So whats yer point ? Noone nominated Ireland as Team of the Year either and yet they clearly deserved the title despite ABs ending us no1.

McCaw as Player of the Year is far more appropriate than the Boks taking a prize on the back of a 1 from 5 end to their season.

@whatever:

And what would you know, immigrant ? When Southland won, more rugby conversations about rugby sprung up between Kiwis than in years. SA doesnt have an equivalent so no wonder you dont appreciate the history or know what it means.

In fact, you clearly despise everything about NZ, why dont you just F.O. back to your homeland ?!

Still no1. And qualified for the WC – now tell me, what are soccer crowd no’s in NZ ? you seem to have all the stats. And if the crowd no’s arent great, how come the All Whites were still good enough to get there ?

Good man. You doing your bit I think the sport as a whole has hit a bit of a flatliner from a growth point of view. My sons school is battling to get numbers to make up 3 teams. Admittedly it was never a rugby orientated school, but jeez it’s been an uphill battle to get the boys to play.

Okay, I forgot about the Southland boys……yeah, they looked pretty chuffed. Maybe it still means alot to the players, but whats happenned to the spectators? Jeez there are more blokes on the Marist club balcony on a Sat afternoon watching club footie than going to watch the Air NZ Cup!!

No mate. A five minute photo opportunity and a small three line run on in the sports pages does not make it a very sort after Shield anymore. The s14 is definitely taken over as the Trophy in NZ for provincial sides. As for the Air NZ cup, well just look at the spectator numbers again!

So wakkadoo s make the most of your little end of year run cause it seems the game is doomed to be a bit player in the future……..shame!

Mate, you have been out of NZ far toooo long. No one gives a toss about the Ranfurly Shield anymore. And the Bledisloe only gets it’s higher status when the 3 Nations is lost….hehehe.

If the Ranfurly Shield had status, why does no one go and watch the game?

Yeah, and when we won 3-0 there was alot of………”but we beat you last year and and and………” BS. Practice what you preach ya wally

Yes FdP kicked averything away. So did Morne. I was surprised Smit didn’t hoof it either.
Seeing a pattern here?
They were clearly under instructions. Bad ones.
Everyone knows that you cannot JUST play a single plan and must vary it. But not your precious coach apparently.

FdP is immensely talented and typically makes great decisions 90% of the time. His skills in any of the scrumhalf disciplines is the best.

He is by far and away the best scrumhalf in the world. Your rants are FARKING RIDICULOUS!

The Boks were told to kick the leather off the ball because of the conditions. So they did. Simple as that. But they could have at least tried a few wide runs.

I for one want to see Rugby rules changed to make kicking the ball more risky than the ruck, so that teams are forced to run it.

Yeah, I kept asking the question because no one was answering. And no, I visit other rugby blogs and he wasn’t being mentioned at all. It was between BOD and FDP.

Only now that he has won it do the KIWIS come in and defend for the honor of their McCaw.

He didn’t deserve to win, wake up, you one sided farmer. And FDP still had a very good tour.

ME cover YOUR back ?

fella, Ive yet to meet anyone less in need of a back-covering.

I’m old n ugly enough to take care of myself round these hallways of impeccable gentlemanly manners. Centurian wanna mix his metaphores and hurl some abuse I don’t think the poor ******** quite realizes what he might get himself in for. I can hurl insults like the best of them – I could possibly vloek that idiotic smug snot nosed highfalutin prick right under the table if the moderator would allow me the latitude to take the gloves off. Poor schmuck faced centurian wouldn’t quite know wtf hit him.

As regards some these poor adulating Fdp groupie followers in here who simply can’t bear someone like myself’s blasphemous intent against their hallowed saint of scrum halves the righteous Gallahad of No.9′s the veritable can do no wrong infallible fool himself. I like to ask these adulating prostrating idol worshippers of the Greatest Player on the Planet whether he turns water into wine or walks on water too. Far as I can make out the idiot has one of the slowest passes on a rugby field, stands around at the base of the scrum for almost an eternity till he decides which rampaging bull fatty he’s going to pop his next hospital pass to, or else he’s squealing at the ref how come the oppo loose forwards have spoiled his impeccable unprotected ball, and throws a hissy fit if for any reason ref don’t offer him a free bee after he’s got caught in possession cause he’s basically just too slow in getting the ball out the back end of the ruck.

As for his eternally patient fly half and centers waiting for his immaculateness to occasionally and disdainfully grant them a measley scrap of poorly distributed morsel of ball once in a remote while, the poor buggers would be extremely immersed in abject appreciative gratitude if it at least would come when the opposition haven’t already born down on them as they get man and ball similtanously.

And then they reckon this genius is God’s own gift to South African running rugby potential evolution. Couldn’t be further from the truth, this slow poke slow distributing rugby scrum half is the very core of the problem as to why our backline is as flat footed and toothless in attack as its become exposed to be in recent times. Ever since Fdp inherited and wore the mantle of best 9 on the planet the Springbok back line play has all but dried up in almost practical totality.

And no Puma its not because he’s a bloubull, its because he’s a lousy running game non distributing scrum half. That by itself represents the sum total of his overrated inadequacy. Nothing else, not even the poorly assumed reasoning that this gutteral prick idiot centurianshark lowers his f’ak’d out low cast low life mind to.

Thats because you have absolutely no idea whatsoever.

As far as Kiwis are concerned its:-

RWC

Bledisloe

TriN

Ranfurly Shield

S14.

Thats what makes us who we are. We dont seek your stamp of approval.

Funny, since Boks lost on EOYT there has been alot of “but we won 3-0 !”

And, yes, they did.

But what trophy will have ’3-0′ on it in years to come ? None. Thats because there are even some things that mean more than silverware, duh.

The ABs weren’t handed a trophy at Loftus in ’96 either. But that achivevment even trumps any RWC win as far as we’re concerned. But, then, maybe you cant understand that either.

More legal ?

dont paint 1 with the brush and leave the other untouched. Its really a bit silly.

You will remember Kings Park ? I do. I spent the week here being abused after Bloem because I had the temerity to say that whilst Brussow had an excellent match he was also “cheating repeatedly…blocking-off, bridging, hands in ruck..”. The usual cr@p about being a sore loser ensued.

What happened at Kings Park ? Brussow was repeatedly pinged for infringements at the ruck, bridging twice and not-rolling-away/blocking-off. (and FdP was also pinged for crooked feeds, which he got away with in Bloem, incidentally).

Now every loosie does this. N.Back and Dallaglio spent their whole careers doing it. The worst cheats ever those 2.

But to intimate 1 is a serial cheat whilst ignoring the sins of t’other ? well, thats nonsense. Safas have spent a whole career labelling McCaw as a cheat. Because its convenient. Jake White even started a whole campaign based on that just prior to RWC’07 (he got Muller, Capt, to call McCaw “a cheat” at the press conference prior to a match in NZ).

Cab, unless you were blind you would have seen Brussow at work in that last 15mins in Dublin, in particular. He got away with blue murder as the Boks were desperately pushing on in Ireland Qter, ref Owens was virtually giving him cart blanche to cheat at will, handling off his feet in ruck, laying on the ball/blocking. Good for him, he got away with it. Masterful. But innocent ?…..esp compared to that Other Guy ?

dont kid yourself.

Bloody good player tho. But which ‘bloody good’ loosie is a veritable choirboy ?

Cool !!