A Weekend of Poor Performance

There were three important games this weekend each showing plenty of poor performance for the tri-nations hopefuls. Test matches are won on the back of two or three mistakes and one or two key turnovers. We saw lots of both in all three games.

All Blacks

Another shocker! The Italians were actually quite good for a change. Gower made the difference and with Nick Mallet in charge they’ve learnt how to tackle almost as good as they can comb their hair. Their forward pack had more forward gears than reverse for a change. I liked their play and they were clearly stoked at having made the All Blacks look lacklustre.

The reactions in the box of Henry and his coaching team are quite telling. The body language says to me “hope”, that is, they are bereft of ideas and the only thing left is hope. The way Henry turns away and holds his heart when yet another blunder happens just tells me he’s a lost soul, nothing he is doing is working and the panic in Henry is obvious. Wayne Smith looks like frustration personified.

I liked Ross at #5 and paired with Brad Thorn we might have the second row we need for the tri-nations campaign. All the bluster about Slew Hand Luke is probably a bit tough. I mean we don’t have many #10’s and Luke is just out of form having not played much. Donald would give us a known quantity – ideal against the Boks for example. But McAlister has the pizzazz we need to attack which will be required against the Wallybees – if he can hold onto the ball, kick, pass and run….. I don't think we have anything to combat Giteau.

Wallabies

OK the reports are true, I did go to the Wallybee game wearing a Wallybee outfit because I was going with seven other Wallybee supports (Mel, the girls, Leanne and Paul). But don’t worry; I made sure I was wearing my All Black Centenary Celebration shirt and socks underneath. This way my skin was protected from Wallybee infections.

It was great fun to go to the stadium with the family but the game was like watching paint dry. Boring, boring and more boring. I watched it on TV later and it was still boring. I see the French claim the Wallybees were harder to play than All Blacks. They are just taunting us a second time! There is no way that test was harder than the one in Wellington. Tell'em they're dreaming.

The girls loved the night out as you can see from the photos. Peita got a photo with Josh Valentine the half back for Australia.

Springboks

They were the best of the three teams this weekend but that’s not saying much. Lions were good enough to make the Boks work for it and as usual Morne Steyn saved them with his awesome boot – after the bell. There was a big Lions crowd which nullified the boers so there wasn’t the usual advantage there. Some good runs from O’Gara. Victor Matfield looked strangely out of sorts. I see that Skulk Burger has been banned for 6 weeks for eye-gouging….really, are the meat eaters still doing that? I guess it took them a long time to come to terms with racial equality so perhaps it will take a long time for them to learn that’s not part of the modern game.

In summary, all three tri-nations teams are not showing great form and as far as I can see it is a toss-up as to which team is favourite going in. If I had to pick though I would put my money on the Yarpies and then maybe Australia. But my heart’s with the MIGHTY ALL BLACKS and they have shown they CAN put in a good performance if they get their head's right. This poor performance should put the All Blacks into the right frame of mind before the Wallybees on the 18th July but they will need a lot less mistakes to win.

What a Difference a Week Makes

OK, I admit I did my bun last week and had a decent grizzle. That’s what I am known for so there is nothing surprising in that. But I still feel I was entitled to grizzle at that disgusting performance and the normal reactions of Henry et al.

This week we saw only one essential change – passion and commitment at the breakdown. The All Blacks played northern hemisphere rugby by keeping it in the forwards and kicking judiciously; they played to the conditions. The multiple box kicks up the side line had the Frogs swinging their heads around in the air – it was the first time I saw Henry put out a game plan that surprised an opposition.

The French were dropping like flies at one stage which is usually an indication that the intensity of the opposition is too much.

Brad Thorn and Kevin Mealamu were outstanding and really showed how it should be done. Weepu should be starting the game. If Weepu keeps playing second fiddle to Cowan he’ll be targeted by the Leaguies because he’d make a superb playmaker in that code.

I can honestly say that I would have been happy to lose that match because they put in a sterling effort up front (unfortunately some of the backs sucked still). This French side is pretty good and it could have gone either way.

We are missing a number of the top All Blacks which, combined with this sort of passion, would make an unbeatable side.

The final score reflected the tight match and perhaps highlighted what we are missing without Dan the Man – an all conditions top-of-the-line goal kicker.

It felt good to be an AB supporter again.

Rugby Scoreboard II Gets its First Game Day

On Saturday the Rugby Scoreboard got its first run on a home game day and it was a complete success. Even though it was a rainy day the sign worked well. I was able to teach two people how to use it with no problems at all. The sign was clear and bright and easily readable from 30-40 metres away and best of all it stopped anyone asking what the score was or how much time was remaining.



