Claims on the eve of the World Cup that the All Blacks are blatant cheats have gone down like a cup of cold soup with rugby icon Colin Meads.
The accusations were made in Wednesday’s Dominion Post by English-born sports columnist Mark Reason, who, among other things, claimed half the All Blacks’ tries in the Tri-Nations were secured through illegal means off the ball.
“Pinetree” Meads wasn’t the only one fuming, with near record numbers using the Stuff website to climb into Reason.
Reason lives in New Zealand but Meads laughed at the suggestion he might pay him a visit.
“It was disappointing. He is getting like his father [John Reason], who was reporting in my day or just after,” Meads said.
“It’s very disappointing and now he is living in New Zealand he wants to be very careful.”
Meads said it was laughable to suggest the All Blacks set out to cheat and he had seen no evidence of the examples Reason made.
Reason said the men in black jerseys were regularly holding players off the ball, running screens to protect team-mates, and claimed the All Blacks were at their blatant best at the breakdown where they “deliberately splinter off into offside positions to block defence”.
Reason’s greatest cheating claim related to last Saturday in Brisbane where he accused Richie McCaw and Keven Mealamu of pinning Wallaby flanker David Pocock for 14 seconds to open the door for Ma’a Nonu to score.
Reason acknowledged that other teams cheated as well, “although none are as accomplished at it as New Zealand”.
Meads concedes he was no lamb on the rugby field but said there was a difference between gamesmanship and cheating.
“To come out like that and lambast the All Blacks as cheats is damning and I’m quite upset with it. Gamesmanship has always gone on and you try and get one up on your opponent, but to be deliberately called cheats is sad.
“When you are away overseas with the All Blacks they are the team to beat. People admire the All Blacks, they admire the haka, they love the way they play and now we have one man over here saying we are all cheats makes it hard to take.”
Meads worries that drawing attention to the subject will put referees on high alert at the World Cup. “Refs can always find an infringement. Before the World Cup, I wonder if it is a plan to get into Richie McCaw. The Aussies started that a couple of years ago but have eased off now.”
Former Hurricanes and All Black hooker Norm Hewitt declined to join the debate, saying it would fuel the fire.
“It doesn’t surprise me there is a Pom out there complaining.”
Frank Bunce, who played 55 tests for the All Blacks between 1992-97, was unfazed. “Those sorts of things have been levelled at us for years and years and years.
“It’s gamesmanship – we aren’t coached to do it, we aren’t told to do it, but you do it. They do it, Aussie do it … little things like holding jerseys to give yourself that two or three-second advantage. You can’t tell me the All Blacks are the only team in the world that do it.”
– The Dominion Post
Meads says – “Gamesmanship has always gone on and you try and get one up on your opponent, but to be deliberately called cheats is sad”
and Bunce says- You can’t tell me the All Blacks are the only team in the world that do it.” Hahaha
Let the skews tighten, we need all the help we can get, added presure on the rampant All Blacks is just great.
But i feel that France will pay dearly for the 2007 exit…
Next thing Paddy OBrian will be issuing a statement that the Adidas All Blacks are not cheats, the ref was wrong in awarding the Boks that try and the Italians scrum illegally.
The truth hurts!! Loosehead, the ref has already been sanctioned because he did not follow protocol, although that pass was clearly forward, the TMO and ref should have just stuck to what happened over the try line. In this case the protocols are clearly inadequate, and O’Brien should have congratulated the ref and TMO for setting a precedent.
dis net cheeting as die rev jou op blaas of kaart
smallies @ 4
hmmmmm, so iemand wat steel,
is net ñ dief
as hy gevang word? 😀
..
anyway
hellooooooooooooooooooo everyone, except gbs who btw promised us a better, faster site!!! 👿
Hi Ash, dis baie vinniger aan my kant! Dis omdat jy daar by die berg bly dat jy so sukkel
5@ Ashley:
Asblik… die spoed is moer baie beter… maar dis een aspek waarmee ek noggie heeltemal klaar is nie….
