When i heard about the Parramata offer on Cooper my first thought was $@#@
With what do they expect to pay the rest of the squad?
My secound thought Was perhaps perramatta are better at being sneaky than the melborne storm.
or perhaps the Eels have inside info on the salary cap being doubled.
Who in their right mind would make cooper the highest played player in the NRL when he has never played a single match?
Unless of course Russel Crowe has bought himself another team. i shouldn’t bag russel he has done great things for the rabbitoes and out of his own pocket too.
The more i considered it i realised my initial reaction was correct, its utter @$@#!
Coopers agents have done there job exceedingly well BUT it can backfire.
Lote Teqiri used the same tactics, playing league and union off against each other to become the highest paid Wallaby ever at the time, but the first thing Dingo Deans did was to give him the sack, we may never know for sure but all indications point to the simple fact Tequiri was being payed far too much. he was quite good but not worth the amount he was getting.
Deans had no chance of re-negotiating Tequiris contract and could pay half a dozen up and coming players for the same price. and yes i am aware Deans isn’t in charge of the money but he has complete control over the wallabies, he could have had a job as one of the All Black coach’s but wouldn’t consider it unless he was running the show.

The NZRFU owns all five of the NZ super franchises and holds the purse strings tightly, by doing this it gives them a lot of power to avoid this sort of thing. they also recruit almost solely from within NZ or at least from players eligible to play for NZ. one big problem for the Australian rugby union is they dont have the finances to attract all the best players, can you imagine if dingo deans had a blank checkbook to work with, Imagine a Wallabies side that could pick the best talent on offer, Isreal Folou, Jared Hayne, Greg Inglis, Darren lockyer, Steve price. my shopping list of league players could go on all day, cant garentee they would all be as brilliant at union but i bet most of them would be. and i dont know any AFL players as ive only ever watched one match but im sure there are a bunch of guys in the AFL who would be fantasic union players given the chance. fact is we live in the real world and money talks. In NZ boys grow up dreaming of being an ALL Black and that appeal is a thing that stops our entire squad moving to France or England to get the big bucks. You cannot play for the ALL Blacks unless you play in NZ.
NO exceptions.
Another huge advantage we have is that our players can make cash from endorsments, Dan Carter is our Star but his salary is a fraction of what you might expect, most of his income comes from endorsment deals, he has a contract with maybe Jockey or bendon underwear reported to be worth about 10 million dollars from memory, a sum that dwarfs his playing salary. so long as the endorsment deal doesn’t conflict with the team sponsers its fine. Ford sponsers the All Black so he cant start appearing in Fiat commercials.
The NRL however doesn’t allow this, any endorsement deals are property of the club, so league players get there salery and the club gets the sponsers money,
Add to this that All Blacks are national Heroes and NRL players get nothing but greif from the media and why would they want to play league?

My shock at seeing this team comes only from the fact that PDV seems to have made an intelligent decision, Selecting a young and upcoming lock in the squad is absolutely essential, Mattfeild has been one of the best locks in the world for a long time but he is OLD, mattfeild has been past his best for some time now and with a whole year to go before the World Cup i can not see him as a realistic chance of making the starting team. Mattfeild offers immense knowledge and expeiance but his performance has been on a downward slope for some time, i understand that he sits out a lot of training sessions these days to preserve his body for the match. Compare this to Brad Thorne the oldest current All Black at 34, who recently acheived the highest results in fitness testing of all forwards in entire All Black squad.
Mattfeilds lineout skills are the stuff of legend here in NZ at least but if you take into consideration that the new rules and the All Blacks current tactics deny the opposition of lineouts then what place is there for Mattfeild?
I have no doubt that come next years world cup victor will be a huge asset to the SA squad as a talisman and for his knowledge and experiance, but i doubt he will spend much time on the feild. Bringing a young tanented lock into the squad now is a crucial move if SA is to have a quality secound row for the duration of the World Cup, bakkies is brilliant but he too is getting on a bit.
It is simply unrealistic to expect to go through the World Cup without a strong level of depth in key positions.

