Awesome and inspiring All Blacks
2 Aug 2010
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says New Zealand deserve credit for their recent Test performances.
South Africans can bury their heads in the sand and mock the All Blacks for supposedly peaking a year before the World Cup, but those who believe this are in denial about the state of Springbok rugby and too accepting of mediocrity.
The All Blacks are playing amazing rugby. Is that too hard to acknowledge? Alternatively is it that too hard to enjoy watching?
The All Blacks a year ago were awful and their selections and performances in the Tri Nations were among their worst since 1998 when the New Zealanders lost five Tests in succession. Then the question was whether there was a next generation of Kiwi who could sustain their historical dominance of world rugby. Now we know there is one good enough.
In a year their coaches have identified players they believe capable of playing total rugby, and in the first three Tests of the 2010 Tri Nations these players have delivered near complete performances on attack and in defence. It has been inspiring stuff and if you haven’t been awed then your love is for a team and not the game of rugby.
Watching the All Blacks in the last month reminded me why rugby union has the greater appeal to rugby league and that there isn’t a more inspiring sight in rugby union than players creating magic with their hands and not simply relying on a kick for points.
There is a place for kicking in any match, but it is when the kick is made that defines the kick. In Melbourne two defensive kicks led to charge downs and tries, but those were the only ordinary kicks in a game dominated by hand speed, passes and a desire by both teams to retain the ball as a form of attack.
Teams will on occasion succeed in countering the way the All Blacks are playing and there will be days when the passes don’t stick and the bounce isn’t favourable, but to dismiss the All Blacks of peaking a year to early is an insult to what they have produced in the last month.
Even if the All Blacks don’t win next year’s World Cup, you can’t take away the genius of the attack in Auckland, Wellington and Melbourne.
Test rugby is supposed to be the ultimate test for a player, which is why it is called Test rugby. The introduction of the World Cup has cheapened Test rugby because so many teams use the tournament, held every four years, as an excuse for indifferent performances between World Cups.
The Boks are taking comfort that they are getting thrashed now and not in the World Cup year. What nonsense. A Test defeat is a defeat and should not be as easily dismissed or forgotten.
Whenever a coach gets his selection wrong he can claim experimentation ahead of the World Cup, and on the odd occasion a team plays scintillating rugby between World Cups the accusation is the team has peaked too soon.
Some coaches say they deliberately want to give away nothing in between World Cups because showing their hands would prejudice their World Cup prospects.
If this is the case and the only matches of significance are those played at the World Cup, then national colours should not be awarded for those 35-odd matches played by the Springboks between World Cups and they certainly should not be called Tests, because that is when players supposedly test their best skills against the best of another nation and spectators are prepared to pay large sums of money to watch the spectacle.
Instead, in this professional age that rewards the mediocre, sensational wins are mocked and embarrassing defeats are cherished as good things because it is not a World Cup year.
That isn’t right. There has to be accountability to every Test and there should never be something as a meaningless exercise if a player represents his country.
I don’t buy into the theory that rather your team loses this year than in a World Cup year. I buy into the theory that says you give your best every time you play for your country and people pay to watch because there is an expectation that this best will bring victory.
And when this skill brings seven tries away from home, it is an achievement worthy of awe and not the ridicule of getting it right in the wrong year.
The All Blacks in Melbourne got it right on the right day; as they did in Auckland and Wellington, and I’d rather that was the case with the Boks this year and every time they play the game they call Test rugby.
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243 Comments
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3 Aug 2010, 00:35 am
149 EZEE-23(EZEE-23)
Well written couldn’t disagree with you W/cup but lets wait for that hurdle when it comes!! what has the bokee got to offer in the next game other than bring their discipline into line you saw your South Africa referee lay the law down in Melbourne.
3 Aug 2010, 00:58 am
@Airwell(Airwell)-68: Teens who top themselves aren’t taken out by the unarmed police, pilgrim.
