9:25AM Wednesday Aug 19, 2009
By Mark Geenty
SYDNEY – The Graham Henry “rark-up” of last week has been and gone for the underperforming All Blacks. Now captain Richie McCaw will cast a steely glance at his teammates and hope each takes responsibility for a rare downturn in their rugby fortunes against the Wallabies here on Saturday.
Rarely do the All Blacks lose three tests in a row but that is the prospect if Robbie Deans’ men topple them at ANZ Stadium to keep the Bledisloe Cup alive for 2009. A year ago, with McCaw absent through injury, the All Blacks lost to South Africa in Dunedin, then crossed the Tasman for a 19-34 defeat in coach Deans’ first test against his old team. Doom merchants emerged and the fateful 1998 season of five consecutive defeats reared its head. But McCaw returned at Eden Park to inspire a 39-10 victory and spark a nine-match winning streak which included a second grand slam in four years. The gloom returned this year, partly thanks to the absence of key men McCaw and Daniel Carter, as they lost to France, scraped past the Wallabies then lost twice to the Springboks.
With Carter back for the first time in 2009, McCaw was excited about their chance to revive their fortunes at ANZ Stadium where they’ve lost three of their last four tests. “Last year we lost two in a row, the guys were pretty desperate to get it right which we managed to do and it’s exactly the same this year,” McCaw said. “We’re up against a team that’s in the same boat so that’s going to make for a pretty good test with two pretty desperate teams. “It’s not one of the nicest situations to be in but you’ll see how good guys are to get themselves back up and performing.” Carter had slotted back into the side like he’d never been away, McCaw said.
The key in recent days had been keeping a lid on the excitement after two high-octane training sessions, still several days out from kickoff. Henry’s paint-stripping team talk last week didn’t need to be followed up by more ranting and raving in Sydney, McCaw said. McCaw felt as responsible as anyone for their South African struggles after his early-season period on the sidelines, and took it upon himself to lead the way here. “When you’re out there it almost hurts more because you know you weren’t doing it right. I know my performances personally weren’t as good as I would have liked. That gives you a real want to go out and put things right.”‘
The fallout from South Africa saw the benching of frontliners Rodney So’oialo (for Kieran Read) and Ma’a Nonu (for Luke McAlister) yesterday. The in-form Read admitted he was surprised to usurp So’oialo, with lineout strength a key component in his elevation. “It’s always tough when you take over from someone, but in my role I’ve got to do what I can for the team,” he said. “Rodney’s been pretty good and we get together quite a lot, so he’s still helping me out. He’s still a great player and he’ll add a lot off bench.”
All Blacks
Mils Muliaina, Joe Rokocoko, Conrad Smith, Luke McAlister, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Daniel Carter, Jimmy Cowan, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (captain), Jerome Kaino, Isaac Ross, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock.
Reserves: Aled de Malmanche, John Afoa, Jason Eaton, Rodney So’oialo, Brendon Leonard, Stephen Donald, Ma’a Nonu.
Australia
James O’Connor, Lachie Turner, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Berrick Barnes, Drew Mitchell, Matt Giteau, Luke Burgess, Richard Brown, George Smith (capt), Rocky Elsom, Nathan Sharpe, James Horwill, Al Baxter, Stephen Moore, Benn Robinson.
Reserves: Tatafu Polota-Nau, Ben Alexander, Dean Mumm, David Pocock, Will Genia, Ryan Cross, Peter Hynes.
– NZPA
(This Article was sent to me, courtecy of Rugby Princess. Thanks RP)
@KingPaul – Ja ons moet. Duane Vermeulen en Rickie Januarie bly ook heir.
AJ Venter het oorkant my pel gebly.
@Loosehead –
Hehehe, sal lekker wees om saam met Ricky ‘n dop te drink!!
I posted the following on Voldy’s site:
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“Brief hello,
I have’nt been here for weeks, since I declared that I was going to leave… but I see the presense of our new website, rugby-talk.com, was leaked here by one of Keo’s own.. and apparently it caused quite a stink, as we’re used to happening here on Keo.
It is the sole reason I saw fit to comment as follows.
