sesenta y cuatro's Roar Profile

4.- Even the 2008-2015 All Blacks (arguably the most successful rugby team in history) have lost many games: notably 0 wins, 3losses against the Boks in 2009, 38-21 at Twickenham in 2012, and in 2013 they should have lost to Ireland for the first time in 100+ years. Instead, somehow they became the first team to win all their games in a season. So fine is the line between success and failure.

Were the All Blacks poisoned?

Did your analysis take into account the travel factor? i.e. teams tend to be more fatigued when playing away than when playing at home.

Have you quantified the effect of travelling?

A study of penalty distribution in 2015 Super Rugby

11 Wallabies vs 4 All Blacks…

Do you really think that’s really even? I would tend to say the Highlanders have the upper hand here :P:P:P

VIDEO ANALYSIS: Why the Highlanders have the Indian Sign over the Waratahs

The Wallabies have not been able to win back the Bledisloe Cup in 10 years…
And now Australia wants a “winner takes all” test.

Now keep calm, boys. A husband and a worker behaves like a husband at home and like a worker at the office. Likewise, the Bledisloe Cup and the Webb Ellis Cup have their own distinct procedures. No one wants a worker acting like a husband…

C'mon New Zealand, put the Bledisloe on the line this weekend

I think reducing the confrontation to McCaw vs Pocock is a way to talk the aussies up. Can really AAC stand up to the Savea challenge? can Giteau be as influential as Nonu? Can Foley direct his team as Carter does? Can Genia be as quick to the ruck as Aaron Smith? Can anyone match Retallick and Whitelock?

Here and there there’s class in the ABs lineup and, while a critical part of every match, the breakdown is not the only part of the game that matters.

Just to show my point: Should Wallabies and ABs stalemate at the breakdown, would that mean each team has a 50% chance of winning the Final? I don’t think that would be the case.

David Pocock versus Richie McCaw battle to decide World Cup

played 7 QF, won 6.

Highly doubtful? common sense and statistics are not your strong points…

All Black team and analysis ahead of Rugby World Cup

Hi Armand,

I appreciate your comments on the second row of New Zealand, one of the key points of this team’s pack’s strength. I think ever since the return of Brad Thorn to the All Blacks second row in 2008, this has got stronger and stronger and now it’s imho, the best second row in the World.

I think you and I will agree that the World Cup is a matter of finding your best shape at the right moment (The right moment being September-October of 2015, 2019, etc…). This is what all teams look for and you hint at some possible signs that the All Blacks might have been better suited for that in 2013 are the fears I have in the back of my mind.

I would also add one point regarding Aaron Smith. His pass, while a very good one, is not the best thing about him. What makes him above the rest in my opinion, is his speed to the ruck. The key to Will Genia was his running game, for Fourie du Preez it was his clever thinking and accurate boot, and for Aaron Smith it is his speed to the ruck. Much of the effort of the All Blacks thinking will go in to finding our how to provide Aaron Smith with clean rucks for him to be his deadly self delivering before the defending team is ready.

No one says it, but Hansen is being risky in the back three. Julian Savea must find his form, Ben Smith always plays better at 14 than 15 when he wears a silver fern and Naholo and NMS are new in the All Blacks. They will all have to step up to give themselves a chance to win the Cup.

If the problem is not colour, but corruption, SA will sooner or later have a party of men and women who are against corruption and they will be a mixture of black and white and brown and red and blue and green.
You only need to give a name to the problem and face it.

Boks can't outrun old race wars

I would select De Jager and Etzebeth, Alberts (if available), Flouw and Vermeulen (if available) or Alberts, FLouw, Burger.
9 is an incognita for me, but I would go with Pollard, Habana, De Allende, Kriel, JPP and Le Roux. I appreciate JdV but what De Allende did to our defense is priceless.
You are lucky Peter de Villiers is not in charge, otherwise he would be trying to convince to Jean to add some weight to use him at tighthead while giving De Allende a run at 12…

SPIRO: Win at Ellis Park against the Boks, win anywhere

Please, let us leave Mr Rattue out of any discussion. He by no means represents the general opinion of ABs fans.

In defense of Heyneke Meyer it must be said:
– The Springboks have not stopped finding new players under Meyer’s tenure and establishing them in the first XV. Le Roux, Vermeulen, Pollard and recently De Allende and Kriel and De Jager have all shown good skills and raised the game of the Boks.
– Should De Jager have scored when he was millimeters short, we would be saying the Boks head into the World Cup with back to back victories over the All Blacks. The difference between winning and losing is sometimes very small.
– No team has been so close to defeating the All Blacks as the Springboks have been from 2012. Not even England. If we praise the All Blacks (and rightly so) for their resilience and their skills and their ability to win tight matches, we should notice how close the Springboks are behind the All Blacks and it could well be the next time the grounding of De Jager is only millimeters in instead of millimeters short.
As an All Blacks fan I understand the upset of SA fans to see their team not able to defeat the All Blacks at Ellis Park (past results suggest this is one of the toughest places for us to win at) but I think I can be realistic about the Springboks game and chances and I think they are better than common pessimism in the Republic suggests.