3 Aug 2010, 01:19 am
Common Mark you’re going over the top a little. Yes the AB’s are playing great rugby and yes it is awesome to watch but facts are facts a true gauge on performance under pressure is the WC. The WC hasn’t cheapened int. Rugger the tri nations has and to expect the same group of players to win year in and year out is unrealistic. There is a hell of a difference between tri nations champions and WC champs and evedance of that is that even though we are the current tri nation champs commentators still call us the works champs. So yes coaches have to position themselves to perform correctly at the correct time.
3 Aug 2010, 01:30 am
@Airwell(Airwell)-68: You are an embarrasment to this forum and to your countrymen in general. Please add, by one, to the RSA suicide statistics.
3 Aug 2010, 01:37 am
@Ratel Brussow(Morne Steyn is under-rated)-75:
“When last did an All Black side actually WIN a close game?” – RB
Haven’t needed to recently because such s.h.i.t teams have been put in front of us.
3 Aug 2010, 01:39 am
@BillTong(BillTong)-150: You’re lying to yourself.
3 Aug 2010, 01:40 am
@zoo cleaner(zoo cleaner)-87:
“The ABs are not special right now.
The Boks have been woeful and the Aussies had one big game in them against us.
The Boks need proper selections and this myth of the ABs being awesome will be seriously challenged.
Also, had McCaw been carded the result could have been very different with a Bok win a possibility. The ref did influence the game and so be it but lets not over-estimate this AB side. They are not the class of 2005/2006.” – Poop scooper.
Pathetic, sour grapes, shut up!
3 Aug 2010, 01:43 am
@Cannon(Cannon)-153:
To be the best, you have to beat the best. Simple.
Under the current RWC format, that doesn’t necessarily happen. Yes – you can only play the format that is there, and can only play the teams the format throws up. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you are the best of all the teams. It just means that you have won that particular tournament.
Its like Tennis – the Wimbledon Winner, or the US Open Winner does not call himself the “World Champion”. He just says “I won the Open – I won a Grand Slam Tournament”. That’s all.
The Soccer World Cup is flawed in the same way that the RWC is.
Cricket is the game that has got it closest to right – with their Super Sixes stage – where all qualifying teams out of pools play each other before the knock-out semi/final matches.
3 Aug 2010, 01:45 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-156:
No mate – I’m not.
3 Aug 2010, 01:50 am
@BillTong(BillTong)-159:
What’s it like enduring 3 years of painful performances to get that one little win?
Did you enjoy your team’s performance in the Northern Tour last year? The Boks losing to Club Teams! Losing to teams that have not beaten the AB’s for 50 years or ever! Losing 3-zip in the month just gone – and playing k*k rugby. Must be be-yoo-tiful and highly satifying to watch.
Be honest with yourself mate.
3 Aug 2010, 02:03 am
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-157:
Quite an arrogant f u k arn’t you?
3 Aug 2010, 02:17 am
@baw(maxed)-146: what a sad case you are… didnt make it at clown school huh?
to pray an opposition player gets injured isnt very sporting at all.. Bakkies prayed, and he finally got justice 4 himself didnt he?
3 Aug 2010, 02:22 am
Biltong I hear what you saying brother but that’s the nature of South African rugby we are the most physical team on the planet that’s how we play our rugged always have and always will. Unfortuately that physicallity is not sustainable hens the odd bad result. The blacks are the Brazil of rugby theY play the beautiful game. Unfortunatly it’s also a high risk game because like Keo says there are days when the ball won’t stick and the bounce won’t go your way. Which is normally in a WC year for the AB’s.
3 Aug 2010, 02:24 am
@whatever(whatever)-161: That’s rich! Just speaking the language of some of the more infantile Japie posters here – you one too, Trevor?
3 Aug 2010, 02:26 am
so much emphasis on the world cup on this blog lately… its still a year away and there is so much other rugby still to be played..
