Super Rugby: Lessons from Napier
The Napier game between the Hurricanes and Sharks had lessons for both teams, and a huge life lesson for everybody else. The Sharks were…
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Like all New Zealanders, rugby is my bones but world sport is my flesh.
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The Napier game between the Hurricanes and Sharks had lessons for both teams, and a huge life lesson for everybody else. The Sharks were…
The last three Tests that the All Blacks have played - not counting the romp against the Springbok-beating Italians - have thrown up some…
In all the euphoria/despondency of the All Black-Springbok Test in Durban, a probable world record has been overlooked - and that's not the All…
Inspired by Harry Jones' great rugby travelogue based around the 2011 quarter-final in Wellington, I thought I'd tell you all about the first Test…
I have been a little concerned with the euphoria that has surrounded Michael Cheika since his elevation to coaching the Wallabies. This has only…
Everyone makes mistakes. Roger Federer has lost his serve on occasions. Brazil lost by a lot to Germany in the FIFA World Cup. Leonardo…
I have not seen many comments on the structure of the upcoming Rugby Championship, and I recognise that with only one game against each…
We all know that the Super Rugby competition has been cobbled together on the run, and the conference system we now have is the…
I went into the New Zealand team hotel on Sunday morning to get some autographs, and I couldn't believe it when some of the…
Spiro, you’ve stolen all my thunder. What a clown Cheika is, and what a gaggle of village idiots posing as ex Wallabies who fell in behind him. I’d like to nominate Cheika as Roach of the Year – a title more justly earned than his Coach of the Year in 2015. He had the opportunity to make a gracious speech after the match that acknowledged the All Black record, but also recognised the vast improvement in performance by the Wallabies. Instead, he turned it into a bitter rant about inconsequential matters. His captain Moore, who finally showed some of the grit that has been sadly lacking for most of the season, had the gall to say that the newspaper cartoon showed a lack of respect for the Wallaby jumper. If you want to see lack of respect for that jumper, have a look again at this year’s Bledisloe Test in Sydney.
As for the ravings of Kafer, here’s a hypothetical. A prop breaks into the clear with 40m to go to the line. A winger turns to chase 5m back but is tripped. That’s OK booms Kafer, it’s behind the play, as the prop lumbers on to score. As for Nigel Owen’s future as a Test referee, he has refereed some of the best Tests in recent years and the one at Eden Park was another of them. The fact that both sides missed a try that could have been awarded shows that even when he might make a mistake it tends to even out. And the leniency shown to Foley as he impeded Coles over the line has barely rated a mention in the indignation expressed by Kafer, Horan and Kearns.
If Cheika spent a bit more time on analysing how the Wallabies can dominate possession and territory, but still be outscored 6 tries to 1, then the Wallabies and Australian rugby would be in a much better place than they are after his vitriolic ranting. If he carries on with his clownish behaviour in Europe the wolves of Fleet Street will tear him apart, and that certainly won’t help the Wallabies.
Rogue Cheika tarnishes the Wallabies once again
Richie McCaw is mindful of the fact that, while the ABs have been very impressive over the last few years, even then they have had slip-ups. The Irish should have had their first win in 2013; the ABs played poorly and lost in Sydney 2015; the Pumas won the second half in Argentina this year, and dominated much of the first half in NZ. If Stephen Bradbury could win gold at ice skating, anything is possible.
Saturday's Bledisloe a dream scenario for Cheika
Sounds like whistling in the dark to me. Even if the Wallabies win all their lineout ball and steal a few AB ones, they’ve still got to use the ball effectively. If the ABs can put 9 tries past a team that the Wallabies could only score 1 against the week before, I think the issues go beyond the lineout. Kerevi and Haylett-Petty have offered something in some Tests but if that’s all the Wallabies can threaten with at Eden Park, then even with 60% of the ball they will struggle. The Wallabies will still be in the game after 60 minutes – even the Boks could compete that long. It’s the last 20 that will really count.
