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.