The victory, synonymous with qualification, is hardly in doubt, but New Zealand intends to “give the best of itself” against Uruguay to best prepare for a quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup which promises to be very difficult.
The All Blacks’ opponent will then be formidable in any case: the Irish world number ones or the outgoing South African world champions, unless the Scots come to thwart the predictions.
Two days after the slap inflicted on Italy (96-17), we expected to witness unqualified self-satisfaction from the New Zealand camp.
But Scott McLeod, New Zealand’s kicking coach, surprised many journalists at a press conference, explaining that some players were going to have ringing ears during the video decryption session.
However, it is difficult to know which player or which action McLeod was talking about, as the All Blacks dominated their opponents, never releasing their grip.
But the former All Black must find levers to keep his group under pressure so that he recites his rugby as he did last week at the OL Stadium.
It is probably not Uruguay, a second-tier nation in the world, destined to the same fate as Italy on Friday, which will offer them. What Ian Foster, the coach, recognized on Tuesday.
“It’s when we are on the razor’s edge that we manage to give the best of ourselves,” said Foster. Sometimes it’s our opponent who puts us in this situation, sometimes it’s the context, but the important thing is to manage to find ourselves permanently in this mental state.
If he tried to convince his audience that Uruguay represented a real threat to his team, arguing that they had “lost against France by the same score” as New Zealand, Foster therefore still rather used “the context” to motivate his people.
“The reality is that we still have a lot to do. It is a fact. We are not yet in the quarter-finals. The first thing to do is to qualify.”
With a victory, the All Blacks would only have to wait until the weekend to know the identity of their opponent in the quarter, Ireland if sporting logic is respected.
To beat Uruguay, Foster chose to reshuffle the team that beat Italy in half, and field players lacking playing time.
Between the potential starters, returning from injuries (Cane, Lomax, Barrett and Frizell) and the usual hairdressers (Vaa’i, Jacobson, Fainga’anuku) sits Sam Whitelock, who will celebrate his 150th selection and break a new record, that of greatest number of matches played by a player in the World Cup (22) which he still shares with his compatriot Richie McCaw and the English pillar Jason Leonard.
Faced with the armada of the All Blacks, Uruguay has no illusions about the outcome of what should be its last match in this World Cup – it can still mathematically qualify – but wants to take advantage of this new opportunity to measure yourself against the best.
“We asked to play against teams from the top tier in the world,” said Pablo Bouza, assistant to coach Esteban Meneses. Here we have the opportunity. It is a chance”.
“We are going to play our last match of the World Cup against the All Blacks, who I consider to be the best team in the world. We have to take advantage of it, everyone dreams of it,” said team captain Andrés Vilaseca earlier.
Whatever the result of the match, the Uruguayans will not have their ears ringing at the end.
