Entries Tagged 'Rugby' ↓

Byron Kelleher is the number one half back for the All Blacks following the non-selection of Piri Weepu for the world cup squad.

It is a mistake to take Byron Kelleher. Lets not forget he came on as a reserve in two losing world cup semi finals – in 1999 and 2003. He was not to blame for those losses, but he would no doubt carry some mental baggage from the two failed campaigns.

Until now he has never established himself as the number one half back – he’s been behind Justin Marshall and in recent times has tussled with Piri Weepu as the first choice half.

Now, he faces a challenge from Brendan Leonard who has shown much spark in his few appearances.

Put it this way. After around eight years of him being an All Black, he has only now established himself as the first choice half back, and after all these years he will not be remembered as a great half back.

In a crunch match, I’d prefer the energy and freshness of Leonard to the tried and tested Kelleher.

Part of the reason we lost to Australia in the 2003 rugby world cup semi final was because we were not mentally tough enough. On the big stage, the Aussie players knew how to perform, and the AB’s did not. Pretty simple really.

Brad Thorn of course was a member of the 2003 team that lost that semi final.

If anyone can offer an insight into why we lost on the big stage, and how and why Australia knew exactly what to do, it’s Brad Thorn - a true winner in the sporting sense.

Consider that he has won NRL Premierships, Super 12 titles, and a State of Origin title. As well as this he’s played test match rugby league for Australia and test matches for the All Blacks. The guy’s got more silverware than Michael Hill, and put simply knows how to win.

So what would he have been thinking after the semi final loss?

Maybe he thought he was sitting with a bunch of chokers?
Maybe he knew it was over when he saw how fired up the Aussies were?
Maybe he knew it was over when Carlos Spencer threw his intercept pass?

What Brad Thorn knows is that we produce the best rugby players in the world. But he also knows that’s not enough to win a world cup. You need to be mentally tough.

Find out how to make the All Blacks mentally tough and able to thrive on the big stage, and we will unstoppable.

After watching the second half of the All Blacks v South Africa match, it was plain for anyone to see that the AB’s were far fitter than the Springboks. This fitness of course came as a result of the conditioning programme the players were put through at the beginning of this year.

The theory is that when the Rugby World Cup rolls round, our fitness will be an advantage over other teams. After failing at several world cups I guess it’s natural that Graham Henry wants to cover all his bases.

After the AB’s victory many people were singing the praises of the fitness conditioning programme.

But will being fitter than all the other teams really help us win?

I’m reminded of a 2004 article from the Sydney Morning Herald. It was a preview of a weekend of NRL semi finals. The interesting bit was at the end, when it talked about the 2003 end of season Kangaroos tour to the UK (bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this)

In 2003 the Penrith Panthers won the NRL premiership, but the Panthers that were on the tour to the UK were proven to have inferior fitness levels to the rest of the Kangaroos.

The article quotes trainer Billy Johnstone who says:

He was amazed at the lack of fitness of the Penrith players.

They lagged behind the rest of the squad on almost every drill.

He could not believe a team could win a premiership with so many unfit players.

Ok – you with me still?

In 2003 Penrith got to and won the 2003 NRL grand final despite not being as fit as other teams. It’s worth noting that their opponents that year, the Roosters were generally acknowledged as the fittest team in the NRL.

How did the Panther’s over come lack of fitness? The article suggested it was “youth”, and this may well be right. I think it could also have come from having more passion (discounted by the article) playing smarter football or being mentally tougher.

What ever it was, the All Blacks would do well to take note that superior fitness is great, but good opposition teams can find ways to overcome this advantage.

Rugby Tri Nations 2007: All Blacks v Springboks

The game itself will soon be forgotten but for me the most pleasing aspect was that we had to come from behind to beat the Springboks – ideal experience for a World Cup.

I would have been concerned if we won this comp in a canter. Hopefully the Aussies can show some steel and provide another test for us.

Also on display for anyone watching was the superior fitness of the All Blacks, which definitely helped them get over the line. When we scored our last try the AB’s were running around like it was the first 20 not the last.

I should note though that inferior fitness will not be an impediment to beating the All Blacks in the World Cup though. Desire and smart play can overcome this.

But overall – good stuff

I didn’t watch either of the Australia v Wales rugby matches over the last week. I can’t remember the score in the first one, but I know the Aussies scored the match winner in extra time.

For us New Zealanders that alone is not a concern – but calling them rubbish, awful and plenty of other things that will only fire them up and make NZ’ers complacent.

The Aussies showed, as they do in many sports that they know how to win. Sure, they may have been playing poorly, but they won, and that’s what matters. In a world cup semi or final, it’s winning that matters, it doesn’t matter how well or bad you play.

Just imagine if this was State of Origin and one of the teams won in extra time. That team would be getting lauded for their spirit and will to win. But the Aussies, well they were just plain old rubbish. . .

Rubbish teams do not win games in extra time. Good teams do. Good teams know that although they may not be playing well, they have the ability to do enough to win – and that’s what counts.

So when the world cup rolls round in a few months beware – Australia are a good team and they know exactly what to do.

1. Are the All Blacks still chokers?
   In true Divine Brown style, we’ve blown more world cups than we care to remember. It seems incredible that our sole title was won 20 years ago. To say that we did not choke in 91,99 and 03 is fine if you like living in Disneyland, but the fact is given our pedigree we should have won at least one of those tournaments. Failing on the big stage is acceptable to me, as these things happen, but to lose so many tournaments consecutively proves the All Blacks are chokers. This world cup, they can dispel that theory (and I hope they do) by bringing the damm thing back.