I guess its normal though, what with the 3Ns trophy leavimg the cabinet shortly…
3 Aug 2010, 02:30 am
@baw(maxed)-146:
“haha running rugby wont win a world cup final -in the act of good sportsmanship ,i pray god,please may dan carter break an ankle ,the one he kicks with would be ideal ,amen”
Is that like saying “I hope FdP gets cancer”?
3 Aug 2010, 02:35 am
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-157: “McCaw been carded the result could have been very different with a Bok win a possibility”
thanks a joke of a statement, the boks would have never won that match regardless. I would agree that the abs aren’t awesome at the moment because I don’t want to start sounding like those boks fans who said before the tri nations that the boks will dominate again and they expect 15+ wins every match. What I would say is that the abs are at the moment a very good side that is building nicely for the WC. With the introductions of youngsters like Cruden, Whitelock, vito, dagg the abs are building much need depth and experience. This year we are seeing young players like Read, O Franks, Jane, Donnelly (may not be young in age but young in terms of international experience) gaining more and more experience as well as confidence. Also the old guns McCaw, mils, woodcock, thorn, joe, Carter, Nonu, Smith all lifting their games and really looking hungry for that wc spot. So if they continue with this form its should be a great wc.
3 Aug 2010, 03:02 am
@MacToogie(MacToogie)-43:
Arrogance is why the Boks are losing at the moment. Keo is giving respect where respect is due, and many of you are cutting him down for it.
Arrogance form the Bok players that said they WILL win in NZ b4 the games because God was on their side, likening the AB side to a bunch of heathens because their beliefs were just and right, despite there being many devout Christian AB players.
Arrogance from the bok captain who said after the game in AK that it wasn’t because the ABs were good, just that they were bad.
Arrogance form a coach who refuses to move with the times because his way is the right way but and the ABs must be cheating because we are losing.
Arrogance from one eyed fans who say Keo is a goose for giving respect where respect is deserved, the ABs are in the zone at the moment and deserve credit for that, well said Keo, excellent comment, just like the boks supporters of old.
The boks were a far better team than NZ last year and thoroughly deserved to win, they were simply much better and deserved kudos for it. They deserved all respect, because they adapted best to the rules and were a far better team. Why cant many of you offer the same respect in return?
In my eyes, all is not well in Bok land. As soon as you guys stop throwing mud, but most importantly start looking inwards you will fix all the problems and move forward again.
3 Aug 2010, 03:19 am
@Gooch(Gooch)-53:
Spot on, well said
3 Aug 2010, 03:46 am
I feel sick.
Post after post after post after post of MCaws a cheat, the refs are biased, the only reason we lost is because we were robbed.
I hope your coaches believe this drivel and keep the status quo, cause it just makes the ABs job so much easier.
Maybe it’s just me, I must be a freak or something, cause as a mad ABs supporter, I want nothing more than to play the best team the boks can field, I desperately want to win, but as long as the ABs give 100% on the field and we are beaten by the boks, I see honour I that. I have never accused the boks of cheating, but I do abhor foul play that too often rears it’s ugly head, and I always give credit where credit is due.
Boks have been our best opponent for 100 years, I love it when the boks are strong, bring it on, I want us to be tested against the best, and that’s the Boks.
I most be old fashioned and out of date, seems the new breed of fan cant see passed the end of their poisoned pens, and there’s plenty on both sides, sad.
3 Aug 2010, 04:24 am
@Cannon(Cannon)-153: Totally agree with Keo and totally disagree with you. The world cup is a mirage and something that we all look to four years in the future. In the now, we have reality and history will tell you how good the winners are and what sort of real champions the winners of the WC really are. New Zealand has been the only team who have won a WC that has not fallen in a heap along the way but has continually set the standards and kept the bar raised enough to maintain the Number One ranking in the World for nearly a continual period except losing it briefly to SA after the last WC. Australia has risen from the ashes a couple of times, particularly under the tempered and respectful guidance of John Eales but they as a national team have never even come close to emulating the feats of the AB’s. England, the one hit wonders who won and then lost everything They lost face and credit for not only falling in a heap after the WC (they won) but went on to become a side ridiculed for never even looking like a team that could or should have won the WC. There was as much amazement as Buster Douglas knocking out Tyson in Japan ( who the hell is Buster Douglas) and he, Buster, got creamed in his next fight by someone even worse.
