Ex-All Blacks back three star Israel Dagg insisted that their aerial game was exposed by France and that moving Rieko Ioane could have impacted it further.<\/b><\/p>\n
Scott Robertson made the bold call to shift the 28-year-old from centre after his struggles for both the Blues and New Zealand over the past year.<\/p>\n
Wing was the position he broke onto the scene in as a teenager but, following the switch into midfield, he has had little experience in that position recently.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s an art, it\u2019s a skill\u2019<\/p>\n
Having played the entirety of the Blues campaign at 13, Ioane<\/a> was then placed out wide and Dagg felt it enabled Les Bleus<\/a> to get on top aerially.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are positives but there are also a lot of work-ons, and our high balls is one of them. We\u2019ve kind of gone from being the world leaders in retaining our own ball, but at the moment we\u2019re really struggling to catch our own ball and to chase and put pressure on our own kick right now,\u201d he said on Sport Nation\u2019s Scotty & Izzy show.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of those could be that we\u2019ve got a guy that\u2019s played centre (Ioane) for the last four or five years who has gone to the wing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an art, it\u2019s a skill that is learnt over a very, very, very long time and when I was watching him on the weekend, he just struggled in the high ball.<\/p>\n \u201cHe probably lacked confidence and didn\u2019t really have an understanding of what was needed to get up and apply the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n All Blacks player ratings: \u2018Hit-and-miss\u2019 Rieko Ioane as \u2018outrageous\u2019 Will Jordan shines in shaky win<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Dagg also felt that their kicking game did not help matters, with the half-backs not quite accurate enough in putting their opponents under pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cI was listening to Marshy (Justin Marshall) about our kicks as well. Our kicks are going more central, they\u2019re probably going a little too long, which is not allowing our attackers to get there and dominate the space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of focus this week is on where we\u2019re going to do our kicks. At the moment, we\u2019re getting a bit lost and we\u2019re like, \u2018oh my god, our only option here is to kick\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re kicking from the central part of the field which is opening it up. If it goes too long, you\u2019ve got two sides to attack and putting our defence under so much pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s our kick strategy and our ability to catch that high ball. Defensively though the middle, we got exposed a whole lot of times.\u201d<\/p>\n Understrength France show up<\/p>\n