Monday, November 30, 2009

Final test...best performance by far!

The All Blacks played France on Saturday 28th of November and finally showed what being an All Black is all about. The All Blacks won 39 - 12.

The handbrake was finally let go as the All Blacks showed what the critics and the rugby fans wanted to see - TRIES! And they were good quality tries too. At times, it looked like a vintage All Blacks team with passes sticking, players finding the gaps and wingers that actually looked fast. The scrums were under pressure again but it went both ways. One scrum resulting in an All Blacks try.

Sitiveni Sivivatu once again showed his speed off the mark, waltzing through the French defence and with a bit of slight of hand, allowed Mils Muliaina over for a try.

In the forwards, big bad Brad Thorn played over 1000 minutes for the the All Blacks this year. That man is a machine! Another bug performance from the big man.

And again, it is congratulations to Richie McCaw for taking out the IRB player of the year. Well deserved yet again.

One final game this year for the All Blacks. Not a test match but a big game none the less, against a Barbarians side. If the All Blacks play like they did against France, then the Barbarians have got a lot of work to do to match or even better a side that looked the goods...and then some.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

All Blacks looked dangerous

The All Blacks played England on Saturday and the All Blacks won 19 points to 6.

Firstly, I must say that Jonathan Kaplan the ref made a good job policing the whole game. He was in control from start to finish but was not in the limelight like Stuart Dickinson last week.

The All Blacks were looking dangerous at times especially Sitiveni Sivivatu, who constantly ran past the England players like they were standing still. I think the English were concentrating too much on Dan Carter and totally forgot about all the other players. Not a wise move.

It was boring to see the same old England tactics came out. The ball very rarely got out to the wings. Jonny Wilkinson needs to learn how to run the ball and not try to drop kick the thing out of the park. One bad example of this was when England were on attack in the 22 meters and they had numbers out to the left. The ball got to Jonny and he decided to try a drop goal which, of course, totally missed. So all the hard work that was done, ended up as nothing. Jonny needs to hang up his rugby boots and start a career in soccer.

The All Blacks looked good when they ran the ball, especially Mils Muliaina and Sitiveni Sivivatu. Richie McCaw had another great game. How does he keep going and going. Check that man for Energizer Batteries please!

This game was a good warm up to the clash against France next week. It is always a mystery as to what game the French will bring. But you can count on an entertaining match.

And the best part about the game, it will be shown at 8:45am on Sunday morning here rather than the aweful 3:30am starts that we have had to cope with recently. Yay for sleep ins!

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

All Blacks team named

The All Blacks team has been named for the test match against England on Saturday 21 November.

Mils Muliaina, Zac Guildford, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Dan Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (captain), Adam Thomson, Tom Donnelly, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock.

Reserves: Corey Flynn/Aled de Malmanche, John Afoa, Anthony Boric, Jerome Kaino, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Tamati Ellison.

It is great to see that Owen Franks and Zac Guildford are getting starting roles in the test. This may spark the established members of the team to "pull finger" and produce what the All Blacks fans want - a true All Blacks performance.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Second-stringers do the job

A second-string All Blacks side met the Italy team at the famous Stadio Giuseppe Meazza stadium, or more commonly referred to as San Siro. The All Blacks won 20 points to 6.

Now, let me put things straight first. Graham Henry and the team will probably debate that this is not an All Blacks 'B' team that played Italy. Well, the simple fact, it was. The stars of All Blacks rugby were not out to play, instead probably relaxing somewhere in Milan surrounded by beautiful people. It is strange, the NZRFU get their panties in a twist when visiting sides send a second string side down-under, and yet when the All Blacks go overseas, and play teams like Italy, we play a 'B' team to 'protect' our top players. This shows a lack of respect and arrogance really to the host team.

80,000+ people in the San Siro stadium paid good money to see a top All Blacks team, not a team of 'nearly theres'. No disrespect to the All Blacks team, but this is what it seemed to be from watching the build up to the game and the game itself. Come on the NZRFU and the coaches - give some respect to the opposition team.

Anyway, the game was a very stop, start affair with plenty of penalties and way too many reset scrums. The last 6 minutes of the game was reset scrum after reset scrum - that was it. How boring was that! The game really didn't live up to any great heights as a whole unfortunately. A shame, as the stadium crowd was superb and the atmosphere seemed electric.

I wonder if we will produce a second-string side for the game against England - yeah right!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Brilliant debut for Zac Guildford

The All Blacks first test match for their end of year tour was against Wales.

Zac Guildford was making his test debut and he played like a plyer with 50 test match experience. He was not shy about taking the high balls, made some telling runs and was there to make the try for Andrew Hore.

Dan Carter showed is mongrel by taking to a Wales player with a high shot that the ground replays kept showing, and showing and showing. From then on, when Dan Carter was shown on the big screen, boos rang out over Millennium Stadium. I suppose anything to keep the crowd entertained.

Wales nearly made it a draw but the big lock ran out of puff after the 50m line and was mown down by, you guessed it, Zac Guildford. Go Zac.

It was refreshing to see a northern hemisphere team actually running the ball and not just pass and kick. Let's hope that all the other games will be as entertaining as this one was.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The teams have been named

The teams for the All Blacks vs Wales match have been named.

All Blacks
Mils Muliaina, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Zac Guildford, Dan Carter, Brendon Leonard, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (captain), Jerome Kaino, Jason Eaton, Brad Thorn, Neemia Tialata, Andrew Hore, Wyatt Crockett.

Reserves: Corey Flynn, Owen Franks, Tom Donnelly, Adam Thomson, Jimmy Cowan, Stephen Donald, Ben Smith.

Wales
James Hook, Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams, Stephen Jones, Gareth Cooper, Ryan Jones (captain), Martyn Williams, Andy Powell, Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones, Paul James, Matthew Rees, Gethin Jenkins.

Reserves: Huw Bennett, Duncan Jones, Bradley Davies, Dafydd Jones, Martin Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Tom James.

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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

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