Random thoughts on that quarter final

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. 

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.  

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. 

That’s it for now, more later.