World Cup curse of crashing Kiwis
25 Apr 2007
Get used to it New Zealand. Come October there will be another heartache semi-final exit as yet another of New Zealand’s national teams implodes.
The Black Caps were smashed in their last three matches at the Cricket World Cup and the manner of defeat against Sri Lanka reminded me so much of the All Blacks last two rugby semi-final exits.
The Black Caps couldn’t cope with the pressure of the occasion. Their fielding was ordinary, their bowling indifferent and their batting exposed as brittle. The New Zealand batting, so powerful in the early part of the tournament, folded with the weight of expectation. It surely is a sign of things to come with the All Blacks.
Cape Town, in 2005, and Rustenburg, in 2006, were evidence enough to know that the All Blacks are more than capable of that one horror match a year. And to lose the World Cup all they need to do is be true to form and produce that shocking 80 minutes against the Springboks.
Already their management are talking up the brutality of the Springboks. Already there is doubt within the All Blacks camp. Influential members of the All Blacks keep on reminding the public that victory at this year’s World Cup is not a done deal and that South Africa, in particular, pose a real threat.
It is as if they are preparing their public for the worst and the Springboks in Jake White’s squad know the only team the All Blacks fear physically are the boys in green. There is a disregard in New Zealand for the challenge of England, Wales and even Ireland. The New Zealanders simply believe they can’t lose to those players. There is a respect for Australia and France, only because the two have done New Zealand in the World Cup at the last two semi-final appearances.
But there is genuine fear that the Springboks will be physically too potent in a one-off situation. And it is a fear the Boks can already smell.
It is interesting how many of the current Bok squad have privately noted how much respect the Boks are being given in New Zealand. As some have said, it is as if New Zealand are already talking themselves into defeat.
White has the squad to beat the All Blacks, but his job will be all that easier if the All Blacks have already beaten themselves before kick-off.
I loved watching the Black Caps getting smashed. A World Cup semi-final implosion. Get used to it New Zealanders. This one is minor to what’s coming in October in Paris.
274 Comments
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25 Apr 2007, 14:22 pm
#88 You would be suprised that I agree with some of the things you say. I agree that the Govt need to put more money in sport because it has the unifying factor and it’s the best way to market a country (look at the Aussies, and Kenyans in long distance running). Who blamed the white man for everything? (even they are responsible for most!) I was responding to a statement that was made. Get your factrs right!
25 Apr 2007, 14:22 pm
Keo.
There is a chance for everything to happen in the WC.
The chance of the AB to exit the WC in the semis when playing the boks would be IMO 80%.Thus your article is based on that 20% or less.
The chance for for Namibia to win the WC would be 0.0001 %.If bafana bafana played they would also have a chance but much less that Namibia.
You see, there is a chance for everybody.
Keep the hopes up for the 20%.
25 Apr 2007, 14:24 pm
91. The silliness is that you believe there are enough black players to make up all the teams.
Would you rather win the WC with 10 White, 4 black and 1 colored or lose it dreadfully with 10 black, 4 white and one colored?
If you choose the latter, your drivel is pure racism based on what you believe the white man (who’s era may i add died off already)owes you some form of retribution for the sins committed in the 60′s, before most of us were born,
If you want to argue such a hard topic, at least do it with an understanding of both parties views,
anyways, like i said earlier, we all want transformation, but we dont want it to cost our national team a WC, maybe after the WC we can start to include lesser players of colour with the hope that they will grow from experience for the next.
But to declare that now suddenly, in WC year players who dont have hte skills and experience needed, need to be put into the team. Come on… as you said earlier, stop the silliness.
25 Apr 2007, 14:25 pm
Sharkbait (#57),
Yes, I agree! Beating the Poms still tops them all. Maybe it provides a feeling of payback for the Boer War, maybe it is just the English arrogance – I do not know.
Every once in a while, I pull the 99WC semifinal video out (Jannie de Beer’s 5 drops) – just to listen to the pain of the Pom commentators during the match. At the start of the match, it seemed that they (the Poms) thought it would just have been a routine disposal of SA for England on the road to the final!
25 Apr 2007, 14:26 pm
98. i see
25 Apr 2007, 14:27 pm
Tac, we can easily afford to lose a few hundred thousand to permanent immigration, unlike nations like Aus and NZ, because we have huge capital as far as human resources goes.
You forget if 1 mill, as you allege, leave the country there are still 40 odd million waiting to step into their shoes. Basically, if your figures are true then we have only seen 1% of the population immigrate.
Which in the long term is a negligible amount. Sure in the short term it might hold back development for a while, but it is not a major crises.
