Emotions in NZ are in turmoil after the AB raiding party to “The Republic” ended in disaster.

We know we’re shit at the moment, but the solution is not available to us, so we’re non-plussed. I just don’t know what we can do. Well…I do know, but it won’t happen.

I can accept players fucking up as long as they know they fucked up. But when the coaches come on afterward and defend the abysmal tactics used within the AB’s 22 and on occasion right on or even behind their own tryline, then you know we are just completely screwed.

We’re screwed. Utterly and completely. We can’t get rid of Henry and co, and we have to, yet we can’t.

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Possibly the solution is for the ABs to disregard the gameplay and play something sensible on the field, but it’s a hard thing to disregard a coaches instructions when you’re a rotation player depending on the coaches goodwill for selection.

Listening to Wayne Smith on ReUnion last night defending the ABs and talking about them being better for the experience…saying we “executed” only 30% of things well on the day and wait till we can do 40% well…no mate no. Against internation pressure there is only so much helter-skelter attack can pull off. It’s high risk low percentage and the time and place for it is when you have a “space” safety margin. Then it’s worth a shot. But not for these coaches, blind to the limitations of human physiology on skill execution under pressure. That’s why we are truly screwed.

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The need of these guys to try and reinvent rugby tactics is a symptom of reaching their use by date. All coaches have one. In my opinion it’s four years. After that they’ve run through their ideas…I don’t care who they are…and it’s time to go. But we’re stuck with these guys.

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I’m sure you watched our performances over the last two weekends, Stampie. Haven’t your retinas been scorched by the true horror of the awfulness? I had to watched through my fingers while keeping a spew bucket close by.

The Boks are looking ominously good, though. Tri-Nations clean sweep?

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I agree with most of that. Even after the two losses last year, you could see that the team were still getting some things right and just needed combinations to click before coming right again. I have no confidence we can do the same this year.

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It’d seem the best thing to do, with an eye on 2011, would be to make wholesale changes and use the rest of the tournament to blood prospects. I don’t think promising defeats would be tolerated by the Kiwi public, though – they’re already calling the team shit after a win and two losses. Ominously like England 2004-07, where a clearly flawed team was persisted with in the hope of saving face. In saying that, they did somehow manage a World Cup final.

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The first sign of distress was the loss to France. We were slightly reassured by the win the next week when the tight five put in a better performance.

Second sign was the ABYSMAL performance against Italy. Again somewhat muted by a better performance against the Wallabies, but everyone acknowledges that we were lucky not to concede an insurmoutable lead early on.

Third sign has been the lamentable tactics in South Africa, twice in a row.

We’re not giving up on the All Blacks. They can do it. But they need the proper game plan from the coaches, and that’s what they’re not getting. Worse, the coaches show zero comprehension that the game plan is badly at fault. What can we do? All we can do is agitate for the coaches to go, but until they do (or until they have a Road to Damascus vision instructing them to mend the error of their ways) they we will continue to struggle, and will lose games to the top teams while looking mediocre (albeit still winning) against lesser teams with a decent forward pack and a good chasing game.