good point SA is old. Mattfeild is old he doesn’t even participate in heavy training sessions anymore because he’s too old and his body cant handle it, Sa hav a good lineout but that means nothing now that the AB’s have realised they can simply keep the ball in play an dnot give SA any lineout throws. like i said OZ is the team to watch out for, but as i looks lik Cooper will switch codes and play for the Eels they might not be that dangerous after all, Giteu and Cooper togethr is a deadly combo but Giteu alone can be shut down

I am huge AB’s fan and a Kiwi , but i can admit when i see another side has potential, i think you nedd to learn how to watch a game objectively. As for Henrys substituions we saw thorne and woodcock come off at a predictable point in the game yes but Carter no. we have solid experianced replacements at prop and lock, these substitutions are made for tactical reasons to bring fresh legs on, ever heard the term impact player?? . Had the AB’s been a mile ahead or the result beyond doubt Carter and Mils would have been off with 20min to go and the young boys would have gotten a decent taste of Bledisloe intensity instead of the token appearance they did get.
And i said ABOUT ten to go, at which point oz was hot on attack and unlucky not to score which would have put them within 7 points of the lead, short memories like yours seem to forget how many times oz has gone berserk in the last few minutes when they have a win in sight, as it happened the AB’s kicked a penalty and put the game beyond doubt which meant OZ more or less gave up.
Also dont forget OZ was missing their key playmaker Quade Cooper and played a man down most of the match.
In a years time OZ will be battlehardened and a lot better than they are now. the AB’s are on top of their game right now but how much can they improve ?
OZ is cleary the second best team in the world already and will be the biggest threat to the All Blacks when it comes to world cup time.
By all rights the Ab’s should win but the same is said every 4 years and it hasn’t worked out that well for us

WHAT GAME WERE YOU WATCHING MATE!!
I am a huge Ab’s fan but to think we have the world cup in the bag is the exact same arrogant one-eyed thinking that has cost us nearly every world cup since ’87 with the exception of 95 when we were poisoned,

good call rocky is a beast but not the best captain, i think he was made captain when it seemed he was one of only a few players assured of remaining in the starting 15 longterm, now the squad is getting settled it might be time to find a leader.

firstly that was dumb knocking the ball away already on a yellow card.dumb.!
second aussie is getting better and they got a few rough calls at the weekend.
third christchurch is partially a nuetral ground nowadays, robbie deans is a living god in christchurch
a lot of people down those ways support the wallabies just becuse deans is their coach,
but in all seriousness the wallabies chances this weekend are slim to none,sorry but your just not good enough yet, this time next year i think aust will give us a good game but they need a bit of time to mature as a team

I like the idea, of an elite level competition in argintina, and with a conference systym could be teid into super rugby,
since only the conference winners will have to travel it wouldn’t be that big a deal.
The big problem as i see it is that argentine rugby will never be able to compete with the Salaries on offer in europe, it is a problem faced by all of southern hemishpere rugby but perhaps even more so by argentina.
The simple fact is european clubs have huge finacial resources, they are capable of generating much more revenue,
the reason is simple too their fans pay in pouns or euros while our fans pay with dollars and lira or pesos or whatever they use in argentina, it would be great to see domestic competitions full of the best domestic talent but it is hard to get players to turn down financial security

yeah i remember the days of big dirty sprigs, i remember how a quick stroll across concrete gave them a jagged edge before a game, fortunately technology has moved on a bit, the modern boots are more like a soft massage than the crusty spikes of yesterday, it would be a lot less likley they would inflict injury.

I’m pretty certain the All blacks are for rucking, the coaches anyway at least in public, idont recall exactly but im pretty sure that graham henry has stated his support for the return of rucking to the game, the halfbacks are the only ones who seem to actually do any rucking though,the rest of the NZ rugby seems to prefer hitting the ruck at speed and bulldozing the opposition off the ball. perhaps todays players just dont know how to ruck, its been out of the game for so long that some of the young players probably have never seen proper rucking

making the rule relative to the players position doesn’t work because what if a player is behind me and i throw the ball high and well forward for him to run on to, it would be ok so long as the player was on side just like a kick.

