or scrambled some damn eggs.
Simplicity. That has become the catch cry of Britain's Archbishop of the faded bistro. The art of subtraction. It's one thing to have all the ingredients at your disposal, but quite another to resist the temptation to throw them all on one plate.
The trick is discipline. Just because you know how to whip up a mousse of raspberry leaf and foie gras, spiced with the tears of a Gondwanan monsoon frog, doesn't mean you should serve it up with the dover sole.
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I was thinking about this, probably because I had forgotten to cook dinner, while the All Blacks went about throwing everything in their kitchen at the French. There were times it appeared the team couldn't really decide what to cook up, or who controlled the menu, so everything was dumped on a plate in a deconstructed heap, leaving us to pick through the chaos with both chopsticks and a dessert spoon. The elements, individually, were all there, but cohesion appeared absent.
The early injury to Sevu Reece did not help matters. Given the selectors had opted to short the winger stocks, Reece's potential series-ending head knock was tragi-comically karmic. There is nothing inherently wrong with the option to shift Will Jordan to the right and bring Damian McKenzie in at the back, but it did add more than a dash of complexity when refined conservatism may have been a more desirable approach.
Conservatism and the quest for hybrid players appear to be mutually exclusive concepts. While positional versatility is an admirable goal, but there are still roles and rules at Test match level that need to be respected.
Beauden Barrett and McKenzie were at times a mesmerising combo, alternating at first receiver and attempting to concoct new ways to outsmart a highly organised French central defence.
But there were periods during which the endeavour became so frantic the All Blacks outsmarted themselves, as if uncertain whose dish was being served, and by whom.
Damian McKenzie of New Zealand makes a break during the International Test match between New Zealand All Blacks and France at Forsyth Barr Stadium on July 05, 2025 in Dunedin, New Zealand. (Source: Getty)
It could be that it is simply natural to both Barrett and McKenzie to unleash as much pandemonium as possible, but it's just as likely that the team became a little overloaded with detail ahead of their first match of the season.
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The challenge for Scott Robertson and his coaching staff this week will be to resist the temptation to add more, to look at where execution was at its best, and to dial in on the fundamentals. The more you add, the more you are taking away.
With that in mind, Barrett must be given another chance to run the team at 10 this weekend. The veteran largely kept his cool in the big moments and was instrumental in every scoring play. Big calls will need to be made elsewhere in the backline, though.
Does Reiko Ioane move back to centre and, if so, how do the All Blacks reconcile the wing spots? It might be tempting to keep Jordan on the right and bring in Caleb Clarke to offer punch on the left but, equally, could Jordan be a more valuable proposition at fullback? Given Jordan was picked there last week, it's almost certain the selectors would prefer to utilise his vision and organisation there again.
Regardless of personnel changes, one would hope the team can now take a collective breath and get down to the business of simplicity. Wanting to play all the rugby all the time is laudable as a spectacle but adds a significant degree of difficulty to the ability to finish.
The All Blacks carried twice as many times as the French in Dunedin, but that does not always translate to scoreboard domination. Conditions may dictate terms this weekend in the capital, but as a philosophy maybe it's time to shelve a few of the more flamboyant dishes and focus on the meat and three veg.