Was juis besig om met die goed te werk dat die caching beter werk, sodat die page load en page refresh spoed heelwat vinniger is.
6@ Tripples:
Janee…. en ons kry ook geen meer error pages nie. Helkom flok net rond vandag, daar is iewers iets met hulle servers fout. Op my 3G is dit woes blitsig!
@ grootblousmile:
@ grootblousmile:
Bly om te hoor dit is nie net ek wat probleme het met Helkom nie, het ander ook die probleem ? Sukkel al die hele dag my malema af om op die internet te werk !
Bly om te hoor dit is nie net ek wat probleme het met Helkom nie, het ander ook die probleem ? Sukkel al die hele dag my malema af om op die internet te werk !
9: nou wat nou, hoekom verskyn my skrywe twee keer ?
9@ ben_die_bul:
As jy hierdie GROOT SMILIES gebruik, moet jy na jy op ene geclick het net die comment Edit, want die freegin Smilie Plugin copy mens inhoud sommer ook by…. simpel Plugin…
10: goed, ek probeer weer:
Hoe lyk dit nou ?
Dankie GBS, geen meer error bladsye nie, as telkom nou net sy deel doen, behoort dinge vinnig te loop.
ag, anyway
..
to all my nz buddies …
oooooooooo it’s
-ing time again ….
ag wat de hel
..
Oh, it’s cryin’ time again, you’re gonna leave me
I can see that far away look in your eyes
I can tell by the way you hold me darlin’ Oooh
That it won’t be long before it’s cryin’ time
Now they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder (fonder)
And that tears are only rain to make love grow
Well my love for you could never grow no stronger (stronger)
If I lived to be a hundred years old
Oh, it’s cryin’ time again, you’re gonna leave me
I can see that far away look in your eyes
I can tell by the way you hold me darlin’. Yeah now
That it won’t be long before it’s cryin’ time
Now you say you’ve found someone that you love better (better)
That’s the way it’s happened every time before
And as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow (‘morrow)
Cryin’ time will start when you walk out the door
Oh, it’s cryin’ time again, you’re gonna leave me
I can see that far away look in your eyes
I can tell by the way you hold me darlin’. Alright now
That it won’t be long before it’s cryin’ time
(That it won’t be long before it’s cryin’ time)
Ek moet met Meads saamstem, hulle is geen ‘blatant cheats’ nie …. hulle is skelm cheats.
Maar ek moet bieg, ek kan nog ‘n verloor teen die AB’s en Franse vat, maar nie teen die Engelse en Aussies nie.
… dit is amper so erg as om teen die WP of die Sharks te verloor.
13: AB’s se voorland:
gbs
djoef ghat myl!!
16@ ben_die_bul:
Or the Lions??????
“Oh I don’t know how we got it, it should have been Japan,
I guess they’ve got their reasons but I just don’t give a damn,
Cos for 24 years we’ve been trying to get our hands on Webb Ellis (Ellis, where the f***’s Webb Ellis)
24 years waiting for the chance
We’re thrashing everybody then we go and lose to France,
Now he’s coming back home, we’ll surely get our hands on Webb Ellis.”
Waarste waar : daar’s geen d@@s soos ‘n ou d@@s!!!
Suck it up Colin….your guys are always fringing and talking k*k into the refs head…..particularly McCaw, they play guys off the ball as much as Oz and they were the originators of cheating. The Oz credo “it is only cheating if you get caught” what does that say for the character of the team and the Kiwi’s are falling into the trap. SA cannot cheat, we get pinged every time as refs are biased against us because we are overtly more physical than anyone else….we don’t pretend to be anything else. The Kiwi’s pretend to be something else. Mealamu’s head butt….what was it, one game, but Bakkies….3 months, since when are incidents on a rugby field cumulative. If that were the case McCaw would get banned for 3 months every time he goes offside because he does it so much. Bakkies incident with the Welsh prop….even Jones said “I had no right to be there”….so suck it up Colin Meads….your guys cheat. In any case they are in danger of becoming known as the “South Pacific strangler”….a disease which causes one to choke!
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