2007 could have been the greatest year in our history as we may have ended it holding world championships in Rugby, Cricket (one day and twenty20) Netball and of course the America’s cup. Suffice to say we got none of those. Anyways, this is how I saw the best and worst of the 2007 sporting year.
Best Cricket Match
It was the Hamilton run chase by the Black Caps against the Aussies for the Chappell Haddlee series. Chasing a mammoth 347 to win, we were gone at 41/4. Enter Peter Fulton and Craig McMillan who carved up the Aussies and got us back in the game.
The innings from Mark Gillespe was surreal as he somehow managed 3 valuable boundaries. McCullum finished the game in style and we had the silverware. A true spine tingler.
Best Rugby League Match
Warriors v Roosters (a 31 all draw). The Warriors were down about 14 (maybe 16) nil, and were playing poorly. But in the space of 15 minutes they tore the Roosters to shreds thanks to Epalahame Lauaki. He started with a two handed off-load in the tackle to Wade McKinnon who sprinted away for the try. Two minutes later Hame threw a long ball which Jerome Ropati picked up on the bounce and (after a few passes) scored under the bar. Five minutes later Hame scored himself. Both coaches had to change their half time speeches such was the turn around.
The Roosters were great as well and when the teams scored two tries each in the second half, a draw was an accurate reflection on the days proceedings. Gary Freeman’s commentary during the game was a highlight for me as well.
Best Rugby Match
Damm, I can’t think of one to be honest. I know there were a few good ones during the rugby world cup, but I never saw them. So lets say it was the France V All Blacks match. Once again the French showed how passion and toughness can win you big games.
Team of the year I can’t split two rugby teams. Argentina for their best ever world cup and the English for making the final of the world cup and proving in the process that boring rugby is winning rugby. They also get a pat on the back for peaking at the right time.
Best Houdini Act
Those disappearing All Blacks car flags - soon to be clogging up inorganic collections all over New Zealand
The ‘lets milk the brand for every last dollar’ award
The All Blacks album - soon to be clogging up bargain bins all over New Zealand.
Biggest Choker
Another tie here. First is the New Zealand Rugby League who managed to get rid of Brian Mclennan, the best Kiwi’s coach this generation has seen. They did this by not overturning their ‘Kiwis coach must live in New Zealand’ rule when Bluey took up a job at Leeds. Quite how they came to this decision is beyond me. The results speak for themselves - new coach Gary Kemble is out of his depth at international level. We suffered a record defeat against the Aussies and got beaten by the Poms 3-nil.
The other winner is the New Zealand rugby media, who clearly know very little about sport, especially Chris Rattue who wrote this aweful preview of the France - All Blacks quarter final match.
Best Losers
The Silver Ferns. Not good enough to win the championship but at the end of the game, they came across as gracious in defeat and proud of their own performance.
Highlight of 2007
Winning the Chappell Hadlee 3-nil - an achievement that cannot be underestimated. This was almost as good as winning the cricket world cup.
Low light 2007
The All Blacks at the world cup. Nuff said. Oh and this guy.
So there you have it. I know I’ve missed heaps of teams and players and events, but these are the ones that stuck out for me. Leave a comment if you think I’ve missed something.
Why is it, that every four years, after we lose another world cup we insist that we need a new coach. Think about the rugby coaching talent that we are turfing out.
Consider the last 3 All Black coaches that took us to world cups
2003 - John Mitchell - gone and now coaching Australians
1999 - John Hart - gone and now is the Director of football for the Warriors rugby league club.
1995 - Laurie Mains - gone and had coaching stints in South Africa and Otago.
Think of the value these three could provide to New Zealand if they were still coaching or working in New Zealand. Now I know Mains and Mitchell were not sacked, but my point is that we have a way of driving these guys away once the return from a world cup without any silverware.
These guys all would have learned from failure - don’t we all? They would have learned where they went wrong and maybe, just maybe they would have fixed it.
Should we give Graham Henry that chance?
Well, that depends . . . . . afterall he has a bit to learn.
He needs to realise that the All Blacks need to be mentally fitter, not physically fitter.
He needs to learn that even world class players like Dan Carter can lose form.
He needs to learn that stable combinations play better than combinations that are changed game after game
He needs to learn that he Wayne Barnes did not cost us the tournament - there are disturbing reports that he blames Barnes.
If the NZRU has an ounce of nous (nice rhyme huh) then they would ask him, what failure has taught him, and how those learnings will change they way he coaches our national rugby team.
If he is ready to learn from failure then lets keep him on - he’s a great coach and too good to turf out.
Now I know the game and the tournament was over ages ago, but I’ve had this post lurking round my ‘drafts’ for ages, and what with the new baby etc, things have been hectic. Anyways, better late than never, here we go.
