Rugby World Cup: Jason Ryan upbeat about All Blacks opener against France

Opinion – If the beat down the All Black forward pack were handed by the Springboks a week ago at Twickenham bothered Jason Ryan, he was not showing it in Lyon yesterday.

The assistant coach, who has been widely credited with getting the much-needed physicality back into the engine room, was upbeat and positive as the World Cup opener with France looms large on the agenda.

“That’s a great question,” he admitted when asked about the fine line between physicality and indiscipline, one that Scott Barrett crucially crossed in the record 35-7 loss. His red card was the beginning of the end for the All Blacks, in front of 80,000 mostly South African fans that had turned the home of English rugby into another version of Ellis Park.

“It’s such a competitive game. There’s going to be small margins for when collisions go wrong, but as long as it’s not the FIFA World Cup. This is rugby and this is the Rugby World Cup.

“This is a spectacle that I think the game needs and I think that we just have to adapt, we have to have our height right around the collisions and make sure that our carry and clean is really strong, have a dominant mindset. But really be really clean where we can so we don’t give any easy outs I guess, and it’ll be the same for both teams.”

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Ryan said the team was looking forward to the challenge of being up against another hostile crowd at Stade de France on Saturday morning NZT.

“France, it’s a little bit different. They’re tremendously passionate about how they support their team and I’m sure it’s going to be some sort of atmosphere there. We’re just looking forward to embracing that and not getting overawed by it.”

But really, they will want to be making the crowd as quiet as possible, as soon as they can.

The All Blacks have been at their best when they have started well lately: against the Pumas, Wallabies and Springboks in the Rugby Championship they shot out to big leads early, then sat back and rolled with the punches to record impressive victories.

Then at Twickenham, they unfortunately got smacked in the mouth and were too preoccupied with stopping the blood gushing out to even get close to winning the game.

“I think it’s a bit of both,” was his succinct response to whether the answer to the All Blacks’ lineout problems against the Boks was down to communicating with the referee or personal responsibility.

Meanwhile, things have not exactly been going according to plan for their opponents. France’s casualty rates at climbing without a ball being kicked in anger, with lock Paul Willemse joining prop Cyril Baille, midfielder Jonathan Danty and first five Romain Ntamack on the tournament-ending injury list.

It does not stop there, with Willemse’s replacement Bastien Chalureu bringing in a bit of unwanted attention. In 2020 he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence by a Toulouse criminal court for “acts of violence with the circumstance that these were committed due to the race or ethnicity of the victim”.

Chalureu’s inclusion has immediately drawn the ire of French politicians, with MP Tomas Portes demanding he be cut from the squad.

From an All Black point of view, just losing a starting lock is bad enough.

They are sweating on Brodie Retallick’s return, as well as Shannon Frizell.

Ryan was confident Frizell would be back before the end of pool play, but given the psychological significance of Friday’s fixture, it was a moot point. The All Blacks are the only team to have never lost a World Cup pool game, and they certainly do not want to start now.