Gregor Paul: Make no mistake, All Blacks still hate to lose

The All Blacks have given a great impression of being gracious losers in the days since Ireland stunned them in Chicago.

There hasn’t been a peep of an excuse from them. No scowls, no petulance, no gritted teeth or obvious anger simmering beneath the surface – only praise for Ireland and congratulations for finally doing what they haven’t been able to do for 111 years.

Some have suggested that this dignified response, which has been emulated by the rugby following public, is a sign of New Zealand’s new-found maturity. The days of lynch mobs gathering with pitchforks whenever the All Blacks lose are over.

The country doesn’t react like that nowadays. There’s no need to when the All Blacks have proven themselves in every way possible – back-to-back World Cups, a fourth Rugby Championship and a world record 18 consecutive victories.

Even in New Zealand, where the public have at times quite ludicrous expectations, the All Blacks can be cut some slack for slipping up in Chicago. It has been a special period for them and one defeat doesn't alter that picture.

Besides, some have suggested, losing to Ireland isn’t the gut-wrenching business that losing to England or Australia is. Who doesn’t like the Irish? Can any country win or lose with such a sense of having more important things to worry about than sport?

Lack of gloating

Ireland were entitled to go a little nuts after they won at Soldier Field. They had banged their head against the wall for 111 years and finally they broke through – surely that was good reason for them to go over the top. They didn’t think so, and the way they kept a lid on their celebrations endeared them even more to New Zealanders.

There is also an acceptance in New Zealand that the All Blacks had perhaps used up more luck than they strictly deserved to have kept Ireland winless for so long.

The number of times the All Blacks managed to conjure victory they scarcely deserved had become almost embarrassing. Ireland had the game all but won in Christchurch four years ago only to be cruelly punished when Daniel Carter was given two chances – no one really knows why he got the second opportunity – to drop a goal in the last minute.

And then of course there was 2013 – a scenario that even now is hard to take in: while the All Blacks’ try after the hooter was brilliant, they should never have still been within just one score.

Having won 18 on the trot heading into the Soldier Field encounter, the winning streak was going to have to end at some point. The fact that it was to Ireland, on neutral territory, well, that was maybe the best worst-case scenario for the All Blacks.

Except this whole gracious loser thing just isn’t them. The gracious bit they can manage, not the losing. They hate it. They say it sucks and they mean it. Malakai Fekitoa, a quiet but intensely driven young man who will play at centre on Saturday, said if it hadn’t been for his family easing him out of it, he’d still have been in a dark fug about the defeat a full week later.

He’s not alone in feeling like that and, while it might not have hurt as much because it was Ireland, it still hurt. They were still dealing with their worst-case scenario.

Blame game

The real kicker, though, is that the All Blacks feel like they were the primary architects of their own downfall. Whatever they have said publicly about Ireland’s performance, they haven’t laboured that point in private.

Not at all.

Of course the All Blacks know Ireland played well and are a good side. Of course they know that Ireland took their chances, made the most of everything that came their way.

But the All Blacks let Ireland have their own way. For the first 40 minutes in Chicago, they didn’t do anything. They barely had the ball and when they did, they coughed it up alarmingly easily.

It was the worst half of rugby New Zealand have played in the last decade and their review – which they delayed until this week as they made so many changes to the team that played Italy in the interim – was conducted with the sort of brutal honesty that would make a reality talent show judge wince.

That honesty isn’t new. What makes the All Blacks the team they are is that even when they perform well and win, they are looking to find fault in what they did. They never stop looking for ways to be better.

What has been different this week is the language used and the intensity of the analysis. It was obviously a deeply uncomfortable process for the players – feeling, as they would have, the bluntness of head coach Steve Hansen. Hansen doesn't shout or lose the plot and that's what makes him more effective at getting inside the heads of his players. He'll have been measured and calm, yet there is no way the players couldn't have felt his displeasure and desire to see things improve on Saturday.

Bone deep

“There is no doubt that Ireland had a good performance and they knew how they wanted to play,” said Hansen. “But we didn’t respond to that. We have had a good look at what we did or didn’t do and there is certainly room for improvement.

“On the surface you look at it and say we prepared pretty good. But you have heard me talk about how preparation has to be bone deep and how bone deep was it? Only the individual can tell you but the result tells you it wasn’t bone deep.

“You know 16 of the 21 errors we made were avoidable; 12 penalties were avoidable. So if you don’t get your attitude right, you don’t get to play well and I don’t think attitude will be a problem this week.

“There’s a few people who are angry and disappointed in their performances. This group hasn’t lost very often – some of them have never lost – and they don’t know what it feels like until it happens and when it does, it is a shock to the system.

“I guess it is the same when we all get a bit of a shake-up. You come back to work the next day and you are a little bit sharper in your thought processes and you are a bit more honest about how you go around doing your job.

“There is no complacency because there is no room for it. We are playing a team that has shown they are good enough to beat us if we don’t show up and play well. There is now an air of we have to really front up and that is not a bad thing.”

Gracious or otherwise, the All Blacks just don’t like being cast in the role of loser. Having experienced it for the first time against Ireland in 111 years, they would be quite happy to wait that same period to taste it again.

Gregor Paul is the New Zealand Herald on Sunday's rugby correspondent