New Zealand's Waisake Naholo attempts a flick pass under pressure. Trying to score off every play is putting the All Blacks under pressure.

OPINION: The All Blacks are playing the game back to front and it must be addressed.

Tackling ad infinitum saps energy and is bruising and the All Blacks are doing too much of it.

It's as if they are content to defend Tobruk and send out warring parties behind enemy lines.

One day, against the likes of Eddie Jones' great whites, this infernal tackling will come unstuck.

READ MORE:

* Tongan petition crushed

* Message ban plan 'ridiculous'

* Reason: Ioane player of the year

The stats from the past four tests make crazy reading.

Against Wales on Saturday, our troops had a meagre 36 percent possession and made 168 tackles to 110.

Against Scotland, the possession was 40 percent and 177 tackles to 79.

In Paris, it was 43 percent and 123 tackles to 83 by the French.

When the All Blacks lost in Brisbane, they had a luxurious 46 percent share but made 152 tackles to 90.

Even though we have super coaches and the best team on the planet, they haven't figured out how to reverse this pattern.

Maybe they so covet breakdown ball they are happy to bash the marauders until they collect a spill. But because they have such meagre rations, they try to score every time they have the ball.

And doing things at a millions miles an hour isn't helping because invariably the ball goes down or is kicked away.

Constant defending attracts penalties and then you lose the territory battle. Get near the tryline and referees get yellow fever, as when Sam Whitelock was needlessly binned by silly old Barnes on Sunday.

The All Blacks get away with this defending because they harness so much strikepower of the Rieko Ioane variety. Ioane was clearly the World Rugby player of the year.

However, it went to Beauden Barrett which shows World Rugby doesn't know a lot about world rugby. Also annoying was that the ABs seemed to write off one half of every game.

At Cardiff on Sunday they had only two players who started the 2015 World Cup final – Aaron Smith and Whitelock. By the way, of the four Feilding High School players in Sunday's test, only Aaron Smith has played for Manawatū.

The Welsh should have factored in that there was almost another half decent AB team in mothballs: Jordie Barrett, Israel Dagg, Nehe Milner-Skudder, Kieran Read, Vaea Fifita, Julian Savea, Ben Smith, Luke Romano, Jerome Kaino, Brodie Retallick, Joe Moody, Dane Coles, Owen Franks … and of course Manawatū's own Ngani Laumape.

BEAVER'S BOOK BURNS PALMY

But for two strange kicks, Stephen Donald might have remained a legend only in his home hamlet of Waiuku.

Instead he became infamous after stuffing up a clearing kick in Hong Kong to lose the All Blacks a test and was feted for his slightly mis-hit goal to win the 2011 World Cup final.

All that earned him a book.

Beaver is amusing, not just for recounting the effort he expended sipping ale when feeling down in his down time.

Among the anecdotes are two focusing on Palmerston North, one when he was picked for a NZ Colts trial at the then Rugby Institute.

He said it is often overlooked that an entire generation has been held in what amounts to an "internment camp", which is a trifle nasty.

"To say there was nothing to do at the Institute would be over-stating the array of entertainments on offer," Donald wrote.

"We were a captive audience, force-fed tactics and flogged to within an inch of our lives. Shipping the best and brightest to that particular facility is not coaching; it's torture."

Translated, that might mean there was no boozer close at hand on what is a dry campus.

There was also an NPC match when Donald was facing fellow All Blacks first-five, Aaron Cruden.

Waikato trailed with time almost up on the Manawatū line and Beaver said he was pumped up like a bouncy castle.

"Everyone else in the Waikato backline may as well have headed for the shower right then because that ball was never going to go past me.

"On that night I wanted victory over him and his team."

Most of us remember Beaver charging over Cruden like a raging moose.

AUSSIE BOY FIFITA FUMBLED

Referee Matt Cecchin was dead right in ruling out a strip in favour of Tonga in the final play against England at the Rugby League World Cup on Saturday night.

It was a loose carry by Sydney-born Andrew Fifita in a slap tackle. However, Cecchin might easily have lifted the burden off himself by going to the bunker.

But a street march and a lawyer's letter protesting the decision were over the top. Anyway, Tonga was an artificial team of Kiwis and Aussies and while they brought excitement to the World Cup, we could have done without the hooliganism from fans at Otahuhu.

Only four players were Tongan born – Konrad Hurrell, Sione Katoa, Sam Moa and Ukuma Ta'ai. Of the rest, 11 were born in Auckland, two in Wellington and seven in Australia.