25 Apr 2007, 14:27 pm
Jake White, jy is darem maar oral op die web!
25 Apr 2007, 14:27 pm
YES Tjorts beating the POMS really goes down well !
25 Apr 2007, 14:28 pm
103
sins committed from 1652-1994.
25 Apr 2007, 14:28 pm
#75 lol respect..
25 Apr 2007, 14:28 pm
Crusaders are transforming games into trophies …. what is SAs transformation plan?
25 Apr 2007, 14:28 pm
Now this is exactly what I have been waiting for the last couple of years. Positive embracing Springbok rugby, to slaughter the Kiwis and triumph as world cup champions. Go Bokke. I will donate a couple of body parts to go to the world cup tour and watch the Boks.
25 Apr 2007, 14:29 pm
TigerShark, guys, let’s leave politics aside and focus on sport? Ag pleez!
25 Apr 2007, 14:30 pm
95 Tiger Shark,
At a max of 27,000 per year over 10 years ….. that means the other 3/4 million must have fallen down the stairs
25 Apr 2007, 14:31 pm
Like I said earlier, SARU are sitting on an ENORMOUS resource pool which it chooses to overlook for primarily “ideological” reasons. Mine the black gold you fools – we’ll annihilate all before us.
25 Apr 2007, 14:31 pm
#99 No , Bull is what you are talking ! What we want is for opportunities to be availed to everyone . The American Track team is a poor example because it never became that way because white sprinters were barred from the sport(do’nt even make an example of soccer because not white person was ever barred from playing it!). This was the case in SA. To show that things are changing look at rugby at school level. There is a lot of young talent coming through! Also to show that we are turning the corner, i wich you could see the number of Black young boys registering with the Natal Academy. The reason we have such a situation is because of the Sephakas, Bobos, Jantjies, etc. who have made them realise that rugby can be a black mans sport. In that way transformation has worked!
25 Apr 2007, 14:31 pm
YES GO PROTEAS,bliksem them !
25 Apr 2007, 14:33 pm
I did not pick up the whole conversation regarding the impact of expats leaving the country, but the macro and micro economic influence due to these immigrations is immense.
There are various factors in South Africa contributing to the worsening economic situation.
1. Unemployment
2. Inflation
3. Lack of higher education
etc, so regarding the imigrants leaving and having no impact, please check your facts before making comments about ex pats having no influence on the economy.
25 Apr 2007, 14:34 pm
Keo
The 20% raises to 30% if you can manage an intercept try.
Another 5% if you can get rid of Dan Carter in the early stages of the game.
Feed this information to Jake White so he can start planning.
25 Apr 2007, 14:35 pm
Who mentioned economics?
25 Apr 2007, 14:36 pm
120 Milten Freeman
25 Apr 2007, 14:36 pm
#103 That’s the problem with you, you think these things only happened in the 60′s. Go learn you history and stop insulting yourself! I will not even get into that one!
retributions- what’s that about? Do’nt be stupid!
What do you mean by lesser players?
25 Apr 2007, 14:37 pm
106 TigerShark
25 Apr 2007, 14:37 pm
Bertus, why the concern about Transformation.
All human capital is equally capable. There is no way you can maintain that a team will be mediocre with transformation, in fact the opposite is true.. use your own analogy as proof.
In the US the NBA and NFL is dominated by black Americans because they are better. What’s more they don’t have as large a legacy of white only sport.
And that is in fact the answer to your question, why must we transform? Because we made it a law that sport was white only. You reap what you sow.
Surely the time has arrived to stop bitching about a process that white people actually implemented and start making sure that the PDP’s coming into the game are of NFL type quality.
World dominance of Rugby that Tac talks so fondly about will occur when we harness our black population. They are more than a match, athletically, than any islander and with the huge amount of black human capital at our finger tips in SA as well as in the rest of Africa it is only a matter of time before we dominate rugby for the foreseeable future.
The sooner we implement transformation the sooner we will dominate.
25 Apr 2007, 14:38 pm
16mm black,Sephaka should NEVER have been a BOK ! This is NOT a racist remark,FACT IS he would not cut it in New Zealand at the highest level.He would be an average to weak front rower at best.Now the “BEAST ” and “Mujati” they have the grit and determination and strength to do well in the future,they are learning and young BUT MILES AHEAD of any performance SEPHAKA has delivered !
25 Apr 2007, 14:38 pm
When you lost two out of three tests by absolute miles and win the third — the dead rubber third one — by only one point, you don’t have any REAL bragging rights over the All Blacks.
When you haven’t beaten the Boks away from SA anywhere anytime this century yet. Your brag rings even hollower.