North Rocks had a great day too winning all matches for the day. Kingsdene was one of the few grounds open because it drains well, however, at about 1pm we closed the ground due to damage being caused to the southern end.

iPhone Upgrade to OS 3.0

Last night I upgraded to the latest iPhone software called 3.0. This is the "catch up" version of the phone's software that is desperately needed for Apple to maintain the momentum of this technology.

The upgrade process was almost perfect - the only issue was that it changed the place of some of my icons. The placement of the icons is something you get used to very quickly so when they move (e.g., the kids playing with my iPhone) it can be very frustrating trying to find the app you use frequently. Other than this the whole upgrade process including the 230MB download took about 30 minutes unattended.

The new features are desperately required.

• MMS- looks much easier to use that a lot of other phones I have had in the past - grade A
• SMS - still no "forward" for use with joke SMS's. You apparently have to use copy and paste....grade C-
  
• Cut Copy and Paste - works but a little clunky, you get used to it....grade C
• Search function (swipe right) - this is an awesome new feature without an equivalent in Windows Mobile. The search looks anywhere in your iPhone for the word you enter. So any contacts, calendar appointments, applications web addresses etc are all listed and you can tap any of them to go to that entry in that application...grade A+
• Landscape view mode in Mail and landscape keyboard - about time! Grade B only because it should have been there in the first place.
• iPod player 30 second skip - you can now skip ahead 30 seconds at a time in the iPod which is great for listening to Podcasts....grade B for Bout time.
• iPod player has speed setting - for podcasts I can speed up the speech. One particular podcast I listen to the bloke speaks slowly. With this feature I can double the speed of speech and still clearly understand it in half the time....grade B

There are lots more little tweaks which I will get to but all-in-all a worthy upgrade cleverly released at the same time as the iPhone 3G S so as to placate those of us that only recently purchased the iPhone 3G!

Groundhog Day

A week or so ago when the new All Black team was named, signalling the beginning of the test season, I put this new background on my new iPhone.



I love the All Blacks, I love watching them win tests and I love my iPhone but there wasn’t much to love on Saturday.

Before a test I would normally be a lot more enthusiastic and pumped waiting for the kick off whistle but on Saturday I wasn’t. I don’t know why and maybe in there somewhere is the answer to what went wrong.

On Saturday afternoon I watched Jesse’s U17 team bash Hills 28 to 10 in an excellent display of clinical rugby. Jesse’s team wasn’t the bigger or faster team but they played hard, held on to the ball for long periods and took penalty points when they were on offer. In short, smart team rugby. Hills weren’t able to get any momentum even though they had a superior backline. The result, a good win against a better-side-on-paper on a sunny but chilly Sydney afternoon. The perfect preamble to a great game of test footy in the evening one would assume. Ah but we know what assume means don’t we!

Mel and I sat down in front of the plasma with a few tinnies and I turned the volume up loud enough so that conversation was impossible. The kids evacuated to their bunkers to avoid me for the next 80 minutes – they are well trained indeed.

I don’t need to go over the details of the test we all saw. Same crap start, same lack of passion, same catch-up football, same France hoodoo, same inability to match the passion, same Nonu blunders he saves for test matches, same dodgy selections, same intercepted passes, same same same… Groundhog Day.

I note that Henry’s usual deflection ploy was at work immediately after the game. “France were fantastic, spectacular defence, lucky intercept, very physical”…. blah de blah de blah. Why doesn’t Henry tape himself and replay it next time so he can go and have a whisky half an hour earlier and miss the press conference altogether? The bloke simply can’t accept he and his team stuffed it up. The Frogs actually were good, very good, but they just did what they always do – play like men possessed, never give up and rely on rush defence, marginal forward passing and the intercept brought about by AB panic. Learn to EXPECT this and you have yourself the beginnings of a game plan. I mean it was only when Whepu came on in the second half that they started to work around the rush defence!

Our bunch of new All Blacks ARE good enough to beat them if we are prepared and have a decent game plan.

It’s my firm belief that at this level psychological preparation is probably the most important aspect of a test match and Henry and his team get a big fat ‘F’ for performance and ‘F’ for aptitude on this front during his entire tenure (examples abound but last year’s first Bleddy in Sydney is a good one). Why, year after year, when the important matches come around are we left marvelling at the oppostion’s passion!? Why are we left looking like we came for a picnic and found it was a serious game? Did we believe it was the usual B-grade French side they send out at this time of year? Did we believe that the French are only good every 4 years? Did we believe our own press? Did we believe the TAB knew more about Rugby than the French players? Apparently we did. The sad thing is that I am guilty too.

