Defence has been key
While this year has seen the All Blacks score some good tries from good attack, their main strength has come in their defence. This weekend was different, as they did well to hold France to just one try when you consider the amount of ball and field position the French had at various stages throughout the game. There were a handful of missed first-up tackles, but they scrambled well to recover and ensured that these were not too costly.
You have to give France some credit too. They ran dangerously at holes, with their backs taking the ball to the line and their runners coming on at different angles to make them hard to stop. When a team is playing like this it can be tough to hold them out and a few missed tackles are inevitable.
Need to be quicker to breakdown
This has been one of the biggest weaknesses of the All Blacks in 2013 and while they have generally gotten away with it, at times they have been far too slow to the breakdown. It was especially noticeable in the June series against France and was once again an issue in this game. Thierry Dusautoir in particular has excelled in this area, beating the All Black looseforwards to the breakdown and causing the ball carrier to become isolated. This results in either penalties or turnovers and in a close game could be crucial. Eventually it is going to cost them a game if they do not get it sorted.
Ben Smith at centre
It was always going to be a big ask for Ben Smith to move in to centre and carry on his sublime form. So far though, he has done a good job. He has not made the breaks he was earlier in the season, but as a centre his role is not to do that, rather to look to set up those around him. His defence was much improved in the position and was pretty safe against a dangerous French backline, while he was tidy enough on attack and made a couple of nice runs.
However he goes in the midfield should not take away from what has been a sensational 2013. His form at fullback and on the wing was as good as anyone's in the world and you would have to think that had he been left there, he would have continued in the same way. After all, he is an outside back playing in the midfield and doing a good job. How many others around the world could claim to be capable of doing the same thing?
Surface ruined scrums
It was quite clear to everyone that was watching that the ground cutting up was making it exceptionally hard for the forwards to stay up at scrum time. Despite this, the officials did not seem to want to give any allowance and continued to penalise the players for collapses, slips and the like. To the letter of the law it was probably right, but could we not have used some common sense and give them a bit of leeway?
Short ball from the one-off runner
This is something the All Blacks have used quite a lot over the past two years. The halfback passes the ball to a forward runner standing one-off the ruck, who then takes the ball to the line and fires a late pass to the man next to him. In theory this would put the player into a gap and allow them to gain some forward momentum.
However, it hardly ever works out like this. It is a pass that puts the receiver under unnecessary pressure and too often results in dropped balls. Along with this, it can isolate the ball carrier, as his closest support player is usually taken by the defence. For the amount of times it actually does something that could not have been done by the initial runner taking the ball up, it really is not worth it.
Stop small kicks in behind
Four times in this match we saw the All Blacks in good attacking position, only to concede by making a stupid grubber kick in behind and give the ball back to the French. It was a problem against Japan too and squandered good attacking opportunities. They are very low percentage plays and seem to come out of frustration of not being able to breach the defence.
The better option would be to hold the ball and build some pressure. In this they might infringe or miss a tackle, or at the very least they will be getting tired from defending. Kicking is not all bad, but there is a time and place for it and hot on attack in the 22 is neither of these.