2. Will Graham Henry be covered in glory or shot to pieces by New Zealand when he comes back from the world cup?
   As with John Mitchell, John Hart and Laurie Mains before him, it don’t matter how good or bad his All Black coaching record is. If he delivers a world cup, he is god. If not, then New Zealand and its media will always remember him as the man that coached a losing AB side.

3. Will Dan Carter and Ritchie McCaw deliver cup winning performances?
   More than any All Blacks, Carter and McCaw will be under pressure to live up to their (justified) reputations as the worlds best players in their respective positions. This tournament will define Carter in particular. He is the best in the business, but can he handle the enormous weight of expectation and still kick goals and steer the back line around?

4. Will the rotation policy be justified?
   OK, between today and our last cup game someone will be injured and unable to participate. When this happens we should have capable replacements ready to slot straight into the team. If those guys don’t perform then rotation has done little except hand out cheap caps. Alternatively, maybe we did not rotate enough . . . maybe not exposing the back up players to the toughest teams will mean they are not quite up to it.

5. How will the NZ rugby media perform?
   Will they talk us our chances and set un-realistic expectations for the public? Hmm, I think I know the answer to that already. Will they provide rational and objective reporting? Hmm, again I think I know the answer to that as well :)

Australia beat the All Blacks in the semi final of the 2003 rugby world cup. I remember the day pretty well.

Murray Deaker started his radio show with a ridiculous spiel about how and why we were going to win the game, and how far the Aussies were off the pace. To be fair, most other media commentators had already written the Aussies off.

But the Deaker speech was really bad . . . way over the top, almost surreal.

My (Australian) wife laughed at the time and said that ‘this guy (Deaker) should shut up, cos the Aussies were gonna win and that the All Blacks were going to look really stupid’

I totally agreed, and said that the hype that week had done nothing more than set us up for a big fall. The only way was down.

During the game my worst fears were realised at one of the first rucks. The Aussies entered it hard and fast, you could see they were fired up.

It was/is depressing. Another World Cup blown. Gregan summed it up perfectly with his ‘four more years’ taunt. An arrogant thing to say, but jeez he was right on the money.

I remember the crazy headlines from the Sunday Star Times newspaper. When we won our quarter final, the headline was ‘Demi Gods’ Seven days later it was ‘World Chumps’ That pretty much sums up the state of our rugby media.

Nnearly four years later, I wonder how bad the media hype machine will get. TV3 already have bill boards advertising their free to air coverage of the cup. A digital countdown has been in operation in downtown Auckland for ages . . . .

History is beginning to repeat itself and as the hype gets bigger, so does the potential fall.

The Super 14 competition sucks. Here are some reasons why.

Firstly, there is no affiliation with the South African teams. I can’t even name all the SA teams without using the internet and I have no idea where they are from in SA. Not only that I cant name one player in each side.

Although I am not a fan of the Super 14, the point I make is that after 10 years, the only knowledge of the SA teams that has seeped into my brain is that they are mainly crap and have never won the title.

The fact that they are poor also reinforces the fact that they are here to make up the numbers and add some spice to what would have otherwise have been a trans tasman competition.

Contrast this with the NRL where most teams have at least one New Zealander and are based in locations that most of us have either visited/lived in or aware of. Following a Kiwi player’s progress gives us a real connection with a team – imagine how many more NZ fans the Bulldogs and the Tigers have because of SBW and Benji Marshall.

Secondly the game times – Games from Perth or SA are on at ridiculous times of night. I used to stay up and watch All Black v Springbok test matches, but who fancies staying up to watch two regional sides go head to head in SA? Not me that’s for sure. Those games are even more irrelevant than the rest.

Thirdly it is a competition set up simply to sell broadcasting rights and make money. Ain’t nothing wrong with that as all pro sport competitions sell their TV rights and generate revenue.

The difference is most of these were up and running in some shape long before the era of broadcasting rights arrived. The Air NZ Cup and NRL are but two examples. What makes things uncomfortable is the knowledge that if News Ltd pull the pin on the competition that it may well die – meaning money is it’s only reason for being.

Fourthly, it’s the rugby itself. It is uninspired and lacks intensity (apart from the finals). The losing team in the NRL grand final is usually full of tears. This shows how important that one game is. I’ve yet to see a Super 14 final loser shed a tear - they just start focusing on the Tri Nations series.

And one more - the Super 14 has not helped us win a World Cup. OK, we can’t blame the Super 14 for us losing World Cups, but as we’ve not one the title since 1987, by definition it’s been no help!

I have not yet finished a full post on the above topic, so instead will describe this brief but highly scientific experiment proving that the Super 14 is boring.

This experiment consisted for me sitting at my desk using Google. The results are as follows:*

Google Super 14 boring – the number of results is “about 3,440,000”
Google NRL boring - the number of results is “about 57,300”

Pretty big difference huh?

I refined it slightly to search for pages from New Zealand and the results difference is still evident.

Google Super 14 boring – the number of results is “about “11,700”
Google NRL boring - the number of results is “about 711”

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking that if this is a scientific experiment, then I should stick to my day job. Well you may have a point there, but if the above numbers don’t tell you a story then you best get your head back in the sand.

*These results will change over time.