Oh Dear!

[Arnie]

Maybe you guys should use your 2nd team - they're world beaters Your first team obviously isn't  

[Stripe]

you gonna sign up arnie?

not much of a plan B was it. mind you .. the Bokke were very impressive and in the face ...

kicking game was woeful, ball retention hopeless ...

well done south africa ... well deserved.

now bring on... uh .. where are we playing the partygoers? sydney?

[Stripe]

what the hell? 12 smites?

what i say??

 

[Stripe]

three posts in a row while the girlfriend is here .. im on form tonight:

Fullback - Leon MacDonald: Drop Him, Muliaina is class at the back and wasted elsewhere except possibly center.
Wings - Rico Gear: genius with a big tongue; Tony Woodcock: big unit and hard to stop.
Centers - Tana Umaga: needed more ball; Aaron Mauger: king of the loopy passes leon said we werent going to throw any of.. ugh.
Halves - Dan Carter: can he kick or cant he? Piri Weepu: had a good one.
Loosies - Rodney So'oialo: solid character; Richie McCaw: why do we always pass the ball to our opensides? honestly, since mik jones ascended in his chariot of ice weve had brilliant opensides with hands like feet; Jerry Collins: that boy can pass .. and ow? i'll have one SMASHBurger please... "you want fries with that?"
locks - Ali Williams: lost it when it got tough; Chris Jack: can we have two of him?
front row: Carl Hayman and Keven Mealamu and be thankful i know THAT much...  

Bench - Mils Muliaina: is that right? did he get on the field?
Joe Rokocoko: WHAT!!?? he was on the BENCH!!??
Luke McAlister: we have to learn when to throw the 50-50 ball and when not to. ball retention is they key. thats my belief;
Byron Kelleher: Victor Matfield is Byron's George Smith. doubt we'll hear any more about that shoulder charge. or the ... no i'll stop. its victor after all....
Marty Holah: wonder if he can catch.. suppose we'll never find out...;
James Ryan: has red hair;
Greg Somerville and Derren Witcombe are front rowers as well. I'm doing pretty well today...

On a side note, we now can confirm that the lions were the worst prepared side to ever leave engl.. Britian and Ireland. and if there was any lingering belief in the conspiracy to knobble BOD for chucking grass then that should be laid to rest by matfields response to the haka and his remaining onfield all game and actually removing one of our key men and taking out players in the air and pinching our lineout ball ... oh wait ... i said i wasnt going to go on about him didnt i? oh well .. to late to delete it now. ..

anyway .. chucking grass be blowed .. he would have looked better in a grass skirt (admittedly along with rico and a few others .. but for different reasons) with his hula impersonation during the challenge. not a very original response .. the crowd was overwhelming enough.

WE WON A GTMs!!!  
and well done SA. very well played.

[Gwynn]

I was very disappointed with the All Blacks, and highly impressed by the Boks.  The boks rushing defence, while offside often, managed to completely disrupt the all blacks back play, and left them rattled and unable to get back in the game.  The All Blacks showed that they knew how to beat it - by getting the ball wide fast to score rico's try, and to threaten on other occasions - but ultimately they self destructed thanks to some brilliant Bok play.

For me the standouts of the game were for the All Blacks

Gear - This guy just gets better and better, surely that 14 jersey has his name sown into it by now, bar Graeme Henry wanting to run the Rocokoco and Sivivatu  combination out.  He had a solid all round game, and needed more ball in the 2nd half.

Weepu - Stood up for the occasion, and showed why he's the number 2 halfback.  A solid all round game, could have attacked himself a bit more, but otherwise he played well under a world of pressure.

Collins - Played his heart out all game, tackled like there was no tomorrow, and showed that he's got a bloody good pass on him.

Woodcock - Lurking on the wing isn't his best skill, but he did it well.  His breaks on the fringes, and some great tackling weren't supported by other players though.

And off the bench, I thought Rocokoco showed that he should have been on much earlier.

For the Boks

Montgomery - Good kicking, solid game, always a danger, nuff said.

Pretorious - Finally showing some good consistancy, doing some good passing and attacking, and his drop goals we're constantly a threat.

Matfield - Aside from that tackle of Kelleher (I thought it was a bit late, but it's one of those things that happens), he had another strong game, disrupting our lineout brilliantly.