When the Bok coach lost more tests in just one single year (2006) than what Graham Henry has lost ever since he got the AB job…
We clearly have great talkers of the talk but terrible crawlers of the crawl, let alone walkers of the walk! After all, the Boks couldn’t even progress to the RWC semifinals last time out, having been dumped out 29-9 in their quarterfinal!
Naah… wishful thinking, Keo. Just wishful thinking.
25 Apr 2007, 14:39 pm
Reading further into the above discussion, 122, get you facts right and stop being a bloody racist.
25 Apr 2007, 14:39 pm
Keo
Look at the following senario.
The Boks to be beaten by the Poms and to be sent home by the AB`s in the quarters.
Now that is a real possibility and not a wet dream like yours.
25 Apr 2007, 14:40 pm
Respect Keo. “a good journalist doesnt let the truth interfere with a good story”
25 Apr 2007, 14:40 pm
WP,
Neither should Lance Sherrel. So now lets get back to the broader, high level issues.
25 Apr 2007, 14:40 pm
124 South African rugby will be better off once all the whites have left
25 Apr 2007, 14:40 pm
The Perfect Evening as desribed by a typical South African Male….
1. You are getting head from your ex sitting in a lazy boy while your Current is serving you beers and boeries and all this while the boks are beating the All Blacks on your 46″ Plasma.
25 Apr 2007, 14:42 pm
#114 with those stats the white man must be an extinct creature in SA. What about the one’s coming back? Let’s stop beoing too resourceful with the truth abs stats!
25 Apr 2007, 14:43 pm
#116 Read my lips: quota. Transformation “must’ take place. In order to reflect transformation, certain quotas must be introduced. When will the ANC be satisfied? Blacks comprise 80%(?),so must Springboks be 80% black? Politics: bah!
Next it will be jukskei that has to be “transformed”.
25 Apr 2007, 14:43 pm
Chch,
Go stir your toilet pot with that sarcasm. Don’t get emotional, try to dicuss rationally.
25 Apr 2007, 14:43 pm
Naas
Last time I heard the economy was growing, not declining. Where are you, on Mars?
The reason why the expat issue has become, well an issue, is because the economy has grown and now in the short term the skills the expats have taken with them are needed to make the economy grow even more. But in the long term it wont make much of a difference.
Take a quick look at the historical perspective… Ireland and England, Italy etc have given millions of people up to immigration. Hence the existence of the US and Aus and even SA. Yet where is the long term negative effect on these nations in losing this human capital?
25 Apr 2007, 14:44 pm
132 Jake_White,
Lucky you videoed those old games
25 Apr 2007, 14:45 pm
#124 AMEN! where does this person com from! You have my respect!
25 Apr 2007, 14:45 pm
Bertus,
The ANC will (rightfully) be satisfied once it is clear and apparent that an honest and meaningful committment towards transformation is being made
25 Apr 2007, 14:46 pm
Kiwis are going to crash at RWC’07. I feel it in my ****, they are going to spend this year wondering if they peaked too soon. One or two injuries will also add to the doubt.
I disagree with Keo though. I think the Kiwis will be more prone to lose against another team than SA. All other teams lift their game for a clash with the AB’s. The kiwis only lift their game for the Boks. I’d put money on one of Ireland, Aus or even England beating the Kiwis at RWC
25 Apr 2007, 14:46 pm
SAFFA i agree or Gaffie Du Toit for that matter,TOO many Bok jerseys were handed out in times of panic,by incompetent selectors or those striving to be politically correct !
25 Apr 2007, 14:47 pm
#127 What was racist with that statement? Explain!
25 Apr 2007, 14:48 pm
135 saffa_guy,
What part of that sounded emotional???
I am trying to read but in a meeting so hard to keep up.
I just think that you could increase the number of weekly flights to Perth and speed up the transformation process
25 Apr 2007, 14:48 pm
#131 Do’nt be a cry baby now!
25 Apr 2007, 14:48 pm
Snorrrrr
25 Apr 2007, 14:49 pm
16 inch black will be chanting “One Settler One Bullet” shortly.
Fuc%##%ing politics, let’s talk sport dammit!
25 Apr 2007, 14:49 pm
#142 If the Kiwis were forced to pick 2 white players, they’d be nowhere as good as they are now.
25 Apr 2007, 14:49 pm
#134 he! he! he !
25 Apr 2007, 14:49 pm
Bertus, are you a racist? Why you so defensive?
25 Apr 2007, 14:50 pm
Saffa_Guy
It is good discussion here but the thread was intended as a joke by Keo
no stress
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