Prior to the last WC, the Boks had not really done anything great, no tri-nations that I can recall off the top of my head, I think their tours were ordinary and if I remember correctly so was their S14 campaign.
Here is why the WC is really a raffle. The Boks only had to play England who in all fairness got through their assigned work load shutting down an average australian team with a pack of grumpy old men up front, but win they did. SA had only to contain them and Voila, the cup was theirs. The next couple of years belonged to the Boks in a sense, but not nearly as convincingly as how the AB’s have shaped their footy.
Even the best wins the Boks have ever had over the AB’s have only ever equalled our worst wins we have had over them.
Keo is saying what is glaringly obvious to any one who has two eyes and some objectivity,the Boks are just not as good as what some people believe. If this was the case, other teams would be trying to imitate their style as the French and Aussies are doing now in relation to the AB’s.
For me , the prize is in the here and now, the Tri-Nations, the Bledisloe, the EOYT, the continual No 1 ranking, the team that is on everyones lips and in the news. The team with players that the rest of the world love to hate and to know, without a doubt that even in the darkest recesses of the most avid ‘enemy’ supporter, they begrudgingly acknowledge we are No 1 with or without the WC.
We get called chokers as an easy biscuit, but at the end of the day we have the pleasure of seeing the Boks and Aussies choke nearly every time we play them and that my friend is what it is all about for us, not the raffle at the end of four years.
3 Aug 2010, 04:33 am
@Black Magic(Black Magic)-170:
No freak BM, I would also love to have the best team the Boks can field and if I may, also coach by the best coach we can have…
For the rest, I see a large number of people on this blog that need to realise denial in not a very long river in Egypt!
3 Aug 2010, 04:36 am
@captain fantail(captain fantail)-171:
Captain Fanny, it does not matter how you piant it and no matter if I agree or disagree but in the professional era the World Cup is seen as the Holy Grail by the majority of Rugby lovers…
3 Aug 2010, 04:39 am
@Slartibartfast(Slartibartfast)-173: Just as how the majority of German voters in 1932 saw Hitler as the right person to save Germany from ruin.
3 Aug 2010, 04:41 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-174:
Except you comparing one country with the rest of the world…but nice try.
3 Aug 2010, 04:46 am
…or are you saying that just like the majority of Germans were wrong the majority of Kiwis are also wrong?
3 Aug 2010, 04:51 am
@BillTong(BillTong)-160: As long as that little gold trophy remains in Hoskins office after 2011 then everything is gravy.
The Boks are 2 time World Champions, when John Smit tells his grandkids about his rugby playing years he’s gonna be able to show them a World Cup medal or two, what will McCaw show his grandkids?
3 Aug 2010, 05:00 am
@TheTackler(TheTackler)-174:
What world are you living in? All the rugby talk in NZ at the moment is about the WC. How to win it, have the AB’s peaked, is GH the right man, where will party central be?, who’s paying for Eden Park, is NZ too expensive for WC tourists? blah blah blah………..if you actualy believe that not to be so then you are….
a) Not reading your daily newspaper
b) Not actualy residing in NZ, the moon maybe?
c) Have your head in the sand
d) Pulling the p iss
e) All of the above
Get real dude!
3 Aug 2010, 05:05 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-177:
Life’s so simple when you limit it like that, isn’t it.
If you want to accept 2nd best for 75% of the time – that’s your privilege I guess.
BTW:
I refer you back to my post 158. Why does’t the Wimbledon Winner, or the US Open Winner himself the “World Champion”. He just says “I won the Open – I won a Grand Slam Tournament”. That’s all.
By the logic of the RWC, he should be able to call himself “World Champion”.