Botha - Combined well with Matfield for continue to disrupt out lineout.

What I want to see in Sydney next week is passing working properly, there were too many times when offloads weren't on, or executed poorly, and passes weren't connecting , we need to get this part of the basics right.  Likewise, our kicking game needs to be utilised more.  The other thing I want to see is more of the forwards rumbling forward to get momentum going for the backs to feed off.

The other thing I want to see is the bench used EARLIER, 14 minutes to go is not a good time to use your bench when you're down and in disarray.  With 25-20 minutes to go, Henry should have brought Rocokoco on and Whitcome & Sommerville, to try to inject some fresh legs and a lethal threat to the team.

Ah welll, I'll be frustrated all week about this one.  At least we did get a bonus point, cos we'll be needing it if it's anything like last years tri-nations.

Gwynn

[Dingo]

The questions I wanted answers to before this game were

1) Is Ali Williams a world class lock or where the Lions just Shite?

The Lions were Shite

2) Is Dan Carter the best flyhalf in the world or where the Lions just Shite?

The Lions were Shite - Dan has a long way to go. Under pressure last night he was Mr Ordinary


3) Can our front row match up to the pressure of the boks or where the Lions just shite

Pass, Front row ok

4) Can Siti or Joe Rock do what Jonah couldn't and score tries against the boks or where.....?

No.

5) Is Kelliher the anointed son?

Well when you get an elbow to the head and you are knocked out its a bit hard to know. Cheap shot, no penalty, lead to intercept try.

6) Are Henry and co the amazing coaches we think or was SCW just shite?

Sorry Clive you really are shite. Henry and Co have learnt nothing since RWC03 or Tri Nations last year

7) Is the AB midfield impenetrable on defence?

Pretty much


Can Jerry really cut it against world class opposition?

Please refer earlier columns on this. The answer is still clearly no!


9) Are the AB's on track for 2007?

Probably loosing a game like this again is a good thing. Learn from it and they are on track. Don't learn and you are heading for another 4 more years of disappointment

[DH]

Ahhhh yes - the usual total over reactions!

The Springboks did what they should always do...win at home! The AB's got a bonus point away from home which is what the Boks succeeded in doing last year to win the tri-nations. Its not the end of the world. Well done to the Boks for the win, they played well. We where inaccurate, but there was some good patches, maybe the month off after a less than competitive Lions series has meant our boys are a tad underdone compared to the Boks playing their 4 test in as many weeks. Lets see how they pull up when they come over here, am sure they are on their last legs & will really struggle with the trip over.

cheers
DH

[JJ]

Very Very disappointing-was counting on this one to help restock the cellar! Interesting to note the scoreline was the same as last week. I did think the Wallabies probably looked a better chance of winning than the ABs.

I think DH is correct there were a few good signs & there's no need to hit the panic button yet. However they did look like a team without a plan B. I guess the 2 things that surprised me most were the inability to cope with the rushing defence & begin to adopt some tactics to counter it & the way they started to lose their structure in the last quarter. This will be of some concern to Henry & co. The more I see of rugby in the "modern era" the more I'm convinced it requires significant imput from the grey matter dept.

Still they should get a good confidence building win next weekend.
                                 jj

[Bertus]

Nothing will ever take awayb the intensity of a seff africa versus ab game.

wheteher it might have been politics, opinions, trends or whatever whorld rugby has been the poorer for not seeing more of this.


black against green, no quarter asked ,fookal given.

fooook the ab's are looking good - they are about to redifine the way the game is being played....for today though, my heros in green came through....BOKKE!!!

[ugly ref]

Sad to think we knew exactly what the Boks were going to do, and we still had no answer.

Too many pop passes that worked well v Lions but last night put pressure on the ball carrier.

The interesting thing about what the Boks do in defence is what they do after they've rushed up and overrun the attacking line.

They lurk behind in open play and wait for those pop passes and tackle the catchers from behind, its a good tactic and totally legal.

Again the Yarpies put so much pressure on the ref re the tackle after halftime.

Smit absolutely balled COle out about McCaw's play in the tackle 7-8mins in the 2nd half the laconic Aussie had no option to "watch" McCaw, and therefore whistle him off the park. a la Smith last week.

