Yet More Rugby Opinion

I read that the Frogs are making out that a Cardiff quarter against the All Blacks would not make a dfference which I think is probably true. Initially I thought forget it and that a home game is always better especially in Stade de France. But then I recall the nightmare choke in 1999 and that it was at Twickenham.

They will have good support in Cardiff but on balance and with the Graham Henry legacy, I hope that if we meet France at Cardiff then the crowd will be 60% with the ABs.

Now to the ball issue: I believe that is real and does account for a lot of wayward kicking from Carter, Wilkenson and Pretorious on the weekend.

As for the grey jersey issue with Scotland vs. MABs: Crap...total shite. Similar jerseys do not cause you to drop balls, they cause you to pass to the wrong person or not pass cause you are confused.

The ABs have a tradition of destroying the next team they play after a poor performance. So in this respect Romania is in for a torrid time and we should expect 100+ points. In a way I think that having a weak team play the All Blacks following a poor performance (at least aspects of it were) is a good thing. The defense will be poor and the aggressiveness at the breakdown will be limited to the first 20 minutes. So this will mean the ABs will again have plenty of room to move and pass the ball. Contrast this with a stronger team in which the ABs would tighen eveything up. At least this way we might see if their handling skills/focus has improved rather than a change in game plan to keeping it tight/not passing.

I have seen the ABs play two types of games this and last season. They are capable of grinding out a ruthless no-flashy-crap game so I know Henry has that game plan available to him at anytime. Look for that game plan against France in the Quarters (or the Argies).

AB Review

Last nights’s effort had positives and negatives. Firstly the negatives. The error rate was horrendous with SippingVino Sivifarter the #1 offender when he botched at least two tries. The number of times they got the freaking ball passed into the bread basket and then dropped it was outrageous! It was like watching a bloody training session when they drop the ball and laugh and smile at each other saying under their breath “it don’t matter cause this is just training”. Um sorry, the time for training is over; the time for excuses is gone; you drop balls like that and you should be dropped from the team! Then what about the number of unforced turnovers, knock ons etc? Total shit. If they play like this against worthy opposition we will be sitting here going “oh shit what went wrong?’ in a few weeks time.

THE PROBLEM IS CLEAR: 1) LACK OF GAME TIME; 2) LACK OF CONTINUITY IN THE COMBINATIONS and; 3) LACK OF HARD ARSED OPPOSITION.

Now the scrum was just evil. The Abs destroyed the poor scots. To their credit the scots did not completely capitulate like the frogs did a few years back. But what I was concerned about was that they didn’t convert that total domination into points as readily as they should have. The lineout was satisfactory but then they didn’t have a vickerman or mattfield to deal with.

On the positives. IF and ONLY IF, they can actually catch good passes like the kids do in my local village club U16 comp, then they will destroy all comers. I have watched almost every game of this world cup and no team has the power of the ABS – the superior depth everywhere. If they can sort out the silly errors then there is daylight between this Abs side and the rest of the RWC contenders – including South Africa.

Speaking of the Yarpies, they really showed they played their best game against woeful England because the effort against Tonga was pretty slack. To be honest the Yarpies missed a few goals and the Tongans played like a side possessed – at times. The All Blacks will play like the Tongans did for 80 minutes so the Boks have to look hard at what happened in that game. Mel and I both thought this game was the best of the cup so far for excitement and contest (rather than quality).

But back to the positives from last night. The commitment at the breakdown was starting to look like old times. I enjoyed watching the ball get turned over seemingly at will and the second half domination of possession. The repeated setting of the scrum was just withering for the scots. No front row can take that for long and when they get back up to run around the park they are stuffed. Man of the match goes to the front row. The rest of the Abs need to put glue on their fingers and start training.

I also watched the Wallybees play Fiji. Not a bad game but nothing really to write home about. The Fijians were tighter than I expected but the Aussies were just too good around the park. It didn’t tell me much about how the Wallybees are tracking but a few individual efforts: Rocky Elsom and Wycliff Palu stand out. Oh, and who’s Berreck Barnes this week? Where was he? Another example of over‑hyping killing a young talent.

The Importance of Good Teeth

I have always been one of those people that looks at other people's teeth when I meet them. Sort of like how some women look at shoes to judge a person (rightly or wrongly) I look at teeth.

Straight teeth indicate your family had enough money to make sure you had straight teeth when you were a child ; an indicator of better upbringing (whether true or not that's what people generally think).
White teeth indicate healthy living
Clean teeth say you look after yourself and care about your appearance (who likes bad breath?)

