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.