It’s so sad for you guys that need to discuss what will be the 7 “non white players” to take on to the field for the Springboks… I am sorry you don’t have the freedom to play the best players regardless of their skin color.

Apologies, Kane. When the All Blacks levelled the scores to 20 all in the second half it felt to me as if they had already got ahead. Wishful thinking / biased memories from my part.

Because rugby is not a penalty shoot-out. Accuracy in scoring is important, but not everything. You have to put yourself first in a position that allows you a chance to score. And that is what happened on Saturday. Then, you make mistakes and end up losing your match. Ok, fix your mistakes and you’ll go from narrowly losing to winning convincingly.
In that sense, a defeat can be more valuable than a victory, as the title says.
I don’t want to comment on refs, but they have also got a saying in which team wins in the end, as the Super XV has shown.

For this game I would go with Pocock at 7. This Springboks team is going to try to give some flair to the ball so accurate tackling will be essential. They have crowded the forwards with breakdown specialists (BdP, FLouw, Coetzee) and Pocock is the one who can match them. I don’t know if I’d be playing Hooper at 6 or else at 20, but I would certainly give the 7 to Pocock at least for this game.

Hooper versus Pocock: A statistical breakdown

writing off the Highlanders does not seem like the best thing to do these days…

Hooray! The best teams face off in the Super Rugby final

I have learnt a few things reading this article:

First: The real team Australian rugby is behind is not the Wallabies, but the Waratahs. Half of the article is focused on “move on / but we were hard-done / but move on…”

Second: The main task of a lock is not anymore to jump at the lineout. Only this explains the inclusion of Will Skelton in the category World-Class. Victor Matfield can be seen, in fact, as a Will Skelton wannabe.

Third: The Australian fans don’t believe they can win the World Cup.

Wallaby potential arises from Super Rugby semi-finals despite defeat

Winter of England? I am not denying Charlie Ngatai is a quality player, but September-October is not really Winter in England. If I recall the dates of the World Cup correctly it will be End of the Summer – Early Autumn in England when the World Cup is played.

Ardie Savea is undoubtedly talented, but Matt Todd is more reliable. I can’t blame a coach who wants reliability at openside flanker. Ardie will get better. He’ll be there in 2016, I am sure of that.

In the first part of the Super XV there was no winger like James Lowe. After the game at Newlands against the Stormers, I thought he must be close to be the first bolter of the All Blacks squad. But he has spent some time injured and that broke his try-scoring pace and the fact that last weekend Naholo scored two tries on his wing is certainly not helping him. As in the case of Savea, I am sure he’ll have a decent chance in 2016.

All Black Squad: Who was unlucky to miss the cut?

In 2003 also England had their share of the number 1 ranking, if only for a small period of time.

Let's get technical: Attacking structures in rugby

Armand, don’t mix Chuck and Schalk… it’s not fair.

There is one reason Chuck Norris stopped doing movies, and it is once Schalk went to see a movie by him… and he didn’t like it.

No South African side can win Super Rugby, but that's good news for the Springboks

Dear Rugby Tragic.

As early as 2009 Ben Smith was tried by Graham Henry on the right wing for the All Blacks. I think it was the game against Italy in the end of year tour.

It was a bit too early. 2010 and 2011 he kept on improving and helping the Highlanders to punch above their weight. He was often used to cover 14 or 12 whenever the injuries required a Mr Fix it.

In 2012 his form was difficult to sidestep and he got a call up in the ABs… I would hardly say ‘he snuck up on everyone’. I would rather say that his form for the Highlanders in 2010 and 2011 probably made him unlucky of not making the All Blacks those years.

Stats that matter: Izzy better than Ben, Charles (or the other Izzy)?

Dear Liam,

If we are talking about stats that matter, please try to average over an extended period of time (where extended is greater than 10). When not properly averaged, stats are not reliable.
Also, please try to avoid mixing objective data (meters run, tries scored…) with subjective appreciations (X better than Y).

Mr Cheika,

Don’t play the victim game. You went to the ref during halftime and the opposing coach was not there. This has nothing to do with liking or respecting… it has to do with an action that is ethically not correct and against the law of the game. Many of us find the SANZAR has been kind on you… but that does not mean we don’t respect you. It just means your action was not correct.

Cheika: I don't get no respect

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