The All Blacks are riding high now. Will the other two SANZAR partners be able to catch up soon enough to stop the incredible wave the New Zealander’s are currently riding before next year’s World Cup?
I wonder which coach is currently under the most pressure, Peter de Villiers or Robbie Deans? One can see that Graham Henry struggles not to smile or burst out in laughter maybe, he is enjoying every minute of the suffering his team inflicts on the opponents.
The Australian press envisaged worst case scenarios for the Wallabies’ Tri-Nations campaign on Monday after their bumbling near-record loss to trans-Tasman nemesis New Zealand at the weekend.
The rampant All Blacks trotted up seven tries to demolish the Wallabies 49-28 in Melbourne last Saturday and take an iron grip on this year’s series with reigning champions South Africa yet to win a point from three Tests.
The Wallabies must quickly regroup for Saturday’s Test in Christchurch where they have to defy the odds and down the All Blacks to keep alive this year’s four-Test Bledisloe Cup.
Australia needs a history-defying three straight wins to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup, which the All Blacks have held since 2003.
The Sydney Morning Herald, under the headline “Wallabies experiment with limits of embarrassment”, said New Zealand have an enormous psychological advantage over the Wallabies and could make the homecoming for Australia’s Kiwi coach Robbie Deans a miserable event.
“The Wallabies could collapse the same way as they did last year, winning just one of six Tri-Nations matches,” the newspaper said.
“It could easily be the same horrible scenario this year. The last four Tri-Nations matches are a torture test, with the match in Christchurch followed by a fortnight in South Africa and they must then rush back to Sydney to play the All Blacks seven days later.
“If the Wallabies again manage only one win out of six Tests, John O’Neill (Australian Rugby Union CEO) and the ARU board’s patience with Deans and co may simply run out.”
But the Herald said the players must also share the heat for their run of eight defeats to the All Blacks.
Former Test hooker Brendan Cannon, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said the big difference between the two sides was that the Wallabies lose control too easily.
“At times, the Wallabies proved they have the punch in attack and muscle in defence to mix it with the big guns of New Zealand and South Africa at next year’s World Cup,” Cannon said.
“But the sustained 80-minute display is the holy grail coach Robbie Deans is searching for.”
The Australian newspaper said once again the All Blacks forced the Wallabies to rethink an entire element of their game.
“The New Zealanders completely negated the advantage of the kick-reception side, who usually enjoys being able to lift jumpers up to catch the ball, by having flyhalf Dan Carter fire in low-trajectory drop-kick ‘darts’,” the newspaper said.
“Usually, teams kicking off aim at getting as much hang time as possible to give their own players time to get under the ball, but the All Blacks opted for the more aggressive approach of lower, flatter kicks that their own chasers could deflect back to their support.
“It worked five times out of seven.”
The bulk of this article comes courtesy of News 24
@ biltongbek:
shit Biltong….jy vra nie vir veel nie, doen jy? 🙂
Peaking too soon ? ABs no never they are always peaking, but eish they hate pressure games, like in knockout stages.
New Zealand
Year Played Won Loss Winning %
2003 14 12 2 85.7
2004 11 9 2 81.8
2005 12 11 1 91.7
2006 13 12 1 92.3
2007 12 10 2 83.3
2008 15 13 2 86.7
2009 14 10 4 71.4
2010 6 6 0 100
@ superBul:Well, this year, so far so good for them 🙂 Let’s see if it last.
Forward passes? In front at kickoff , not rolling away, breaking too early, offside, lets see when these 50/50 calls go against them.
Now time for a nice early bedtime. Good night.
Oh look….Luke Twatson’s in the news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/my_club/bath/8877609.stm
For you fundies out there….I thought this was a brilliant idea.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A72470991
Give the man your thoughts
Slapies tyd vir my….night John Boy….night Mary Ann!!!
Are the All Blacks peaking too soon?
By HAMISH BIDWELL – The Press
For every punter jubilant at the All Blacks’ present form, there lurks a doomsayer predicting that it augurs poorly for the World Cup.
Such are the scars of cup campaigns gone bad, that some folk feel only ill can come from seeing the team dominate the way it has during the first half of this year’s Tri-Nations competition. Understandably, it’s not a view All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen shares.
“A lot of people are saying we’re peaking too early and I think that’s a load of rubbish,” he said yesterday.
“I think you’re only peaking too early if you’ve reached your full potential and this team hasn’t reached its full potential.
“So we’ve just got to keep working hard at what we’re trying to do and perfect it even better.”
Just reacting shows they are aware of it. Let them build on their 11 win streak, let them take the record to 17 plus, that will now be the best for all other countries.
France also reacted in the meantime.
“For the Tri Nations they are at the peak of their form. They have the physical dimension and they are also fresh.
“As for us we are going to hang in there, bank on a squad that knows our game plan and on the physical freshness of the players.
“After the physical preparation we will have workshops on individual technique. We will eat and drink it! From there we will try to catch up.”
Lievremont will get a chance to see if his players are closing the gap on the Tri Nations teams when France meet Australia in Paris on November 27.
@ superBul:The game between France and NZ should be a good one. France is NZ’s bogey team. Curious to see what’s going to happen when these to clash next
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