You Naughty Boys!

Is it just me or does the $500 fine and tongue lashing to the Six “Party Blacks” for staying out late the day before the Bledisloe Cup match seem rather petty? All of the six players were not in the starting 22 for the game, the game was not that evening but the next day, and this has been a tradition amongst New Zealand rugby for years! The worst part about it is that a member of the public slipped a note under Henry’s door to tattle tale, must have been an Aussie!

Heading to Rugby World Cup 2007

Secured tickets to the quarter finals in Cardiff for the RWC, I guess they open up extra ticket sales from time to time on the RWC site as they were sold out last time I looked. As this game will be the 1st place in pool C vs. 2nd place in pool D I am predicting All Blacks vs. Ireland for this game, should be awesome! I received my invoice for the finals if the All Blacks make it (pays to be a NZ citizen) so I am in for the finals as well! As it stands I am going to be in the UK and France for the quarter, semi and finals so it will not be hard to get some proper rugby atmosphere.

I wish there were some way to get tickets for the Semi Finals but it seems that they are all allocated via the lottery process. I shouldn’t be complaining seeing two games but if I get the chance, you know I am grabbing tickets for the semis! As it stands I will have to watch the semi’s at the Walkabout in London unless Jedi from the Rugby Roundtable (www.rugbyroundtable.com) gets his alternative rugby commentary UK tour off and running. At any rate it is setting up to be a hell of a two weeks of rugby across the pond!

Hope to meet some of you AB fanatics when I am there.

All Blacks 26 Wallabies 12

It looks like the boys are back in business with a solid 26 - 12 Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup win over the criminals in the pouring rain on Saturday at Eden Park! Dan Carter had a solid performance with 7 penalties which should silence the pundits and worry warts who have been yammering sullen opinions the past few weeks. It was refreshing to see far less handling errors and some strong drives by the forwards to put the AB's in scoring position.



Overall, I think that this was the type of performance that All Black fans were looking for as a lead up to the World Cup. The boys had been planning for a dry game, so had the pitch not been so sloppy, the AB's would have completely embarrassed the ladies in yellow. The countdown is on-- 5 weeks of conditioning for some, and for eleven lucky AB's, a few rounds of the Air New Zealand Cup, then it's World Cup fever baby!!

Wallabies vs. All Blacks July 21

It’s a little over 37 hours to kickoff in the deciding game for the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup!! To say I am excited would be an understatement! After reading all the negative comments this week about the AB’s performance in Melbourne and many fans second guessing the teams chances at the 2007 World Cup it was great to hear from the likes of Jerry Collins, “this is why you play test rugby”, and Mils Muliaina “we’ll definitely step up two extra notches because we want to win those two cups”.

It sounds like the boys are ready to play and really keyed up to win the Tri-Nations and keep the Bledisloe Cup where it belongs, in NZ! Now the big question is how can I watch the game at the cottage with no internet!!! Enjoy the game everyone and GO BLACK!

Bandwagon Fans!

Australia beat a sub-par Springboks team, and managed a win at home in Melbourne against a tired jetlagged AB team, and now many people are calling for them to win the World Cup! I think we all need to step back a little and examine what is really happening. The AB have been accused of peaking to early in past World Cup years and with the reconditioning period this year have just not reached full form. I think you will see a determined group this weekend and more of the type of All Blacks rugby we are all used to seeing. Look at how Dan Carter got better with every kick last week and all the boys certainly showed their fitness at the end of the game with some fine scoring. The All Blacks will win the Tri Nations and the Bledisloe this weekend and then it’s back on the bandwagon to all the pundits!

NZ 33 vs. SA 6 July 14, 2007

As I watched the first half I could not help but feel nervous about what I was seeing, dropped passes, terrible lineouts and Carter missing an easy penalty. You can't take anything away from the Boks though as their defence was fantastic throughout the game, until the last 15 minutes anyway! What worries me is that the AB's are making a habit in this Tri-Nations of waiting until the end of the game to turn it up a notch, unless they start to put together a solid 80 minutes of rugby in the World Cup they may be in for a surprise.

All this being said, in previous years the AB's have been accused of peaking too early so there is no reason to panic at this point. Obviously with the conditioning period during the Super 14 it is taking everyone a little longer to hit their stride and I think Grahan Henry has got to be given the benefit of the doubt that these guys will be full on for the World Cup!

Can't wait to see the Bledisloe next week and I am still expecting a thrashing of the Wallabies! GO BLACK!

The Beginning

As a Canadian with two Kiwi parents and the rest of the relatives in NZ and Australia, I caught the rugby bug early on. The first live game I saw was Canterbury v Australia in the late 1970's and I first played rugby in Vancouver. My high school rugby coach was on the Canadian team which played in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. As soon as I showed an interst in Rugby my Dad immediately pointed out that the only team worth watching was the mighty All Blacks! I started following them through the 1987 World Cup and was hooked.

Since that time I have followed the All Blacks once to Cardiff, twice to Twickenham and once to Lansdown Road for the fall tours. In 2003 I went to see the Tri Nations vs SA at the House of Pain and the Beldisloe Cup match at Eden Park. Most recently I went to Eden Park to see the AB v Ireland game in 2006 and mixed in the inagural Super 14 final at Jade in the fog! I have managed to get tickets to the 2007 RWC Final in Paris if the All Blacks make it, (or should I saw when!) and that will be absolutely stellar!

I manage to catch all the All Blacks tests on MediaZone as there doesn't seem to be much television coverage for any rugby in Canada. The Rugby Roundtable podcast is a great way of staying up to date as well. I am going to post my thoughts and comments on each remaining game of the tri nations and every AB game in the World Cup, I welcome all comments!