Muzzo, Haka expert Wetini Mitai-Ngatai disagreed, describing the Irish singing as “fantastic”.

“I thought it was lovely, it was beautiful,” he told TVNZ1’s Breakfast today. “I thought it was nice to bring a bit of Ireland.”

Mr Mitai-Ngatai says it’s good to come together to witness different cultures and that the Irish singing most likely inspired the All Blacks.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/sport/rugby/disrespectful-ireland-fans-sing-over-haka-yeah-nah-says-expert

Against Wales in 2006 the ABs performed the Haka in the dressing room because they refused to bow to WRU demands that the haka precede the Welsh national anthem, a fired up All Black side won 45-10. Steve Hansen made the following statement. “At the end of the day this is a team that makes its own decisions, it’s not going to bullied around by anybody, especially over something as dear to them as the haka,”

Neutral last week you mentioned how the ”Kiwis brian trust has spent many awaken nights on how to counter Joe Schmidt’s Ireland, especially after the meeting last year when NZ played pretty well but still was the weaker side on the day.” your personal bias against the ABs clouds your judgement. I have yet again posted below the excellent article showing how ridiculous this statement is.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/analysis-did-the-all-blacks-bottle-it-and-shadow-box-against-ireland

”I think very few predicted Ireland being this poor” there were many predicting this result, i backed them to win by 35+. A number of ex Irish players have spoken in past 24hrs contradicting your opinion. Keith Wood believes this was the best performance by any side since 2015 RWC and no side in the world could compete when playing like they did. Recommend listening to Keith Wood and Zinzan Brooke give their opinions on the ABs performance, also Zinzan explains why he predicted this result.

”Old Bugger” points out the obvious why the Irish put in a performance like they did.

” There’s a reason for uncharacteristic errors….it’s called “fatigue…The Irish were placed in a merciless situation from “go to wo” which was defend, defend, defend……and it never stopped. This brought on the fatigue and thereafter, even Sexton had lost his normally reliable kicking boots, to even find the touch-line.”

Faith, great post. Started following Ben after coming across his work analysing the ABs against the Irish in 2018. This is also worth reading.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/analysis-did-the-all-blacks-bottle-it-and-shadow-box-against-ireland

Spot on Kane, Wayne Smith shed some light on why the ABs looked flat in their pool games. In the documentary ”For the Love of the Game.” Smith mentions how they had intentionally fatigued players before the pool games in the 2015 world cup.

The Neutral View From Sweden, This maybe your opinion, i don’t open my mouth unless i can at least offer something that supports my opinion. I doubt you’ve spent any time looking over the Irish test because you wouldn’t of made such a ridiculous claim ”NZ played pretty well.” I also noticed you believe the ABs pack can be ”bossed for long periods”. I am not surprised by this comment when considering you thought the ABs played well in Dublin.

Besides watching the Irish more than once i have also spoken with someone a little closer to the team than we are. I realise this is only my opinion, but i have learnt not to let my ego cloud my judgement.

The article i linked below and a comment by Wayne Smith are a couple more examples why our ”opinions” differ. In the 2018 Wayne Smith documentary, ”For the Love of the Game”, Smith mentions how they had intentionally fatigued players before the pool games in the 2015 world cup. When you read the following article you will understand the importance of Smiths comment and why your opinion claiming ”NZ played pretty well” is clouded.
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/analysis-did-the-all-blacks-bottle-it-and-shadow-box-against-ireland

The Neutral View From Sweden, ” last year when NZ played pretty well but still was the weaker side on the day.” Surely you must be joking? The ABs looked out on their feet for most of the test, worst performance for a long time.

Elvis,
The positive win/loss ratio is misleading and proves nothing. Apply the same theory but change the high watermark to 2007 and 2011, you get a similar result. there is no correlation between Folau the Wallabies win/loss ratio.

Istanbul Wingman, When someone falls in the tackle at the point of contact it’s almost impossible to pull out of the tackle, what is the tackler suppose to do? Take the yellow given to All Black Laulala. The ball carrier bounced out of another tackle and Nepo’s had barely a split second to react, plus the ball carrier’s head is pretty much below waist height. What’s he meant to do, step away and give him a free run through the gap? The sin bin was designed for acts of foul play, sending offs for clear clear malicious play. Nepo’s tackle fits none of those categories, it was an unfortunate collision which will always happen in a contact sport and should of been nothing more than a penalty.

If the game is trying to improve player safety, then also put some responsibility on the ball carrier. Putting your head at knee level deliberately is essentially intended to make yourself unable to be tackled legally. The likes of a Keven Mealamu would of been impossible to tackle in todays game. How long before you think coaches will encourage their players to deliberately slip into the tackle, cop a high hit, earning them a penalty and the opposing team gets a red card? This is a tactic that could win you a world cup and you’d have to be naive to think there aren’t coaches that aren’t already thinking about this.

If they were serious about player welfare and the game itself they would bring back old fashion rucking. The breakdown at present is a blight on the game and in my opinion the biggest concern for player welfare. Rucking will stop that collision at the breakdown which is far more dangerous than a few sprig marks. The forward packs will clean up the breakdown, resulting in faster ball. Both sides will then be required to put more players into the breakdown, creating more space out wide because you won’t see ten or more defenders spread across the field. The reason the IRB got rid of rucking had nothing to do with player safety and how teams now train to play a man down, tells me the system is broken.
Having refs step in every 5 mins and dishing out cards like never before is what will turn people away from the game. If world rugby doesn’t stop pandering to soccer moms it will not survive, and the old days of tackling around the legs is not the answer.

