REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE
Red cards have become like buses for the All Blacks. They waited 50 years for one to come along after Colin Meads was sent off at Murrayfield in 1967 and now they have had two in the last two years.
They have had a total of four in their 100-plus year history and given that half have come in the last 24 months and both were shown by the same referee, it begs all manner of different questions.
Top of that list is whether the All Blacks are losing control of their discipline, or more precisely or perhaps additionally, whether they have become a dirty team?
There is no shortage of people who will have no hesitation in saying both and argue that the All Blacks have not become a dirty team, that they have always been a dirty team.
The first part is hard to argue against: discipline has been an increasing problem for the All Blacks in the last few years.
It was a regular blight on performance in 2016 and they finished 2017 as the most penalised Tier One nation, top of the table for yellow cards, while they also saw Sonny Bill Williams red carded in the second test against the Lions.
There were two occasions in 2017 when they were shown two yellow cards in a test meaning they spent a quarter of each game a man down.
Too readily and easily they infringed in big tests: it was mostly avoidable stuff such as edging offside on defence, sacking driving mauls and entering rucks from the side and on average they conceded 12 penalties a test.
Life was tougher than it needed to be for the All Blacks in 2017 which is why coach Steve Hansen said in May 2018 ahead of the test season: “We reviewed last year and one of