Dismantling the All Blacks, one lineout at a time
Remember the old saying that it’s darkest just before the dawn. In 1949 the All Blacks lost 6 matches, 4 to SA and 2 to the Wallabies. It took the ABs till 1967 to emerge from the overhang of that year and the conservatism it spawned. Brazil has got beaten in its two World Cups, and humiliated in its last. But it will always be a soccer power and the Boks will always be a rugby power. Why not be creative in finding answers to the current malaise? Offer Wayne Smith a million rand (or is that two million now) to come and be an assistant to Johan Ackerman; set up an interchange at under 20 level where talented players swap between NZ and SA on a scholarship; get recent big names like Carter and Campese to go into the townships and get the indigenous youth hooked on rugby. Rugby is too important for South Africa, and South African rugby is too important for the world to just let things slip into the bog.
Durban Disgrace will bring no change for Springboks
Moaman, my tongue may have been in my cheek in the comparison I made, but there are probably some Sth Africans now who feel that bombs are raining down on their rugby reputation. And remember, Britain survived as will Springbok rugby.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man
It’s interesting that the Wallabies played their first Test before there was an Australia!
Following the progression of most capped Wallabies 1899-2016
South Africa did not enter the Test arena in 1992 – they re-entered it after their apartheid isolation.
Gone are the days of Test match draws
A smidgin of analysis as to why the Wallabies have lost every game in Pretoria, and why they might break through this time, might justify the article and its heading. But just providing team lists and scores is about as interesting as reading the phone book.
Time for the Wallabies to break the Loftus Versfeld drought
I’m all for geographical spread, but if I had to choose two flankers from a pool of players that included Kel Tremain, Waka Nathan, Michael Jones, Graham Mourie, George Smith, and Neil Back, I’m not sure the last two would get a look in. I’m sure a Sth African could come up with a few more Boks who would get in ahead of Smith and Back also.
The Magnificent Sevens: The best openside flankers in rugby history
I can’t believe this stuff about the Storm being boring. The game itself is based on a tedious 5 one off tackles around the ruck then kick it. Every team does it. Then there’ll be a flash of inspiration on the odd occasion, and it’s often Cooper Cronk who supplies it, and something different happens. This year the Storm has a rookie wing who has scored the most tries by a player in his first season. That doesn’t happen when a team is playing boring league. Unfortunately the Roar site is dominated by Sydney siders who can’t believe, at rugby or league, that their teams are not good enough. Surely after the State of Origin domination by Queensland, it’s starting to filter through that there’s plenty of talent outside of Sydney.
Not a great grand final for the neutrals
The Sharks can win the Grand Final, just like the Storm can. They’ve just got to score more points!
Sharks can beat the Storm, but only by escaping the grind
Bryan Williams was not the first PI to play for the ABs. The Solomon brothers (Dave, born in Fiji, and Frank, born in Pago Pago) played for NZ in the 1930s; Arthur Jennings played for NZ in 1967 then went back to home to Fiji where I think he still is. There are probably others.
Michael Cheika's Wallabies are finally taking a winning shape
Canberra is a city of politicians, public servants, the Brumbies and the Raiders. Each had their time in the past, although you probably have to go back to Gough for the former and Mal for the latter. Melbourne though is a city of the future which embraces league and rugby as it does tennis and cricket, and no doubt synchronised swimming and mountain biking. The Storm are part of a sporting heritage that goes way back, and when teams come to play here we all combine to figuratively support the Big V. 5 million loving them and 300,000 hating them – I like those odds!
Raiders hang on to the ball and they win it. And that's it
I understand how we all identify with one team or another, but if this site is not just to become a cheer squad for the Waratahs then it would be helpful if the writers maintained some objectivity and didn’t have frequent references to “we” dotted through their article.
Tahs can build off Super Rugby draw
It’s always a big call when you compare pineapples with kiwifruit. So what can you go on if you try to make such comparisons? Well, how have they gone in their ultimate competitions. Cheika made the final in the rugby world cup – and was coach of the year in 2015 (I know it was a joke, so you can stop laughing); Lehmann (?) won the one day world cup in cricket; Clarkson won his third straight premiership; the coach of the women’s rugby sevens turned a gaggle of athletes into a gold medal winning team. How did Ange go in the 2014 World Cup? And what gives soccer the right to assume the title of “the global game”? Just because it’s a simple game that peasants can understand, and there are more peasants than non-peasants in the world, doesn’t give the game any status. About the only thing that distinguishes soccer from other sports is that you will probably go 90 minutes without anybody scoring.