3 Aug 2010, 05:17 am
@BillTong(BillTong)-179:
Best option is to win the WC AND the games inbetween………not in my lifetime I’m guessing
3 Aug 2010, 05:19 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-177: AB’s let the Boks win the ’95 one and you know it.
3 Aug 2010, 05:20 am
@BillTong(BillTong)-179:
Sort of a silly analogy there, the simple answer is because there is no WC in tennis. There is however an Olympics every 4 years and since tennis was re-introduced we always hear the phrase…Piet Pompies is the current Olympic champion/gold medal winner…
This carries on for 4 years until the next Olympics…
3 Aug 2010, 05:22 am
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-181:
Go troll elsewhere dude……
3 Aug 2010, 05:23 am
@BillTong(BillTong)-179: That’s tennis dude. The logic behind the World Cup is that at the end of the tournament a World Champion is crowned.
3 Aug 2010, 05:25 am
The Boks scored the only try in the ’95 WC final, and everyone knows it……including you!
3 Aug 2010, 05:26 am
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-181: It still hurts you doesn’t it.
3 Aug 2010, 05:26 am
@whatever(whatever)-180:
Yeah. well I’d take that too
3 Aug 2010, 05:27 am
I would not swap the ABs’ series win in South Africa in 1996 for every world title there has been. That was something I never thought an ABs team would achieve. I thought I would die without seeing it. A far greater accomplishment than winning the world cup. That was the greatest victory by any NZ rugby team, ever, in over 100 years. I would love to see those Boks-ABs series come back. Four tests in NZ one year, four in SA say two years later. The world cup just could not rate with it as a rugby contest. Boks-NZ series is the ultimate.
3 Aug 2010, 05:29 am
@whatever(whatever)-183: Now, why are some allowed to make inflammatory statements (troll) and others are not?
3 Aug 2010, 05:31 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-186: Not as much as you are hurting now.
3 Aug 2010, 05:33 am
@Monty15(Monty15)-188: That’s your problem right there. You think the AB’s and Boks have exclusive rights to the #1 spot in world Rugby…….. England, Australia and France are just as good on their best day. get your head out of your a*sshole.
3 Aug 2010, 05:36 am
@Muttonbird(Muttonbird)-190: At least I’m admitting it. Sure the Boks being beaten is **** but we haven’t peaked yet and I know we can get better.
3 Aug 2010, 05:40 am
191. Ezee-23(Ezee-23)
Their best days are extremely rare, though. It’s like they’ve won the lottery when it happens. And if you believe it’s easier to beat the Boks in a four-match series than it is to win the world cup then clearly you’re the one with his cranium lodged a remarkable distance up his back passage.
3 Aug 2010, 05:42 am
@Monty15(Monty15)-193:
Dude, if you like *** porn, then head elsewhere………
3 Aug 2010, 05:46 am
194. whatever(whatever)
What a strange comment, that doesn’t even make sense. What are you on about?
3 Aug 2010, 05:50 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-192: you sure? players have yet to return from serious injuries, that can hamper an aging player to the point his only alternative is to enroll in the clown academy..
oh wait…
3 Aug 2010, 05:53 am
keo will do well to revisit his own articles from about a month ago! He is the one looking like unadulterated doos!
He predicted all sort of implosion and psychological babble if the all blacks don!t wing in auckland and now that they’ve done more than that and smashed the boks, can he atleast revisit his own thinking for the sake of all the Business Day readers that listened and believed his kak!
D-Day for grumpy Graham’s Fall
Blacks
The Springboks will know more important
days than Saturday. For New Zealand ’s All
Blacks it does not get bigger than having to
beat the Boks in Auckland, writes Keo in his
Business Day newspaper weekly column.
One semi-final and the final of Rugby’s
2011 World Cup will be played at Auckland’s
Eden Park. The All Blacks have not lost there
since France ’s dramatic last minute victory
in 1994. In this time they have won 21 Test
matches and locals rightly call it a fortress.
