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Henry admits combination gamble didn't pay off

Yahoo!Xtra Sport / Mike Kilpatrick in Hamilton - September 13, 2009, 12:24 pm

There were a few things which went wrong for the All Blacks in the 29-32 loss to South Africa in Hamilton on Saturday - and the five-eighths partnership of Stephen Donald and Daniel Carter was one of them.

During the build-up the positives of having two first-fives combining was spoken about at length, but the switching which was supposed to give an attacking advantage often looked like it simply confused.

In fact the All Blacks didn't fire, coincidentally or not, until Donald was replaced by Isaia Toeava in the second half - even if the first Carter/Toeava combination attempt ended in a try for the Springboks.

And All Blacks' coach Graham Henry was the first to put up his hand and admit the experiment - brought about by the absence of Luke McAlister and Conrad Smith through injury - didn't work as well as he had hoped.

"You go in thinking they both work well together and things are going to be smooth but it didn't happen on the night as good as it could have been," Henry said.

But that's not to say trying the combination in the Tri-nations decider was a mistake.

"We thought it was the right selection," Henry said. But?

"I thought Daniel lacked a wee bit in giving the side direction when we had both of them on the field."

"So that's why we changed them. We just thought one of them directing all the traffic may give us greater clarity and I think that did happen," he said.

Mils Muliaina was equally unconvinced by how the Carter/Donald partnership worked out on the night.

"It's very difficult when you're not getting any quality ball and they just couldn't get us going," the fullback said.

"It's difficult for those guys and hopefully we can build on some of the things we did right later."

But Muliaina didn't think the problems came about because there were overcomplicated switches of position or lack of practice.

"They started in our camp a couple of weeks ago," said the veteran.

"There were certain moves we were going to do [but] they couldn't. You can't execute a move when you're turning the ball over."

However one positive that did emerge from the ashes of the failure was the re-emergence of Toeava as an international force.

There are many critics who believe the utility back only gets picked because he's Henry's 'special project'.

But they tend to be the same people who forget his man-of-the-match performance against the Wallabies in Hong Kong last year.

It is fair to say Toeava has never been the most consistent of performers but he's often been a bit part player consigned to playing wherever there's a gap.

But his incisive play last night drew praise from the coach.

"I think Isaia Toeava when he came on made a difference," Henry said.

"He gave us a wee bit more explosiveness, he broke the line a couple of times, set up the first try. So that was very good for him."

Muliaina was equally effusive about Toeava's return to a black jersey.

"It's great to see a guy like that come on. He made an impact straight away," he said.

"The key for Ice is he's just got to keep going now. There's no doubting his abilities - he's certainly got the goods.

"He knows he's got to step up now which is probably what he hasn't done in the past. He's got to back it up next week."

In fact you could even argue Toeava's international appearances match the All Blacks' international season - occasionally brilliant, but inconsistent and frustrating.

So which version of Toeava and the All Blacks will turn up next week?

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cubeytwoshoes 07:14am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
Bad direction and slection with another good dose of it was the players fault well each week the players get selected by the coach on fitness and form cobinations and game plan is created by the coachs take some responsability they you have failed and lost games because of their chioces to we strugg ...
LES 06:50am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
Play with 'matches' you get burnt.
misshamo22 05:52am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
I think the blacks have the goods & they can do it, i just reckon they lack communication with the plays that they tried that nite, as graham says dan & mcdonald directing traffic for the boys which didn't happen. But i must admit toeava bought it back, this south auckland ...
avowal56 05:36am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
Whoever said todays All Blacks would clock up 100 points against those old All Black sides, has got to be smoking something really good. To say some of our backs weigh as much as Meads might be true, but here lies the problem. All the weight is in their boof heads, and as for hurting some of them,Me ...
Marius 03:33am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
Well, perhaps the kiwi's just need to wake up and realise that the AB are no longer the dominant team in the world. I've been on a recent holiday for 6 months in New Zealand, I'm a proud SA and have to say that the big difference is that we are passionate rugby supporters, it ...
lavek 02:56am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
The fact is the AB's have been decimated by injury and resultant experimentations which have all failed. Add to this forwards who spend all day in the gym looking at themselves in the mirror rather than getting out on the road doing basic aerobic fitness work and you are going backwards. On ...
lavek 02:56am Monday 14th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
The fact is the AB's have been decimated by injury and resultant experimentations which have all failed. Add to this forwards who spend all day in the gym looking at themselves in the mirror rather than getting out on the road doing basic aerobic fitness work and you are going backwards. On ...
Kirsten 11:13pm Sunday 13th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
I think that Thorn has had his day. He's been a great player, especially around the field, but he's not tall enough and isn't that good in the air. Next year we need to partner Ross with Williams or even Jack depending on his form. We need locks who are 6'7& ...
Kirsten 11:07pm Sunday 13th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
Des, you fool, if today's ABs played those from 1977, they would clock up close to 100 points. They'd also probably seriously injure many of them. Many of today's backs are as heavy as Colin Meads in his playing days. I remember Alan Hewson was only 70 kgs. What do yo ...
Bulaani 10:09pm Sunday 13th September 2009 EST Report Abuse
those 3 clowns responsible for this team must go - they're just not up to it any longer - i mean where do you go from here - what positives are there to fall back on or build on. S.a played like men possessed and they are true world champions. I fear all black rugby is going down fast and t ...