Again i say that the actual rule is less important than the interpretation by the referee, consistancy would be nice but refs are people not robots

yeah thats the problem with New Zealand cricket traditionally speaking we just dont have enough top quality players
our victories often have been the result of indivual brillance rather than a good team performance,
I will say that in recent times our Bowlers have all chipped in to win some games our batsmen seemed to have lost,
We have been blessed with some excellent talent over the years but as you say they had to do most of the work by themselves, I wonder how Martin Crows carreer stats would look if he had more qaulity batting partners

what about making the goal post narrower?
this would make kicking harder at long range ?
just an idea what do you think?

the key thing is that when the ball is released the pass is not directed forward, the actaul definition by law is not all that important, Referees take into account the relative motion of the player who threw the pass so thats what matters.
All those people out htere who complain about these kind of things should get over it, same with the breakdown, its only illegal if the ref says it is, player like McCaw, george smith, schalk burger all push the laws until the ref steps in, the thing that makes them so good is that once they get penalised for skirting the rules they stop it. Yes it is cheating but thats how rugby is these days, the rules have changed so much every ref has their own interpretation of some of the more complex laws and the best players will take advantage.
We saw the Italian scrum destroy the All Blacks a few weeks ago, on replaying the match it became quite clear the Italian prop was using every trick in the book, driving in, up and even binding with his arm around the the neck of one af the All Blacks front row, Nemiaa Tialata was eventually sent off because the All Black scrum was such a mess!
After the match the IRB chief of referees Paddy O’Brian officially apoligised for the referees mistake in blaming the all black and not spotting the italians dirty tricks. The thing is the italian prop was only doing his job, doing everything he could to disrupt the All Black scrum, pushing the boundaries of what he could get away with, had the ref penalised him early im sure the srucm would have settled down but instead the ref missed everything and the Italian grew more bold as the match progressed, getting sidetracked here, point is until we have robots for refs that control each game identically then players will push the laws in search of any edge over the competition.

The income Super Rugby generates is huge but if money were the only consideration then an extended test season would be the best earner, the recent test in tokyo was worth mega-bucks, a few more exhibition games in some of the worlds big stadiums could bring in more money, Super rugby is meant to provide a platform for players to develop their skills at a higher than domestic level, i dare say it has worked to a large extent i think the Bulls , Crusaders or Brumbies would beat many international sides, in that respect super rugby does expose our players to more high quality rugby. In much the same regard the Tri-Nations has given all 3 nations the chance to play a lot against top quality opposition, when the top teams are playing so often amongst ourselves it surely helps us stay on top. its no coincidence that the sanzar nations dominate world rugby, we get the best practice, would the All Blacks have made such vast improvements this year had they played 7 tests against scotland and italy instead of S.A and Australia? i doubt it.
I think the All Blacks deserve their No1 ranking but i will take the 3-0 whitewash against the Springboks on the chin, they were better than the All Blacks. From those defeats the All Blacks learnt and adapted, the young All Black side improved with each loss and continued to get better throughout their spring tour.
The Springboks on the other hand were ordinary at best on their own end of year tour, losing to club sides midweek as well as internationals they should have walked all over? for their sake i can only hope the Springboks were just tired from a long season, whatever happened the Springboks are no longer the No.1 ranked team and they certainly don’t deserve to be

cold hard stats show tendulka is getting on a bit, he may not have been at his best in recent times but one look at the all time career run total for either test or ODI then it becomes plainly obvious how good tendulka is

first Odriscoll cant kick so he can really only play at centre,
i never said 10 was gits best positon, if their was someone else then maybe he’d be better elsewher i think he has the skill set to play anywhere in the backline,
fact is aussie dont have ayone who can play 10 as well as gits, he is australia best back, and no one said he cant play at 10 and still stand at secound r3eciever for attacking plays, dan carter has often switched into 2nd receiver to create defensive mismatch’s.

