2015 World Cup becoming a distant memory
As the dust settles on a one sided Bledisloe Cup in Sydney, I have not been surprised in the disappointment expressed by most Australian…
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Great article! I agree with you wholeheartedly, the Bledisloe Cup is going to have some classic battles over the next 4 years… I also believe you will win it back in the next two years… Whilst I don’t believe the All Blacks will become a bad side, I believe we will start losing some home games, which we haven’t done for awhile…
Steve Hansen has done a fantastic job in bringing new talent and unlike a lot of his predessors, we haven’t seen a lot of “one test wonders”, as he wants to see a strong ITM and Super rugby campaign before players make it the AB squad.
We are going to lose 6 once in a generation players, and I would content, of those, four are close to the best ever All Blacks in their respective positions: Carter, McCaw, Nonu and Smith. They are some big gaps to fill….
I will be excited to see how Ardie Savea, Akira Ioane, Brad Shields, Victor Vito, Codie Taylor, Waisake Naholo, Steven Luatua, Damien McKenzie, Patrick Tuipulotu, Melakai Fekatoa, Beauden Barrett, Aaron Cruden, George Moala, Joe Moody, Sam Cane develop for the Lions tour in two years.
So whilst I think All Blacks will drop a couple of notches, they can regain this by getting Barrett or Cruden kicking 75% success rates and by strengthening their scrum… I also think by losing these 6 great players, they have four years to build a very strong team for the next RWC in Japan….
But one thing is for sure…. The Bledisloe Cup will be going back to the 90’s and early noughties of great battles!!! I for one can’t wait!!!
An open letter to Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and the rugby community