Jim, don’t blame the ref, it’s your coach you should be blaming. He’s had four years to develop a 10 and he starts Foley in match you had to win to avoid the Poms and ABs.
Look at the article Wales online posted ”The key controversial calls from Wales-Australia analysed” then convince me it’s the ref and not Cheika that cost you the test.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wales-v-australia-myths-debunked-17005364

Phil, the Poms were by far the better side on the day and you were very lucky the score was as close as it was.
It hurts to say this but the Poms were the best side at the 03 rwc and deserved to win it.

DaveJ, of all the All Blacks that played in the 95 final, Lomu should never of played. If management had of known of his kidney disorder, i doubt they would of played him in the final.

Terrence, i wouldn’t have Joost anywhere near my top 10, might just make my top 50. As for Pienaar, he’s overrated and shouldn’t even get a mention.

Derek Beven’s performance in the 95 South Africa v France semi was worthy of making the top 50 spot, Suzy’s performance a week later was a definite top 10. Pienaar was overrated and without the help of Beven and Suzy he wouldn’t even come close to making 50th.

Even more unlucky than Beven and Suzy is ”Philippe Sella”, how he missed out making this list is beyond me. What was wrong with his RWC performances? He was influential in France making the 87 final, 91 semi and in 95 he should’ve played in another final instead going home after the semifinal.

Sella & Gerber are the best centres i’ve seen, i can’t recall Sella having bad game during a world cup. How did he miss out?

Tuc Du Nard, i think it was more than reputation regarding Pocock v Michael Jones.
Do you remember in the semi final how the ABs took Pocock out of the game?
”How the All Blacks Nullified David Pocock”

Not a bad list Jack but missing is one very important name, Charlotte Iserbyt. Education is key to everything and Charlotte is one of the most important modern day whistleblowers. Senior Policy Advisor in the OERI, U.S. Dept of Education, during the first term of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In 1982 Reagan relieved her of her duties after she leaked an important technology grant called Project BEST. Her research, books, articles, interviews are all supported with 1000s of documents smuggled out before relieved of her position. Good friend of the late Antony Sutton, she borrowed Sutton the 3 books by Skull and Bones containing every past member and profession from 1832 and Sutton often mentioned the importance of these books. Friend of the late Norman Dodd and she has the only copy of the 1953-54 Reece Committee Investigation of the Tax Exempt Foundations. Both are available on her sons website American Deception. This website is one of the best kept secrets on the net containing a vast amount of information regarding the who, where, what, and how of recent history from the 1700’s to the present. Most important of all, many of the entries were written by the planners themselves. This information was intended for “internal” use only; fortunately secret documents have made their way into the hands of those outside the inner circle. The following link is to Charlotte’s main website and her book is available as a free download

ABOUT

America Deception Website, everything on here can be downloaded for no cost.
http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?page=home

jeznez, The money flows in only one direction and it’s not towards the ”nay-saying camp” as you claim. Follow the money if interested in knowing the truth.

Couldn’t agree with you more Sheek, well said.
”Being offended is subjective. It has everything to do with you as an individual or a collective, or a group or a society or a community. Your moral conditioning, your religious beliefs. What offends me may not offend you. Why can’t people have their feelings hurt? Why can’t people get offended and feel bad about ideas they don’t agree with. How you deal with that in your emotional world space is entirely your responsibility. No one can make think or feel anything I don’t want, and to think that I can blame someone else for the way i think and feel is a complete illusion”.
The above quote is by Steve Hughes who in my opinion Australia’s best comedian. Those offended by Folau’s comments are hypocrites and beyond any reason. Pocock is free to preach his pagan climate religion to school children on behalf of radical organisations like Getup and the WWF. FitzSimons constantly insults and ridicules those with religious beliefs without considering the effect this might have on young religious people.
Since when did sticks and stones become irrelevant?

Well said Chris Love, couldn’t agree with you more. I also love my Rugby and like you i didn’t have the physique that allowed me to play at a senior level. For as long as i can remember i was fortunate to be given dispensation to play down a couple of age groups, when this was no longer possible and forced into retirement, i took up coaching.

Jonny it’s far from a longbow regarding Deans and the ABs 2003 RWC loss. Tana Umaga’s book gives a good insight into Deans and the 2003 RWC campaign.

Agree RedandBlack, nobody hates like the left, their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Cynical Play, “When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.” — Epictetus

On the record CP, ”Bullsheet” wont go there as this is a sports blog. Not a fan of anyone in the media but i could think of many worse than Jones. The ARU need all the help they can get and having the most popular talkback presenter in the country on your side is publicity money can’t buy.

Agree AJ, when was the last time Cassandra’s ABC did anything for Oz rugby. Any publicity is good publicity and it can’t do any harm having the most popular talkback presenter in the country on your side.

If you were playing 10 who would you prefer inside you, Smith of Genia?

Hooper deserved his spot, won’t get an argument there. But Coleman over Retallick, i wouldn’t pick Coleman on my bench let alone starting. Kepu over Laulala, i also disagree with you on that.

Harry i might sound a little arrogant here but i believe the pack you picked would struggle against the ABs 8. Squire would play 8 in Reads absence and Fifita at 6. Would prefer Kano at 6 but he didn’t feature during the RC.

This will put a smile on your face if you haven’t seen this before

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/poem-old-rugby-players-david-harley-brown

Disagree about Etzebeth 2017 RC performances. He didn’t have the best of matches against the ABs in NZ, Arg at home or either match against Oz. I’m a big fan of his but i think everyone is judging his RC form on one match.

I can’t believe anyone could possibly leave Retallick out of any side, there is an argument for Whitelock or Etzebeth.