Although New Zealand did not reach their usual high standards during the 2024 international campaign, former All Blacks scrum-half Justin Marshall believes it will stand them in good stead as they are “trending in the right direction”.

After suffering a narrow defeat to the Springboks in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, Scott Robertson replaced Ian Foster as the All Blacks’ head coach and Marshall believes it took the team some time to adapt to the former Crusaders boss’ coaching style.

They started the year with back-to-back hard-fought victories over England in New Zealand before beating Fiji in San Diego before kicking off their Rugby Championship campaign with a shock defeat against Argentina in Wellington.

The All Blacks suffered two further defeats – both against their arch rivals the Springboks – in that tournament but still finished in second place behind the Boks.

Three out of four wins in the Autumn Nations Series

They then finished off the year with their end-of-year tour of Europe where they beat England, Ireland and Italy in the Autumn Nations Series but suffered a narrow 30-29 loss to France.

Marshall, who played in 81 Tests between 1995 and 2005, said although the All Blacks’ performances did not initially meet his expectations, he was won over by their improvement as the year progressed.

“I felt that probably we were quite conservative, but that was probably Scott Robertson trying to find his balance and trying to find the players that were going to fit into the way that he wanted this team to eventually play,” the 51-year-old told DSPN with Martin Devlin.

“And there was a bit of a teething process involved. And the series against England was a struggle.

“Both Test matches went down to the last quarter, and dropping the game against Argentina was untidy, really untidy. But then from there, the trend was in the right direction. I think the two Test matches in South Africa, albeit we lost both, we were in a position to win both of them and that team will be better for that.

“But what I really liked about it, particularly in the first Test, was our ability to score tries against blitz defence. They sprung even more aggressive line speed on us (the) following week, which we struggled a bit more against.

“But then equally against Ireland, England and even France (in the Autumn Nations Series), we were able to score tries against those teams which weren’t so lucrative the year before and were starting to frustrate us.

“So look, when you look at the season, there’s three Test matches there that the All Blacks probably could have won. The French one, one point, the two in South Africa and equally one we probably could have lost against England.

“So on balance, I thought it was not a pass mark at the start of the year, but we were trying to find our identity and eventually we got there.”

Marshall believes the All Blacks are not the finished product yet and urged them to reach the standards which the Springboks are currently setting.

“Now we’ve just got to learn to be like South Africa is at the moment, where they have this ability to go out on a good day, a bad day, a day where the referee’s against them, the bounce of the ball’s against them,” he said.

“But somehow they have this mentality of refusing to lose. And those Test matches, that’s where this team, this All Black team, like I said, which attack wise and defence wise is trending in the right direction, need to get more ruthless.

“And then we’ll start finding we’re winning those test matches rather than dropping them.”

A big concern for Robertson was the All Blacks’ inability to score points in the final quarter of several of their Tests in 2024.

Marshall highlighted the Springboks’ much-vaunted replacements bench the ‘bomb squad’ and the belief they have in their abilities, especially during the closing stages of matches.

One particular Test against the All Blacks in Johannesburg when they came on towards the end of that encounter to wipe out a 10-point deficit and help the Boks to clinch an unlikely victory stands out for Marshall.

“What was really rare for me was I was actually sidelined at that stage with Supersport and I’m usually sort of up top. So I’m right in front of the Springbok bench,” he said. And obviously the Springboks were behind in the Test match at that stage.

“And I wasn’t really concentrating. I was concentrating down, my head was down, look at my monitor because we were showing a replay. And all of a sudden there was this huge lift in the stadium and this massive roar.

“And I was like, looked up and wondered what was going on. And there were these six replacements standing there, the bomb squad. And you could just see that there was this recognition of if the Test match is going to change, the crowd could feel it, the players could feel it.

‘Massive momentum was injected into the Springboks’

“And on they went. And then this massive momentum was injected into the Springboks. And, you know, that’s where we need to get to.

“You know, we’re not quite there with our bench yet. And they have that advantage over us. You know, they’ve got, you know, trillions of test caps coming off the bench who have been to that cold face I’m talking about test matches before.

“So look, do I feel that we should be learning and replicating the Springboks? No way, man. No, we are our own identity. We have our way of how we play and how we use our substitutes.

“But we’ve just got to get that absolutely perfect because in that way we can match and we can probably counter anything the opposition throws at us once we find out that recipe.

“And when we do that, then we’ve got the players, the calibre and the ability to beat every team in the world, including the Springboks.”

Marshall also used the example of the All Blacks’ 30-29 defeat to France in Paris as a match in which decision-making – especially during its closing stages – proved costly in the grander scheme of things.

“Like France is a classic example where Scott Barrett will learn a lot from some of the decisions he made in the last quarter.

“And I think by his own admission, he said that with his leadership and his captaincy, because that’s a Test match where the All Blacks allowed the opposition to dictate, whereas good teams dictate that last 20 because the other team’s playing catch up. The other one’s under pressure.

“So keep them under pressure. I think those things all combined when they start getting that consistency and selection and pulling the trigger each week on a team that he knows is going to go out there and know each other well, we’ll find that we’ll get a lot better for winning those test matches.”