Ange Postecoglou is the best coach of any code in Australia
I have read lots and lots of lamenting the political interference in SA sport, particularly the Boks, but virtually nobody acknowledges that a price must be paid for the free ride whites had in South Africa for so long. Where was the lamenting when blacks were barred from everything? South Africa needs to accept that while the price is being paid for the evil of apartheid, performances will go down, but once the potential of the whole country is being harnessed, South Africa will come back. With a population of 40 million, and blacks who see rugby as something they can aspire to rather than it being the plaything of the white elites, I fear that the Boks will be back bigger and better than ever. But it will require time and patience.
A magum opus of a Springbok annus horribilis
The malaise that plagues Australian rugby – Sydney centrism – is alive and well in league also. The Storm are one of the reasons I will watch league, which can be very formulaic with its barging five tackles and kick on the sixth. The professionalism of Cooper Cronk gives the Storm that difference. As for manufactured Melbourne, how many teams now are made up of players native to that suburb/region?
Five talking points from Melbourne Storm vs North Queensland Cowboys NRL qualifying final
“Sore-loser comment” by Muldoon re the Aussie cricketers wearing yellow!!!!? It was about the only thing Muldoon said that united NZers. That, and his quip that when NZers crossed the Tasman it raised the IQ of both countries.
The great history of Green and Gold: The Wallabies and Springboks jerseys
For some seasons now I have seen Moore’s role as to take the ball into the first tackle and fall over. I’ve never seen him try a sidestep or sprint into the clear, a la Coles. Now, with his lineout throwing being all over the place, all he does on the field is bleed and moan. A captain needs to justify his place in the team through playing ability first, then show leadership qualities like resilience and creativity to add some difference to their team. I don’t see Moore doing any of this.
No Moore debate: Folau says Wallabies back their leader
I’ve thought for a while that all Moore does on the field is bleed. I’d overlooked the moaning.
ARU alert: Has Michael Cheika gone rogue?
Rugby fans are not wondering about Steve Hansen having crack at Cheika, because he’s not. He correctly assumes that Cheika’s focus is on the Wallabies, or it should be if he wants to win on Saturday night. As for Hansen regretting missing out on a knighthood, I imagine there is nothing further from his mind. He seems a man of the people and I’m guessing he is happy to leave such elitist nonsense as knighthoods to men such as our dear departed Tony Abbott.
Steve Hansen's still dirty he wasn't named World Rugby Coach of the Year
The only chance the Wallabies have is if the ABs have an off day, as they did in Sydney last year. Remember Carter doing 2 short kick-offs; putting a penalty into touch in goal; the very soft tries that Kepu and White scored. When the ABs woke up the next week they thrashed the Wallabies. It’s a bit rough when you have to rely on your opponents to have a bad day before you can win.
The first Bledisloe should be a humdinger
Daniel Carroll did die in New Orleans, or at least he is buried there. I don’t think it was rugby that kept him in the USA. He qualified in geology and worked as an executive in the oil industry. I suspect when the Aussie women win the sevens in Tokyo, one of them will assume the mantle of the greatest rugby Olympian, given that Carroll didn’t have to do too much to win his two golds.
Daniel Carroll: Rugby's greatest Olympian
Tman, I had trouble unravelling the logic in your comment. My point (and Akari’s, I think) was that naming the Lions as team of 2016 had the shaky foundations that giving Cheika the coach award last year had. Ackerman however had much more claim to being seen as Super coach of 2016, because of the performance of the Lions in coming from nowhere and in the transformational effect he could have on SA rugby.
Super Rugby season review
If anybody wants to visit Dally Messenger, pop down to the Eastern Suburbs (Botany) Cemetery. I’m sure he would love a chat (as long as you do the talking!).
Herbert Messenger: The forgotten immortal?