Sir John Kirwan says that he is simply “not used” to the types of performances the All Blacks have been producing since Scott Robertson took charge.
New Zealand suffered their third loss of the year when they went down 33-19 to England, which ended their Grand Slam dream.
Scott Robertson’s men still reside in second place, behind the Springboks, in the World Rugby rankings, but there is no doubt that they haven’t matched the expectations of the pundits and supporters.
Two sides to the All Blacks’ personality
“There’s just something within the team that we’re just not used to seeing as All Blacks fans. Honestly, there’s some amazing rugby being played and then we have this other side of our personality,” Kirwan said on the Rivals podcast.
“How often do you see an All Black team miss touch with the ability to go 15 points clear? We missed touch twice at critical times, didn’t take a kick at goal.
“It’s just really difficult for us to understand what’s going on. We’re pretty gutted. It’s hard to come up with the answers but there are absolutely not excuses.”
New Zealand had defeated Ireland and Scotland on their northern hemisphere tour but they found England far too tough of a nut to crack.
Kirwan praised the performance of Steve Borthwick’s side but was still left frustrated by the efforts of the All Blacks.
“I thought England were really, really good, clinical, had heaps of energy and we weren’t good enough,” he said.
“It’s frustrating because I think that if you want to be an All Black now and go down in the legacy, it’s like South Africa – you’ve got to win something like the Grand Slam.
“For us not to win the Grand Slam as a team, they don’t go down in the history books. It’s frustrating if you’re a Kiwi now.
“At the moment, we’re just not good enough and if you don’t admit that to yourself… one of the things I’ve always been taught as an All Black is the first person you need to look at is yourself in the mirror.”
‘Something has to change’
Pressure continues to increase on head coach Robertson but Kirwan states that everyone needs to take responsibility for the All Blacks’ current issues.
“Sometimes these are turning points but something has to change. What is it? I don’t know. There needs to be some soul-searching within the team, within the coaching staff,” he added.
“They need to look in the mirror, probably starting with Razor, and we need to get back on the horse and make sure we finish the tour well, but over the summer there needs to be some reviews about why we are inconsistent.
“The inconsistency in our performance over this year is probably not acceptable.
“This happens but I just care so much, I just really care about this team. I’m just really, really upset and I’m upset for the players and I’m upset for the team.”