THE FORCE AWAKENS
It’s only the best players who can make their presence felt when they are not actually playing.
That was what Kieran Read managed to do in June. He didn’t play in any of the tests as he completed the last part of his rehabilitation from spinal surgery, yet the longer the series went on, the more he loomed large.
The All Blacks missed him. There were times in all three tests where it was so easy to imagine how things might have been different had he been on the field.
In the second test it was his captaincy that the All Blacks most needed. Sam Whitelock stepped in admirably for the series and led in the same calm, followmeway that he has at the Crusaders.
But in that second test, when France were reduced to 14 men after 12 minutes and the All Blacks lost Beauden Barrett to injury, there was a bit of a system malfunction.
Whitelock and the other leaders were making themselves clear as to how they wanted the side to play, but the message got lost. The All Blacks lost their shape and poise – they tried to rush the ball wide and looked awfully like they expected the tries to come simply because they had a numerical advantage.
The All Blacks looked to be a touch frantic, loose and impatient when they had a man advantage and as much as Whitelock may have been imploring his troops to stick to the original plan of playing direct and being accurate, the message didn’t get through.
Having reviewed the game, All Blacks vicecaptain Sam Cane said a
