Glenn Delaney on Scarlets and All Blacks

When the rugby world returns to normal former Highlanders' assistant coach Glenn Delaney will take the coaching reins at the Scarlets in Llanelli.

He left the Dunedin-based Super Rugby franchise to join Scarletts under former Crusaders assistant coach Brad Mooar, who halfway through his first season with the club was appointed to Ian Foster's All Blacks' coaching team.

Delaney told The Rugby Paper that he had loved his first eight months with the Scarlets.

"The decision to come here was considered heavily and it's turned out to be much better than I'd ever hoped. We've got a fabulous playing group, a really energising group of backroom staff and a club that has an unbelievable history with some wonderful characters," he said.

Making comparisons between the Welsh club and the Canterbury system he had also worked in, Delaney said the belief the game was a provider to society that enabled people to be at their very best was something they had in common.

One of the unique factors involved with the Scarlets was dealing with the high number of Test players the side had.

"There's a lot of call on their time so you go from stages of the season where it might be like playing a full Test match against, say, Leinster, to other games where you're playing more of a developing, emerging-type side where guys are learning the game," he said.

Delaney said his coaching experience with Nottingham, London Irish, Canterbury, the Highlanders and the Scarlets had all been positive.

"I've been really fortunate to have been able to go to the places I have. I've loved every environment I've been in, they're all unique and they've all taught me a lot," he said.

Taking on the Scarlets' role would continue what he believed was great work done by Mooar.

"An opportunity arose here from that and, after a considered process, I was happy to accept the jobs. It's great to get the chance to continue the work he's started," he said.

Delaney said having spent more time in the northern hemisphere than the south he could see how good England had become at the Rugby World Cup when they beat the All Blacks in the semifinal.

"The best team won that game and the standard of their play went through the roof. The irony, of course, is that nobody really spoke much about South Africa but they came through and were the best team in the end. The All Blacks would have been disappointed to finish in that third-fourth place game but that's the nature of rugby, it can't all be one way. It shows the game's evolving and that's what we want. We need more teams to be competing at that level."

Delaney said he thought the All Blacks coaching group would be a 'hell of a coaching combination'.

"There's always good depth in New Zealand rugby and when you look at a lad like Crusaders' centre/wing Braydon Ennor, there's an example of a 22-year-old guy who's come through the Canterbury system and is taking Super Rugby by storm. He'll find his way into the All Blacks' environment now, as guys like Jack Goodhue and Sevu Reece have, and they'll always have players who are well coach, have a good skill set and can play the game at a high level.

"Scott Barrett is a mainstay of the pack they'll probably build around now and there're enough experienced guys like Nepo Laulala, Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Dane Coles, Sam Cane and Aaron Smith to ensure a pretty seamless transition. There'll be some exuberance about that New Zealand team now," he said.

All Blacks dish up a dose of rugby reality in Hamilton

If you're going to make a statement at your last chance in a three-Test series you have already lost, you don't start by kicking the match opener out on the full - not against the All Blacks anyway.

Out to 29-6 at half-time, the All Blacks were only able to add a post-fulltime try in the second half, and thereby hangs the story of England's inaccuracies in their 36-13 loss at Hamilton's Westpac Stadium.

England first five-eighths Freddie Burns' starting blue became a talisman for his side who spent 40 minutes playing catch-up without getting sufficient quality ball to pressure the All Blacks, let alone give themselves confidence.

By comparison, the All Blacks played at their best in the series, for all of the first half, and England's drawing board looks set for more of a workout than the players were able to produce at Waikato Stadium.

Steve Hansen's sides, in 31 Tests have now scored 1004 points and 487 against, a ratio of 2:1 for only one loss. And in scoring three tries wing Julian Savea joined Jonah Lomu having scored eight tries against England.

Prop Tony Woodcock, who spent time in the sin-bin on the night, achieved his 12^th winning appearance against England, the most by any player from any country, surpassing JPR Williams of Wales' record.

And the win was the 17^th by New Zealand, equalling the world records set by Fred Allen's team of 1965-69 and Nick Mallett's Springbok team of the late 1990s. Richie McCaw has now captained New Zealand to a 17-win streak, a 16-win streak and two 15-win streaks.

