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Compare his game to Stephen Donald. As soon as Stephen came on, he started the usual "let's kick the ball in the air and see what happens" routine. IT DOESN'T WORK! Stop doing that. It just gives the ball away to the opposition. Graham Henry should have a quiet word in his ear and tell him that if he does that type of kicking again, he's going to get a jolly good clip around the ears... :(
The game on a whole was not the All Blacks best, but they did grind out a win. The Aussies must be thinking that an All Blacks side that is not playing at 100% can still beat them. Poor ol' Dingo Deans must be feeling a bit crook at the moment. And it only gets worse for him with the South Africans in town next weekend. Poor him.
In my opinion (Which I'm sure won't be highly regarded here) the Kiwi's have one fundamental flaw to their game. They rely too much on key players like DC to "create the spark". And this is exactly where teams are beating them at the moment. If the Boks had to suddenly lose star player Morne Steyn, they would simply replace him with another star player Ruan Pienaar. The same could be said for most of the key players (Matfield, Botha, Du Preez ect.) They are trained not to rely on the person, but on the position and tactical skills surrounding the position. In this way, any one could slot in with minor changes needed and still win games.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.