THE WAITING GAME
The results were about all the proof that was needed to see that mid-way through the last World Cup cycle, the All Blacks became vulnerable when they were confronted by attrition rugby.
The first inkling came in July 2017 when they drew the series with the British & Irish Lions.
Warren Gatland's team actually played some expansive and clever rugby but the foundation of their game was aggressive rush defence, strong set-piece and a lot of box kicking.
They slowed the game down, shut-off Beauden Barrett's time and space and tried to stop the All Blacks from playing. And it worked. Not perfectly or entirely but for long enough for them to earn a drawn series.
The following year it was apparent other teams had been inspired by what they had seen the Lions do.
The Boks, who again had a creative and innovative side to their play, were primarily focused on crushing opponents first, running round them second.
They were another power team, hoping to tackle and scrum their way to victory. They had a huge pack, great tactical kickers and enough desire to sink a ship.
Ireland were much the same. They were fairly limited in terms of their overall skill-sets but they were brilliant at certain things.
Their pack had presence and technical smarts at the breakdown, they could all tackle, their props were superb ball carriers and they used Conor Murray's box-kicking expertly.
If we look at
