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!!!!!!