Alba wrote:NZ did not win the tournament because of their forwards. Yes forwards are important. But the NZ scrum is matched by Argentina, South Africa, England, Wales etc. Even France on a good day has a pack that can match NZ.
What Separates NZ is their skill levels.. Australia had a lot of possession in the second half. But they could not break the NZ defence. Their offense was too one dimensional.
To put it plainly, there is no point having a strong scrum to get you possession if you do not use the possessions to score.
Just like in football, you can have excellent midfielders who create chance after chance. But if the strikers does not have the skill levels needed to score, then its a waste.
Generally backs are wasteful people....
I am/was a back... I know... haha.... in order for the glamour boys to get those balls to do their stuff kuna lots of hardwork that goes into it. Especially when you are playing territorial and any sane team must play territorial (this all the kicks). New zealand was kicking when Australia tried to play in their half - why coz they knew they were superior in lineouts (they stole a number of Australian balls in lineouts and lost none). If your forwards are able to recycle balls over and over in your opponents half - you will always come out with something since very few teams can soak up all that pressure for elongated periods of time in their half without conceding something. The advantage in rugby is always the ability to get possession into the half of the opponents. Australia had possession in the second half after the sin bin and they did score twice in 10 minutes. Check out the
stats of the game. Forwards are the invisible hand that wins games.
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