Yippee! It all came together on the night

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Great stuff! The All Blacks rose to the occasion and proved all their critics wrong and came out with a crunching win over the Wallabies in Wellington on Saturday night. Final score 33 points to 6.

The Wallablies coach, Dingo Deans, must be wondering what on earth can he do to beat the All Blacks. After all, his team did beat the South Africans only 2 weeks ago, while the All Blacks could only hang their head in shame after their defeat.

The All Blacks looked like the All Blacks of old that we know and love. They held onto the ball and showed dominance in every aspect of the game, even the lineouts! I know!

I think it came down to ball in hand. No more of these silly tactics of gaining possesion and then deciding to kick the ball in no particular direction hoping that a mistake from the opposition will come. That tactic did not work in all the Tri-Nations games and some one finally siad "hey, let's not kick the ball to the opposition, let's hold onto it so they can't get it!". Magic. There is a place in the game for precise kicking and that is what we had on show from Daniel Carter. And to show that the crowd knew a bad kick when they saw one, when Jimmy Cowan decided to kick a ball when they had men over, and the kick ended up in the Wallabies hands, a groan was heard from the crowd.

It was a positive way to end the Tri-Nations after a very ugly All Blacks season. Let's hope we have turned the corner and from now on, we will see a huge improvement from the men in black.

Did it hit a nerve?

Steve Hansen, All Blacks forward coach, has come out swinging at the critics about the dismal display at the lineouts.

Hansen said "So my job is not about listening to those people, my job is about making sure we stay on task and do the job well, so there is no point in me getting concerned." Umm, do the job well...I wonder when that will be?

I think Hansen should be pleased that there are people out there talking about the lineouts. I would be very concerned as a coach if no one cared about our national game. People are pastionate about the game, more so than the players and coaches it seems at the moment. Yes, that may be harsh but as the viewing public, this is what we see and what comes across. At the end of the day, they still get paid - win or lose. But what the rugby public want to see is good hard, tough and accurate rugby that we excell at. The team I have seen so far this year is far from it.

It is also disturbing to think that we only have one lineout forward capable of winning lineouts - Ali Williams. Issac Ross was a very good replacement and has worked very well so dropping him was a strange move. Mentally strained? If that's the case, more games are needed for him to be mentally stronger not sitting on the sidelines.

This lack of form may be a good thing though. No, I haven't gone crazy. Think about it. The All Blacks usually peak well before the rugby world cup. South Africa are currently on top and are the best team in the world (gulp!). We have work to do to get back up there but if winning the rugby world cup is the aim, let's hope we get it right then rather than now.

As I heard on the news one day, that the All Blacks are a brand name now and not a rugby team. This is very true and very disappointing. Rather than playing for the jersey and the country, it all comes back to how much the NZRFU will receive as a payback for marketing the All Blacks brand. Look what the NZRFU are trying to do with the Air New Zealand Cup. Why keep changing the best provincial tournament, it seems, every year. It's the same with the IRB and changing the rules and sanitising the game of rugby.

The All Blacks play Australia on Saturday in Wellington. Go the All Blacks.

Strange question of the day....

OK, with rucking a thing of the past in rugby (but in my opinion it should be brought back so people lying over ball are cleared quickly), why do they keep on calling a ruck a ruck? The word ruck is meaningless without the physical act of rucking! The IRB might as well call it a pile-up or a tiddly-winks pile-up or something.

It was interesting to here from the IRB chairman about rucking. He stated some people like it some people don't. Who are these people that they asked? Some stuffy-shirt that sits behind a desk all day and makes all these stupid new rugby rules up or the real man and woman on the street. Why not conduct a world wide rugby poll and see what the people think? I know, I know, asking the fans what they want from the game of rugby is a bit far fetched, even though we are the ones paying the big bucks to go and see these games.

A little bit more consultancy with the rugby public may stop the people from turning away from rugby and onto league for example. A poll eveyr so often about an aspect of the game would go a long way to help getting these matters resolved.

Open letter to Graham Henry and the All Blacks

Here is an email I received from a very concerned All Blacks supporter. It is directed at Graham Henry and the way the All Blacks have lost the pride and passion for the black jersey...

"To Graham Henry and the ALL-BLACKS,

I watched one and only one of your training tapes on the All-Black official web site and I have to say I was very disappointed. For god’s sake get some pride and passion back boys.

It is and should always be an honour to represent your country and not about how much money you can get, for this privilege!

You must chase the tries, because if you don’t we will lose the Tri-Nations cup and I never thought I would say this you will lose my respect and I have supported you for over 43 years.

Nothing fancy just get back to the basics of rugby, learn to change tactics and keep the opposition guessing, the best game I watched this year was the first game in South Africa at altitude, you guys were awesome, and I thought we were going to win the second test but no Graham stuffed up and instead of sticking with a combination that worked he changed it and we lost!

This is your chance as a team to prove you are worthy of the Black jumper and worthy to perform the HAKA! Do it for your country, but most of all do it for YOURSELVES!

Vince Collie
Personal Trainer"

Strange attitude or sensible approach?

Graham Henry has stated in an interview that they will not be chasing the 4 tries against South Africa and sticking to their game plan. Hold on...I thought the whole idea of rugby is to score more tries than the opposition and thus getting more points on the board and thus winning the game.

I hope Graham hasn't fallen into the northern hemisphere way of thinking that drop goals and penalties is the way to win matches. They may help, but tries are the order of the day.

I'd rather see a game where the scoreboard goes up in 5's or 7's rather than in multiples of 3!

Good luck in Hamilton. Let's hope that tries will come thick and fast..for the All Blacks that is.