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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Razor's proven himself on this northern tour

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Mon, 18 Nov 2024, 5:09pm
Scott Robertson during the 2024 Rugby Championship match between South Africa and New Zealand at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, South Africa on 31 August 2024 @Gavin Barker/BackpagePix x
Scott Robertson during the 2024 Rugby Championship match between South Africa and New Zealand at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, South Africa on 31 August 2024 @Gavin Barker/BackpagePix x

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Razor's proven himself on this northern tour

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Mon, 18 Nov 2024, 5:09pm

Are you convinced by Razor yet? 

Cause I feel you should be, because what Razor has managed to do on this northern tour has been pretty impressive.

If the All Blacks beat Italy this weekend - which apparently they will because it’s supposed to be a foregone conclusion - then we can say the All Blacks have come within one point of a clean sweep of the northern tour.

Which is remarkable, because we haven't done a clean sweep of the northern tour since 2017.

Now obviously, we haven’t done it this time either. But we’ve come within one point, which is impressive because this is Razor’s first year. He's taken over a team that, frankly, sucked a lot of the time.

I mean, don't forget why we wanted to get rid of Fozzie. The All Blacks were all over the show - they lost a series at home to the Irish, they got smashed 26-10 by the Springboks, and then there was the Twickenham disaster where the 'Boks smacked us 35-7.

So it's actually not bad to turn those performances into a very-nearly clean sweep of the northern tour in just one year.

Now look, let’s not pretend it’s perfect out there, because it isn't.

The discipline's a major problem, there was that weird call to try for two penalties in the last six minutes of a game - where they obviously should have gone for a try, that was the wrong call. And we're talking about wins, but they're not exactly massive margins.

But let's be fair - think of any other discipline out there. Think of a business where a CEO takes over, you don't expect perfection in the first year, you just expect improvement. And I think we've got it.

I think we can say that short of something horrible happening this weekend, Razor's proved himself.

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