AB's V France
 

Anyone else feel like this was a very flat victory? I can't remember the last time I really felt like the ref deserved to be harmed. Badly.

who won?

The ABs.

i thought the ref was not too bad seeing as there werent that many penalties. The sending off was way too harsh, but that was just going on the linesmans word i guess. Telling off steve devine was ridiculous too. I don't think it could have been made ANY clearer how much anton DOESN'T deserve to be in the team at all and how much KEVIN does :D

And how about the try denied because of the "forward pass". I agree with the sending off and the Steve Devine penalty - they were both BS. The lineouts also improved incredibly once Anton Oliver was off.

I just can't believe, after FOUR YEARS, that Anton Oliver is still throwing the ball in. He is a lineout DISASTER.

Well, i didn't think andre watson was THAT bad, but then agian we won, if we didn't, i'll probaly be so pissed off @ the moment.

Hmm, remember when we used to be the team to beat...and we would own all over the world?

NOW we are struggling just to throw a ball in a lineout!

NZ sports teams and industries only have on thing on there mind at the moment.... $

Agreed. I thought he handled the first half well, and while in the second half the Devine and Thorne* incidents weren't really much and the forward pass looked pretty legit on replay, I thought overall Watson did a good job.


*When Thorne was sinbinned and absent from the game... who noticed?

actually I think you will find that its because NZ just doesnt have the talent pool of other larger countries- up until now the only country apart from us that has been heavily sport oriented with academies etc is aussie, and lets face, it, they are pretty damn good at sports. now lots of other countries (i.e. europe and England) are doing the same thing. Was a big artice in the New Scientist a few months back about it- I think NZ is on the slippery slope to the bottom rungs to keep the welsh company.

When you're a captain, you're supposed to be setting an example for your teammates to follow. And when you have a wild swing at someone for something that was quite harmless, which results in you being sinbinned, it shows that you're a bad leader.

Can Marty Hollah play blindside?

Ok...when the biggest cheer (yes cheer) in the pub during the game comes when the all black captain get sent off....you KNOW u have a problem!

divine won

Didn't that young Rocko Thocko man do well?

Not we, just Anton. No one else. Don't worry, he'll soon be gone.

Hmmm, well i'm not actualyl quite sure if he did do well or not. He scored three tries, so i can fault him on that, but then again i throught any half decent winger could've scored two out of those three tries. On the other hand, he dropped a few high balls, and was pretty much invisible IMHO in other parts of the game, namely the second half.

First off, its Joe Rokocoko, where people get ROCKO-THO-KO from is beyond me.. ?

Secondly, sure he had the speed to finish, but the trys were handed to him. And he played poorly in other aspects of the game, as Maulmonk mentioned.*

I was fucked off that he got man of the match, JERRY COLLINS deserved it alot more.*

* IMO

We ain't going anywhere in rugby until they make Graham Henry the coach and he has Sean Fitzpatrick as his sidekick, plenty of good players in the AB's just no teamwork.. and that's the coach's doing.

Mccaw and collins had a good game. Rocokoco had a great game.

I believe thats how its pronounced in Fijian or whereever he's from.

Really...? Thats actually quite funny :)

The middle c is pronounced th.

Like casting a line and reeling it in...
 

People say it when they want to take the piss out of stupid people _b

We went off the boil abit , again this is the end of their season start of ours , we cant expect to win by 30 points every week.

Mc Caw / Collins / Jack / Thorne ( Brad ) and Mealamu had stand out games. I think umanga had a brilliant game on defense but we need to stand deeper because guys are so offside these days that by the time umanga got the ball he had no room ( how many times did howlett get the ball? )

Rokococo try where spencer put him in the hole was not handed to him by any account , I cant think of many other wingers around that would have had the gas to pull that off.

As for the depth comment , considering our size the depth we have is amazing ... players are nurtured threw in this country from around 14 so we arent in trouble in that department. Australia on the other hand are in alot of trouble , they have 0 depth and are relying on league players.

it's the money that eventually will sting us. Lets just hope america donest SERIOUSLY get into rugby :) allthough the seem to prefer sports that only they play.

Ok - my wrong. :)

Some blunt commentary I agree with 100%
 

Re: Like casting a line and reeling it in...
 

yes realy....stand ovations, shouts of OFF OFF OFF OFF and all....

Jerry Collins is one hard motherfucker.

At least Watson didn't completely fuck up the whole game a la whathisname in the game vs England.

I'd be very worried if the All Blacks were firing on all cylinders this far out from the world cup. Call me an optimist, but I'm quite happy with 'just' a win against France. It's not as if there is some huge difference between the players we played and the French players who will play in the world cup, even if the players who came here were supposidly second choice. Just think about the second choice team we could field, and consider how many more players France have.

I find it quite suprising that people seem to be saying the sky is falling just because we don't thrash everyone by 20 points from week to week. It doesn't mean that we have lost it or that NZ rugby is on a downward path to the bottom, it just means the a lot more people play these days and the game is more competitive.

The thing I am a bit worried about is Ali Williams. What has happened to him in the last couple of games?

My man of the match was McCaw. He was everywhere.

Collins (Hard bastard), Spencer, Mealamu, Meuws (sp?) and Rokococo (sp?) all had good games.

It's kind of hard to judge the lineout success or failures if you don't know the calls. However, it's plain to see that whenever Oliver is out there, we're not finding our targets, and we are with Mealamu.

I was in the pub with Furrycrew, and can attest that the pub cheered when Reuben Thorne was sent off. Kinda odd to see an AB captain jeered like that, but then he is a waste of space.

I thought the first French try was a bit soft, and came down to poorly (well, not great at least) organised defence. The second try was much harder to stop, having the seven man scrum pushed back, and then a great inside ball to the centre.

We won't get anywhere with Divine as halfback.

yeh we need kelleher

what'd devine do wrong?

boofhead: u might wanna look at who posted the comment.

just being a smart-ass :)

I think kelleher has got a better pass and ball distribution than devine. As hard as it is for me to say, they need to get rid of oliver now and bring in willis or hammet as mealamu's deputy. I thought they should have subbed brad thorn and meuws on earlier. Lastly about those rockokoko tries, I don't think ralph coulda got any of those three :)

ralph would have dropped the ball or ran another way

Devine just seems to slow and weak. He's been out classed by his opposition every game. Kelleher made immidiate impact, fast distrubution and firery runs.

I think Divine is doing well, he was the premier halfback this super12.

yep, you're right.

Divine's a fag