My thoughts on the game itself.
Dan Carter should not have started. Nick Evans should have started. This is not because of any injury to Carter, but clearly because he was out of form and Evans was running hot. Of course for Graham Henry not to do this proved that he did not believe that his rotation policy produced back up players capable of playing in the first 15.
I guess it would have been tough for Henry to drop Carter, near impossible really - but that does not change the fact that it had to be done. Rotation was bought in to provide depth and cover. At the most crucial of times the benefits of rotation were ignored.
Wayne Barnes did not cost us the game. The French did. The All Blacks had 70% possession and 70% field position - we should have put them away based on that alone. It’s too easy to play the blame game on this one, blaming Barnes is just evidence that that some New Zealanders preferred to look for excuses rather than face up to the fact that the French out played us.Â
Besides the All Blacks were clearly not going to win this tournament even if they got past the French - that seemed obvious to me, but I’ve not heard it mentioned much elsewhere. I very much doubt we would have got past the English - they were playing winning rugby when it counted.
The French tactics were supreme. They just kept kicking the ball back to us in the first half and backed their defence against our running game. We were sucked in and had no answer. The feeling I had during this game was similar to what happened in the 1999 game that I attended.
The best thing about this result is that we did not have to face the embarrassment and hassle of participating in the play off for 3rd and 4th - why they still persist with this meaningless match up is beyond me.
Physical fitness counts for nothing if you do not have mental strength. In fact mental strength can and will overcome physical fitness in these sorts of matches. I wrote a post some time ago warning people not to believe the hype about the All Blacks fitness. I used a rugby league example, where in 2003 when the Penrith Panthers won the NRL title they were the unfittest teams around. Â
What was Mils doing at centre? Again, I wrote in my ‘why the All Blacks will lose‘ post that the lack of acentre combination was a huge issue.
The lack of a drop goal. Sigh . . . If the All Blacks really were as arrogant as it’s been suggested then would have backed themselves and gone for the try and scored one. What I find interesting is that we’ve longed taunted England for taking so many drop kicks over the years, and now we seem to have decided that it was one of the reasons for losing the game. Let me set the record straight by saying that the All Blacks should be better than that. They should not have to resort to kicking drop goals in that situation.Â
The biggest cricket battle this summer is taking place in Australia - India are heading down under to carry on where the last clashes left off - heated, aggressive cricket. Throw in the issue of racism (suffered by Andrew Symonds at the hands of the Indian crowds) and this series will be a cracker.
India play 4 test matches against Australia, as well as the traditional limited overs cricket tournament
Get the full schedule of the Australian summer including the 4 match test series against India, ODI tournament with India and Sri Lanka and the twenty20 matches)
This great spreadsheet, designed by Aaron Heath allows you to enter the match scores so you can track progress of your team.
New Zealand cricketer Jeetan Patel throws the cricket ball in from the outfield and strikes his team mate Lou Vincent flush on the head! Now if you know how hard a cricket ball it this will make you cringe!
I’m still trying to work out how Black Cap Jeetan Patel managed to do this . . I guess he and Vincent had a chat after the cricket game to work this out as well!
I guess it makes sense that Shane Warne should get dressed up like his mother - after all, he’s done enough dumb things in public over the last 15 years.
So it seems that the Haka, the pre match ritual/challenge/dance performed primarily by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team is spreading through the United States.
Check out this video of the Brigham Young University Cougers performing the haka before one of their games. It’s kinda surreal seeing Americans performing the haka. No doubt they are breaking many cultural rules, but I don’t really care. Good luck to them.
Given that we lost the damm thing, for me, the best thing about the world cup was that sportsthought.com got quoted by and linked to by a major English newspaper - The Telegraph.
It’s refreshing to see a main stream media organisation pay attention to as well as link to, quality sporting blogs like this one.
So, while I was pretty happy at that, I think they could have linked to my post about the All Blacks fitness instead. Because in the wash up of the failed campaign I looked back at that post and realised how relevant it was.
To make matters worse, Shane Bond is out of the 3 match series, and Jacob Oram is in doubt for the next match.
Sigh, things just don’t seem to change do they?
Another test loss, another fast bowler breaking down.
Although it was only about 8 months ago, the high of the Chappell Hadlee series seems far away.
I think it could be a long summer ahead. Note to self - stay positive about the Black Caps, the hurt is never as bad as certain other New Zealand teams!
So the All Blacks lose the world cup quarter final against France and I’ve got nothing to say?
Well, my wife has just given birth to our daughter, hence my focus has been elsewhere.
Needless to say over the next few weeks I’ll write a series of posts about the All Blacks and my thoughts on them and the latest installment of the rugby world cup