Two chances, two tries, in the first eight minutes to the All Blacks spelled the difference in execution, intent, class, call it what you will. Just what went wrong in the second half will have the New Zealand brains trust occupied ahead of The Rugby Championship.

Wet weather, which must have given England some hope of pulling the All Blacks back to them, accounted for nothing in the home side's attitude from the outset.

Both the first two tries came from lineouts and each produced sparkling tries on the opposite side of the field for wing Julian Savea to make it 22 tries in 22 Tests and he should have had a 23^rd in the 13^th minute from yet another right-field lineout.

But after the double-round move provided more space for Nonu and Cruden to work their magic a forward pass was all that denied Savea the try. With halfback Aaron Smith adding two more by the 32^nd minute, the game was, for all intents and purposes over.

Of concern for the All Blacks' management team will be the way their side went to sleep in the second half, and the scrum problems that ensued around the middle stages of the half when penalties were a too common occurrence for comfort.

England did play more determinedly in the second half, but they had to because the consequence was a rout of the highest order. Wing Marland Yarde scored the side's only try, and went close on two other occasions to look the most effective of the visitors.

On the list for English consideration will be the assured fact that Mike Brown may have arrived in New Zealand as a claimant for the world's best fullback but he's got at least two in front of him now with Ben Smith and Israel Dagg heading the list.

The need for faster and more intuitive thinking was also demonstrated at stages when, in longer phases, England looked to run out of direction and understanding of what they were trying to do. The pointless kicking to the New Zealand rearguard is another ploy England will need to feed into their tactical computer. It will probably tell them some following up from their players would help.

But with all members of the squad getting a run, the All Blacks have introduced new players in a successful environment to set themselves up for the Championship defence.

England face their toughest Test

Pardon me the cynicism, but who won the first Test?

 

Not England although if you had the misfortune to be stuck in England with only newspapers and websites to read you would have thought the Poms had hanged, drawn and quartered the All Blacks at Eden Park last weekend.

Now, with their A team on board, the popular view of England's press, who never have to play these games, will be that the win will surely be achieved in Dunedin on Saturday night.

England are ready to make a series of it.

Coupla things to think about.

The All Blacks will not be so far off the mark as they were in Auckland this time around.

Nothing quite focuses the All Blacks' minds more than a below par performance. Their ability, their manhood, their right to wear the jersey has been questioned. Not challenges to be issued lightly by visitors.

Dry ground in Dunedin. Now there is no doubt the Pom backs are well capable of throwing the ball around to good effect. Even when England were thrashed by the All Blacks in the 1995 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town they still managed to score four tries. Whether their backs of the moment are as good as Rory Underwood, Will Carling and Jeremy Guscott is another matter.

But the difference for New Zealand lies in the ball-handling of the forwards. Here there is an ocean of ability between the sides and the tide runs in favour of the home team.

And Manu Tuilagi, bullocking runner that he is. He has been compared to Jonah Lomu! He's not even in the same home straight as the legendary wing.

Wonder how Tuilagi goes at turning around to tidy up kicks behind him?

The big question is how long it will take either of the Aarons, Smith or Cruden, to sort that one out? I'm picking it will be very early in the piece. Mind you, some thinking outside the box, pardon the pun – older readers will understand that quip – could be not to send a kick his way at all, so that he is left wondering when it is going to come.

Then there's the need to field high kicks. Whenever this thought process is involved it is hard not to go past: possums, headlights, Quade Cooper, Richard Kahui, World Cup semi-final in 2011, if you get my drift.

Some predictions for the game: the haka will be questioned yet again by the Pom media (after all these years they still don't get it)

, the game will be all-action, the referee will be the target of English media criticism win or lose, some England player will do something silly under the pressure of the occasion, Owen Farrell will struggle with goal-kicking in the stadium, Liam Messam will be much more obvious around the track and Jerome Kaino will be an even greater target for England attention than Richie McCaw, who will revel in the subsequent freedom.

It should be a cracker.