It is not my intention to do Keo harm or to steal bloggers away, they will blog where they are comfortable. If bloggers should choose to register with us, they will find a friendly home and lots of chatter.
Our fully inclusive site caters for everybody, except the obvious trolls and troublemakers and we feel that we have set fair limitations in deciding that Politics and Racial Slurring and Religion is out of bounds.
On rugby-talk.com we have a hands-on blogging body of webmasters, ensuring that things do not go beyond certain bounds.
In addition we felt that we wanted to include some Afrikaans Articles on rugby, which is not offered here, although our content of Articles will probably be 80% English.
I ask bloggers from both sites and sides to stop mudslinging accross the 2 blogs about the different sites.
Enjoy the future of blogging.
With that, I’m out of here.
GBS
PS! Greetings and kind regards to my friends here, you know who you are.”
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We have nothing to fear, except fear itself… and too much Jerrekie-pik-my !!
Hehehe
@grootblousmile – Goed gedaan GBS.
@Loosehead – Eish dink jy sal sterk eish moet gooi as KP vir die mechanic gaan kuier. Sommer n tripple.
@superBul – Wie is die grootste tussen KP en mechanic?
@Ed_the_Lion – bedoel jy breedste, hel dit is n kwaai stryd.
@superBul – So gedink. Ek weet mechanic is langer as KP, maar as dit by die breedste kom, gaan dit nie maklik wees om te kies nie.
@grootblousmile – Whatever happen to Cuzzie and Kwagga?
219@Loosehead – They both blog here.
Cuzzy plays golf mostly, so he’s very busy.
Kwagga, has been promoted at work and promoted some more and heaps of responsibilities loaded on him, so he does not blog often… but he’s here.
@Ed_the_Lion –
hehehe
Mechanic sal nog ‘n heeeeeeele paar KFC’s moet eet voor hy met my kan saamgesels. Ek is mos baie atleties gebou….soos ‘n diskus!!
@KingPaul – Ek het ook ‘n goeie shape vir ‘n bou. Rond is mos ‘n shape.
@grootblousmile – Moet ek n mass mail stuur van superbru en die mense daar nooi, kyk gou jou mail.
@grootblousmile – Hi Grote. Op watter string geplaas. Ek wil die nagevolg gaan lees. 🙂
223@superBul – Ek het geantwoord, check jou mail
@bul-a-bhloo – Bul-a-Bhloo.
Goeie naand. Dit is op die Leeus thread. Tweede laaste comment. nog geen nagevolge nie.
@grootblousmile – Hello GBS, oh well done, I think you have put the record straight!
Busy day in ‘blog land’ !!
I may have to see the response!! Back in a mo!
224@bul-a-bhloo – Hehehe
Op die “Lions Sharpen Attack” Thread op Voldy… # 143
@grootblousmile – That thread gets a bit ‘messy’!!! 😐
OK guys this edge/gprs signal on the farm frustretes the sh!t out of me, good luck speak next week, Im goind to watch the neighbours farm burn to ashes, he didnt do any fire prevention burns, shame , but that was his option!
@grootblousmile – @Ed_the_Lion –
Thanks, sal volg. GBS jy het dit soos ‘n gentleman gestel en as iemand daarteen beswaar het, baste met hulle.
Sien ook Super het herhaaldelik probeer mooi bespreek, maar elke huis het sy kruis. Daar is ouens wat ‘n wig sal probeer inslaan.
@carol – What do you expect? 😆
@AB – Cheers AB.
@bul-a-bhloo – Ek het nie eers meer die krag om op daai site te gaan nie. Dit is nie meer lekker nie.
@Ed_the_Lion – Ek kuier baie lekker hier Ed. Lekker rugby en ‘n vriendelike plek.
@bul-a-bhloo – Ek stem Bhloo.
229@carol – Really… I’ve not been back… just left my message and left.
@Ed_the_Lion – There is a really toxic character called ‘Toksac’, I hope he does’nt come here, rather in the mould of Optimus Slime!!
@carol – I didn’t see. What did he say? I have no interrest in going onto Keo again.
@grootblousmile – Heheheh, hits are flowing into Voldy now!!!
@grootblousmile – Well you should look at post 143 from Grant. He a very decent human being…..
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