Henry, fall on your sword now. This will give Deans time to drop out of Aussie rugby and come back to NZ where he belongs and get us through the next world cup. There won’t be a better opportunity for the All Blacks to win probably ever. Tew needs to stuff Henry’s contract back in the bottom draw for at least a few more weeks in the hope he’ll resign and avoid a messy dismissal.

Henry: LESSON TO BE LEARNT FROM LOSS: Something has to change because whatever you’re doing ain’t working so usually that means you need to try something new.

Somewhat dazed and confused, I stayed on to watch the Wallabies dick the Azzurri albeit with the volume down on the telly and conversation was welcomed. It is becoming clear that the Deans factor is starting to play out. Dingo Deans had to play all those big names last year in his first year so that they could prove – or not - they aren’t the players to take Australia to the RWC 2011. He’s done that and now he’s letting go of the dead wood and bringing up a young team with a few old blokes to keep them focused. Sure, the pretty boy O’Conner was in the right place at the right time and they were playing the Italians after all, but the Aussies are, if nothing else, great a building momentum and belief in themselves this way. The O’Conner factor will play out in the press and the team will bask in the reflected glory and avoid real questions being asked of the side and therefore buy them precious weeks to build for the big matches. Even Deans is learning about the Australian psyche. I watched him being interviewed on The Rugby Club (Fox Sports program) and he dropped in a self deprecating joke and a little jibe at one of the commentators. It was wooden to say the least, and I doubt any Kiwi watching it was convinced, but the Aussies loved it! “Deans and charming the media”, only an Aussie would believe that.

But the Aussies do it every year, start off with easy-beats and build and hone their team to peak at the tri-nations or world cup. No sense in starting off with a bang and ending in a whimper.

The All Blacks on the other hand win mostly because they’re the best not because they plan, prepare and build towards a result. I am almost of the opinion that the second France game doesn’t matter either way. We have shown ourselves to not be mentally up to the challenge of the big games once again. A monumental dicking of France in Wellington will actually work against the All Blacks and prove our problems are mental. Perhaps the only way out now is to be beaten again by a “once in 15 years great french side”?

Video Conversion for Dummies

I sometimes get asked what I use to make DVDs and transfer movies around various media formats so I have written up this table. All these products are free.

FROM	TO	PRODUCT TO USE	WHERE DO I GET IT?	WHY DO I CARE?
DVD	File*	DVD Decrypter	Google it	Extracts a movie from a DVD and removes the copy protection.
DVD	DVD	DVDShrink	Google it	Shrinks movies stored on 8GB DVD format to be stored on 4GB blanks which are 10th the price
File	DVD	DeVeDe	www.majorsilence.com/devede	Allow you to create a DVD from a movie file and play that DVD on any normal DVD player
File	iPod or iPhone	Videora	www.redkawa.com	Play movies on your iPhone or iPod.

* File = there are various formats e.g., AVI, MP4, ISO. Each file format has a different use so you might need to do some reading unless you’re familiar with this already.

Example: Watch Movie on iPod/iPhone

Let’s say you have a movie you legitimately purchased and you want to exercise your “fair use” rights and play it on your iPod. First you use DVD Decrypter to extract the contents, and then use Videora to take the extracted contents and create an MP4 [.m4p] file (the format used by Apple for movies). Videora will usually automatically add it to iTunes as well!

Example: Backup Movie for Safe Keeping

Some of the kids aren’t so good at looking after the DVD collection. Under fair use we are allowed to backup our valuable DVDs. But some are too big to store on a normal DVD and some are copy protected which prevents you backing them up. For this, use DVD Shrink to remove the copy protection and shrink the movie down to below 4GB. You can buy 4GB DVDs for less than 20c each.

Example: Download a TV Program and Put it on a DVD

You can download some TV shows but it’s pretty unsociable to watch it on your PC in the study. It’s better to put the show on a DVD and watch it on a normal DVD player or home entertainment system. First download the TV shows using a torrent P2P program and take the file and create your own DVD with DeVeDe. You can even create a menu and store multiple shows on the one DVD.

NOTE: When creating a DVD you need some DVD burning software which is usually built into the operating system, however, I use Nero which performs really well (but it is not free). Most PCs come with a bundled DVD writing software so check out all the “free stuff” you got with your PC.