brian mills you are a dumbass, the world cup is in 2011, the wallabies recent results are irrelevent.
The reason we are saying the wallabies look good for the world cup is that their team is young and raw, at the moment they are average but with two years of internatioal rugby under their belts they will be very good,
wales and ireland are mediocre and their best current player will need walking frames by 2011, same goes for south africa to a lesser extent as they have some young talent on the rise.brian mills you are a dumbass

as a coach i have no problem with Henry and Co.
the whole rotation debacle was blown out of proportion if you ask me,
back in the 2003 world cup nz were favourites until we had a couple of key injurys and ended up
with playing rookies in big games, which most agreed cost us a place in the final.
in 2007 the All Black coaches sought to over come this by developing depth in every position, they essentially had two teams which they heavily rotated each week. semi final time against france and most of NZ rugby fans were already looking to the final, we feilded a close to second string team so our top player would be fresh for the final.
France actually turned up for once and put in an inspired performance to knock the All Blacks out of the world cup.
true to form france went on to play poorly and lose the final in a bit of an anti-climax.
Of course the blame fell squarely on Henry and the knives came out,
When the All Black coach job was re-assigned Henry was the best candidate, Robbie Deans was as i understand it unwilling to work as part of the coaching team and so Henry was reappointed.
his record is pretty good and he has had an uphill battle having to rebuild his team after an exodus of player to europe chasing $$$, he has had to rebuild while remaining competative. i think hes done a good job and i cant think of anyone better to take over. personally i dont know him so i couldn’t say, he seems like a grumpy old man but who knows how much of that persona is put on for the media, he used to be a headmaster so he probably is a grumpy old man.
I like that Henry has been willing to experiment a little with combinations,
he seems willing to bring in specialist coaches and try new training techniques, they have a “scrum docter” mike cron, and have brought in AFL coaches to advise in taking the high ball, anything for that edge is good,
I dont like how Rokoko kept his spot long after his form had dived, i like the loyalty but WINGs SHOULD BE PICKED ON CURRENT FORM !!. we had so many outstanding wings on fire all year and Rokoko was rubbish.

10 gets the ball more than 12. Your best player should have the ball as often as possible.
Gits is clearly the best back in australian rugby so give him the ball. when the rest of the aussie backs learn to follow his lead they will have a potent attack. see wales game last week ,gits had a hand in 3 of 4 tries.

wales were weak in the 1st half?
what about the 2nd half is that what u call good?

recruiting from 7’s is a great way to find outside backs!
its a trick New Zealand used well in the late 90’s
tana umaga, jonah lomu, cristian cullen, jeff wilson all made a
name for themsevles playing sevens.
but then New Zealand has gordan tiectens as sevens coach and he is
a magician at creating stars.

i agree.
australia i think will be one of the teams to beat come 2011,
Deans has a young side now but in 2 years they will be experianced and in their prime.
if anyone doubts Robbie Deans has the gift for turning young talent into world class players then
have a look at the Crusaders when Deans was in charge, he took many young raw talented players and developed them
Dan carter and Richie McCaw are just two examples,
the wallabies have some talent, Will Genia is one could become a star of the futre,
Rocky Elsom is a physically a freak of nature and a very good player already, captaincy only seems to have made him grow in stature, he could be as good as McCaw in time.
Im sure Deans will recruit well and manufacture players to fill the gaps in the wallabies sqaud,
wallabies vs All Blacks for the final

YOU ARE DREAMING!!!
South africa are always a threat but i cant see the current springbok side still being at their peak in 2011.
the All Blacks have peaked 2 years early the last couple of world cups but seem to have the timing better this time with a young side who have only just began to find their feet.
Australia have a young side full of raw talent and a coach with a knack for turning talent into world class players,andrew merthans , both maugers, richie mccaw, dan carter all developed under Deans at the crusaders among others
Will Genia looks the Business, give him a couple of years and he could be the top halfback around, Giteau is genius on a good day and will only grow in consistancy and skill under Deans, rocky elsom is a freak he could be as good as mccaw he just does’t know it yet.
France ?? i dont think so
sure france have their good days but can they win a few tough games in a row ? possible but unlikely
england won the world cup once, jonny wilkonsonn kicked the ball and big ugly forwards got jonny the ball back so he could kick drop goals – it worked but england wont stop trying to re-live it. do they really expect jonny boy to be up to scratch in 2011 ? seriously? and do any englishmen actally play club rugby in england, they seem to prefer offering a retirement scheme to ex-all blacks and springboks than developing english talent, fair enough i suppose
ireland are good as are wales but both have a way to go to be genuine contenders, O’driscol is old
the all black will be the team to beat, they are the best at the moment and a long way from peaking, they have suffered upsets at previous world cups they were favoured to win but at home they will be very hard to upset.