New Zealand second-row Brodie Retallick highlighted the importance of confidence during the current international season and there is plenty of it in the All Blacks camp at the moment.
The All Blacks have made a superb start to their Rugby Championship campaign and their confidence levels are high as they prepare for the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.
Superb start to the Rugby Championship
After back-to-back victories over Argentina and South Africa, New Zealand are sitting pretty at the top of the Rugby Championship standings on nine points, with just the Wallabies still to face in Melbourne on July 29.
There was plenty of hype ahead of Saturday’s clash against South Africa in Auckland with the world champion Springboks up for the challenge, but they were blown away by the All Blacks with a superb performance during the opening quarter of that match which laid the foundation to their 35-20 victory.
And Retallick understands the significance of his team’s excellent all-round display as they are now on course to win the tournament again.
“It’s an awesome step,” Retallick told Stuff. “We’re two from two heading into the first week off… it would have been disappointing not to come away with the win.
“The group worked hard. We came home from Argentina with a quick turnaround, everyone put their heads down and got stuck in. It was pleasing to get some reward for the hard work.”
Retallick believes the jolt of confidence the All Blacks received after those triumphs over Los Pumas and the Boks should not be underestimated.
“It’s huge just for the confidence of the team,” said the 32-year-old. “It’s a big year with what’s coming at the back end, we’ve been working week by week, and it’s awesome to see the hard work pay off. The boys have been training hard and getting across the detail, and to see it come off on Saturday is what it’s all about.”
Part of the “detail” which Retallick refers to is the importance of fast starts which the All Blacks made in both those Rugby Championship encounters against Argentina and South Africa.
“It’s been a massive focus, and something (assistant coach) Joe [Schmidt] is driving – getting people on our feet and around the ball, so we’re an option,” said the 101-Test veteran.
“I think [the Boks victory] was a clear example of that, especially in the first 20 when it was good to see the boys just playing.”
There has definitely been signs that the All Blacks have gone up a level this year and there has also been signs of improvement in their attacking and defensive play, as well as in the execution of their tactical kicking game.
Those were key areas they had to work on and Retallick feels they have to continue with that throughout the season with the aim of peaking at the World Cup.
“We’ve definitely seen some improvements, but there is still some more stuff to get right,” he added. “We can be pretty happy with what we’ve done the last couple of weeks, but we’ll keep looking to improve with what’s to come.”
Not writing off the Springboks
Although they dominated most of the match against the Boks, Retallick is not writing off their arch rivals and he expects them to still be a force at the global showpiece later this year.
“You’ve got to give them credit – they came out [after halftime] and attacked our breakdown, and put us under pressure trying to exit,” he said.
“There are always things to work on. It’s just our second Test of the year, there was some improvement from last week and we’ll keep building as the year goes.”
READ MORE: Rugby Championship Team of the Week: All Blacks, Pumas and lone Wallaby make our side
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