It is for these reasons that I spent a fair bit of dough getting mine fixed and for this reason that I assisted Melinda-Jane - my wonderful partner - to pay for our daughter Alyssa-Jane's braces. Yesterday Alyssa had her top braces removed and here is a picture of them. You look great Lussie! I'll post the complete job later.

More On Rugby

I have further considered my comments below and one thing I guess we have to remember is that coaching staff KNEW the schedule for RWC2007 so they could have planned it differently etc. So this is their strategy through and through so we must TRUST that they have it right cause they know the players and the requirements better than we do. Unfortunately when I think like this I also recall Mitchell's journey to nowhere in 2003. He supposedly had it all planned and laid out. At least in 1999 we could claim injuries and playing out of position. In 2003 we choked and got done and we just got caught believing our own press.

In 2007, if we fail, it will not be through choking, it will not be that we are surprised by a stellar performance, it will be that our strategy was wrong and the battle hardened South Africans were too good on the day.

The above are pre-RWC jitters from a dedicated MIGHTY ALL BLACK SUPPORTER and cannot be used in a court of law or against me in any way whatsoever forever and ever so help me God (which I don't believe in anyway because its symbolism for pagan astrological sun worshipping anyway).

The Rugby

So I have been following the MIGHTY ALL BLACKS of course. Despite all the crapping on by Graham Henry and his fellow coaches, the ABs are NOT in any way being tested by these walks in the park and it is not doing them any good whatsoever.

In fact IMHO they are very bad for the All Blacks. Yes this team is the best prepared ever - but then so are some of the other teams e.g., South Africa. The game against Portugal reminded me of the start of the 2006 season in which the ABs won the games but played Islander rugby in which mistakes were abundant but outweighed by sheer talent and a crap opposition.

Don't be fooled. In the last two cups, at which we played them in pool matches, we beat Italy with a score in the 70's but Italy didn't score anywhere near the 14 they scored against us (2003=70 to 7, 1999=101 to 3); and in 2007 they scored TWO TRIES!!!

Portugal was a spirited side that did well and once again we let in 13 points!

Contrast that with the Boks who didn't let in a single point against the poms. Yes the poms were without ideas but still, they kept them scoreless none-the-less. The boks were pretty bloody good and Habana is going to be a huge threat to MacDonald under the high ball.

What I am seeing is that our line is porous. We are giving away points and relying on our overwhelming scoring prowess to win games. This will NOT WORK against the Wallybees. They pride themselves in locking down a game and winning it on defence. How good is a scoring machine that makes a few mistakes and lets in a few tries against a side that simply refuses to let you score trys? Their game plan will be simple: kick the ball into our half and either pinch the ball from our crap lineout or let us run it back at them (cause they know we think we can score from anywhere) and then keep tackling until they intecept us or we make a mistake and they get a kick at goal.

Another thing that is worrying me is all the positive press and statements from the coaching team that "all is good" and "we don't need good opposition to get prepared for the quarters". This is right up there with George Orwell's 1984 "Ministry of Truth" and "War is Peace" and "Freedom is Slavery". Get real!!!!! All Black machines are chiseled out of a series if hard arsed encounters. Take a look at the 2006 season as an example. They were crap at the beginning of the season and only came good during the Northern Hemisphere tour. Yes they won almost all their games (except the one that counted in Rustenburg).

I am deeply worried that GH's BIG squad, frequent rotations and reconditioning program is not the right strategy. OK there, I've said it.

Now I will put my DEDICATED ALL BLACK SUPPORTER hat back on: I did see evidence during the Portugal match of the AB's letting things go e.g., Aaron Maguer not tackling the Portugal scorer as he crossed the line. I know that they have enormous talent and it is literally impossible to play well when the opposition sucks. I see possible conspiracies in some of the squad's behaviour that sends me the message they are bluffing and they have more in reserve than they are letting on (e.g., lack of set moves).

Another positive is that we will certainly be the most resilient team against injuries and suspensions - we have the most experienced and talented bench of all the teams by far. Lets just hope its not our front row that gets injured/binned.

!!!!!!GO THE MIGHTY ALL BLACKS!!!!!!

APEC

Went into the city yesterday to see a client. It's as dead as a dodo. Like a Sunday.
Here's some pics of the snipers over George "Dubya" Bush's hotel:

Father's Day

Today was Father's Day. My daughter (14) rang me between homework and the computer and said hello and wished me happy fathers' day which was great!

I rang my dad who sounded great and he informed me of Ron and Val's diamond wedding anniversary to be held on 15th December. I think Mel and I will go to that.