All Blacks 76 Italy 14

First things first, if you don’t face the Haka you are just going to make the boys angrier and even more determined to crush you on the battlefield! Come on Italy show some respect and face up to the challenge! Oh well you got what you deserved!

I felt a whole lot better after that performance, I know its not one of the best teams they were playing but even so, the fitness and the game plan was quite impressive. Still some work to do on the ball handling (the 2 Italy tries were a direct result of handling errors by the AB’s) but they were bound to be rusty after 7 weeks without a test.

As for some other tests on the weekend, shout out to Canada for taking it to Wales in the first half, the look of shock on the Wales players for 40 minutes was awesome! Watching the Samoa v S.A. was painful given the refereeing in the first 20 minutes and the dirty play by S.A. I think Samoa deserved a little more than they got. Nice to see England in poor form against the USA and Yikes! I couldn’t watch more than 20 minutes of Japan against the Wallabies.

Onwards to take on Portugal next week, which should be interesting given the talk about not embarrassing them and watching out for injuries. Remember when you are not playing at 100% that is when injuries happen!

All Blacks vs. Italy

On paper this does not look like much competition for the All Blacks but take into consideration the following:

1) Most of the NZ boys have not played a test match in almost 7 weeks.
2) Italy had an impressive lead up to the World Cup almost beating Ireland
who is seen as the dark horse to upset France in their Pool.
3) Overconfidence vs. a team with nothing to lose

These are just three things that the AB’s have to contend with, oh and also don’t get excited and take silly penalties.

All this being said I am excited that the games are about to begin and we can all look forward to 7 weeks of rugby, 3 of which I will be in Europe top experience live. Hopefully this will culminate in the AB’s hoisting Bill into the air October 20th in St. Denis!

The Kiwi has Landed

The AB’s touched down on the island of Corsica yesterday for some R&R before they begin the quest for the cup in earnest next Saturday in Marseilles against Italy. Apparently the sports scientists say that a little sun helps the jetlag so the boys get a few days in the Mediterranean sun to recover from the 40 hours of travel. What happened to the hard run after the long flight to get the blood flowing? Oh well I guess this is the new and improved training program. I would love to hear comments from the AB’s of the 1970’s as to this type of pre-tournament warm-up!!

I can’t seem to get my head around the AB build-up to this World Cup, it just seems so soft. They are all saying the right things but a 7 week layoff between real tests seems a bit of a gamble if you ask me. Yes I know they have 4 tests to “warm up” but will that be enough competition based on the caliber of the teams they will play in the round robin?

Ok, I have complained enough and got that off my chest, the RWC starts next week and we can all concentrate on what is happening on the field instead of what is happening off the field. Enjoy the sun boys but come next week you should have but one thing in mind: Web Ellis.

What are they doing?

Its been a few weeks since my last post, mainly because there doesn’t seem to be any news out of the All Blacks training camp. Sure they had a warm up game against the local police and will play a local invitational squad in Auckland on Thursday but they haven’t had a real test since July 21st!

I have to admit this has me anxious but when you look at the pool games that NZ will be playing in the month of September it does give them time to warm up. They are not going to face much fierce competition until the Quarter Finals, although, I am looking forward to the Scotland game September 23rd to see if they are for real after beating Ireland a week ago.

It looks like we are just going to have to sit back, wait and see, and believe what Henry and the other coaches are telling us: They know what they want to do, they know how they are going to do it, and they can’t wait. Neither can I boys, neither can I.

World Cup Preparation

I watched the first half of the Wales vs. England game on Saturday to see how the Northern Hemisphere is shaping up for the big dance. England looked fully in control at the half and the game ended with England thrashing Wales 62 -5 so I am glad I skipped the second half! It looks like England may be regaining some of their form from 2003 but truth be told Wales couldn't win a lineout to save themselves and rarely kept possession for any length of time. The real test for England will be next weekend against France; I think this game will show us the front runner for the Northern Hemisphere although Ireland may have something to say about that.

According to former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick, complacency would be the one weakness in the New Zealand squad that would worry him in their quest for the World Cup. This is also my main concern with the 5 week break and then a relatively easy pool schedule; will they be 100% ready come the quarter and semi finals? From what I can see all the top teams except for New Zealand and Australia have scheduled World Cup “warm up” matches, I am assuming, to keep the boys in game shape. This brings me back to an earlier post where I questioned why the boys didn't all join their unions for the first few rounds of the NPC. I hope this doesn't come back to bite them.

I see that the Wallabies have taken to running a boot camp for their players with midnight marches and forced swims in ice cold water in south-east Queensland, sounds a bit like prison doesn’t it? Oh well at least they are re-connecting with their roots!

Should AB's play in Air NZ Cup?

There are eleven All Blacks on Air NZ Cup squads for the first two or three rounds of the Air New Zealand Cup and the rest are conditioning until the beginning of the World Cup in September. I have to wonder if it would have been more beneficial for every All Black selected to play a few rounds for their respective provinces before beginning the conditioning program. There is alot to be said for real competition and I just wonder if this would have been the right way to get the boys in game shape.

Now that being said I know that the pool rounds for NZ are rather soft, and the real competition will start in the quarter finals if not the semis, so there is time to “get in game shape”. I still think a few rounds of the NPC would have gone a long way to get the players in the right frame of mind and then a few weeks of conditioning before the start of the pool games.

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!