THere seems to be an issue now about when the ruck starts. In a simplistic lawbook sense, its when a player from each team gather over the ballcarrier and tackle.

But now guys (esp the SAF loose trio) are hitting the opposition opensides so hard they glance off them and over run the ruck, but because the contact has been made the ruck has officially started.

The guys like Smith, McCaw have their head down and arse up, and can't sense an opposition player against them so they are just going for it; leading to those 2nd half pens in both TriNAtions games so far.

But hey, I'm sure it'll be the same in the next four matches, the home teams will get the advantage of the ref as well as the baying crowd.

In my mind the Matfield tackle wasn't that dangerous, but he was 2 metres offside on a two handed lineout take. SHould have been pinged for that at least.

You gotta take your hats off to the South AFricans, and that's what makes rugby such a great game. Individually they don't have the ball-playing skill the ABs have, but that's not the only factor in winning a game of top-level rugby, and that's brilliant!!!!

UR  

[ho hum]

Andrew Cole and Stu Dickinson are nearly as bad as each other - both hopeless. The Saffies repeatedly stood offside and Cole did nothing about it. Niekerk completely circled the ruck and nothing was done.

But the worst bit was the choice of McDonald at fullback.

At best he is a club player and has no place in an AllBlack team as he dies with the ball or unloads a hospital pass on one of his unfortunate teammates. Time and again he was nowhere when we were desperate for a Fullback, and with Mils bloody awful on the wing it is time Henry and Co sent McDonald back to wherever, played Mils in his rightful position and put one of the great wings we have on the paddock.

SA deserved this one - Henry and Co were found badly lacking, and once again, showed that there was no Plan B..

[Dingo]

Ahhhh yes - the usual total over reactions!

No I don't think so.

I for one as a passionate AB supporter expects our team to learn from the past. I don't expect them to win every game but shit I expect them to use the grey matter. If you look at the success of Aust over the past 10 years, every time they have beaten NZ its almost always been due to a superior game plan, not superior players. They think on their feet, they adapt.

Nothing has been learnt since rwc03 and Tri-Nations last year yet alone last week. I have to agree with Ugly, we all knew what the Boks tactics were going to be, we saw them for the past 2 weeks against the wallabies. We had no game plan to counter it. Where was the driving mall, where was the little chip in behind? No what we got was pop passes against a rushing and loitering defensive line that in the prior 2 weeks has led to 2 or 3 intercept tries. Once again the AB's lacked the intensity required to quell a less skilled opposition. Once again the combination of Jerry and Rodney got outplayed. We see it week in week out in the Super 12 and we see it at test level. Making a couple of spectacular tackles a test does not make for a great number 6. Shit what was Collins doing for the remaining 78 minutes?

Still I have to agree with one of your statements DH

"The Springboks did what they should always do...win at home!" and that's what the All Blacks do and what Aust does. Its just a shame that the next RWC is in France.

[Gwynn]

Collins does big cut out passes, and previously has put little chips in behind.

But otherwise, he's just in there for the physical edge he brings to the game.

[Dingo]

Collins does big cut out passes, and previously has put little chips in behind.

But otherwise, he's just in there for the physical edge he brings to the game.

I never realised we picked him as a flyhalf or inside centre. Maybe this week he can wear No.12 instead.  

[Tesrof]

Ahhhh yes - the usual total over reactions!

I agree DH ... over reactions are everywhere.  Reading through the papers and internet stories anyone would think we were beaten by 20 or 30 points.  Instead we lost the first game of a new campaign by 6 points ... this wasn't a vital must win game, not even close.

Yes we played poorly, did enough to win and school boy mistakes put us under more pressure than we should have been.  But I'm rather amused.  There are many areas where we can improve before we face the Larkhamless Aussies ... who'll be just as determined to improve as we are.

Two players I'm most interested in next week are Chris Jack and Aaron Mauger, both need to take a more active leadership role.  Without Umaga there’s not a lot of experience in the backline, so it’s really important Mauger shows he’s good enough to take the pressure off Carter and Smith.  While Jack was [unusually] the third best lock on the paddock.

Anyways … I’m looking forward to the next few weekends and expect to see better rugby played each time.  I still consider the season a success if “just” retain the Bledisloe Cup and win all 4 tests in the UK.

Cheers
T