But the All Blacks know they are up against
a team of history makers and heart
breakers. The Springboks in 2008 were the
first team to beat the All Blacks in Dunedin in
100 years of Test rugby. A year later France
went south and did the same thing. Once
one has done it, others tend to follow.
There has been a gradual stripping away of
the All Blacks mystique and aura.
Among the
reasons are that the Springboks play them
three times a year, play against the same
players in Super rugby and annually visit
New Zealand more than any other rugby-
playing nation, be it for Super or Test rugby.
What was once an unknown is very much a
place of comfort.
South Africans now enjoy playing in a
country the original post isolation
generation feared. Familiarity has replaced
fear and without fear the All Blacks have
become just another opponent.
Never since South Africa’s international
return in 1992 was an All Blacks side so
easily dispatched, as was the case in South
Africa last year.
On two successive
weekends the world champions made a
meal of New Zealand ’s number one world
ranking. The All Blacks are once again
ranked number one, but as their coach says
it is hard to believe the ranking when the
side they play on Saturday are the Tri
Nations champions, the World Cup
champions and the winners of the last three
matches between the two sides.
The pressure on Saturday’s is all New
Zealand’s. In the context of the tournament
the Boks have to win one of their three tour
matches in New Zealand and Australia to set
up a successful Tri Nations defence. Two
victories will make it near impossible to lose
the title, assuming the Boks are true to
home form and don ’t lose in South Africa.
If the Boks lose in Auckland, there is
Wellington the next week and Australia in
Brisbane a week later. If the All Blacks lose, it
is greater than being beaten in a Test match.
The hosts stand to lose so much more. Gone
will be the unbeaten run, but more
significantly they will also lose the
psychological edge that they don ’t lose at
the venue that hosts the World Cup final.
The All Blacks have to beat the Springboks
two-nil at home to balance the scales
between the world ’s two strongest teams. If
the Boks leave one-a-piece it will be a good
return. If they get out of Wellington with a
series win New Zealand may as well send
their soccer team to front at next year ’s
World Cup because the fragile All Blacks
won ’t recover.
Outside of Rugby World Cup play-off
matches, Saturday is the most important
day the All Blacks have experienced for a
few decades. The consequence of defeat is
monumental and whereas they have always
enjoyed the luxury of a team selection with
no obvious weaknesses, this is an All Black
side that could possibly win. In the past it
would probably win.
The Springboks arrived in New Zealand in
two groups and have just five days before
Saturday ’s Tri Nations opener. The travel
disadvantage cannot be disputed and any
team in the tournament is most vulnerable
in the first week away from home.
The Springboks have the players capable of
)
winning, despite all the obvious hurdles, but
have New Zealand built a team capable of
causing South Africans to doubt the
Springboks for the first time since 2007? I
am not convinced they have the team, and
if the hosts get a win in Auckland it will be
down to the Boks having traveled, and they
won ’t get a second one in Wellington a
week later.
– (are you convinced now Keo?
The Springboks respect the All Blacks, but
they don ’t fear them. It is an important
distinction and if you want to know why
they don ’t fear them, look at Richie McCaw’s
record. He has lost just five times in 45 Tests
as captain of the All Blacks, but in the last 12
months – as a Crusader and All Black –
McCaw has lost seven successive times to
the Bulls, Springboks and the British
Barbarians, which included half the
successful Springbok team of 2009.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 5th,
2010
3 Aug 2010, 06:00 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-197: instead of ridiculing the hurt saffa fans who can onlt console themselves by suggesting the new zealand has again peaked early, can Keo tell us what is now the “psychological effect” on the boks of losing like that at Eden Park (the venue of the final) and again going to Brisbane ad still succumbing against their history in that stadium?
Come on Keo, revisit your won theories before attacking wonded bok fans!
3 Aug 2010, 06:19 am
@Transformation(Transformation)-197: Ouch!
3 Aug 2010, 06:59 am
Hahaha keo must be regreting ever writing that cr@p.
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