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All Blacks EOYT

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dbla

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Which is of course why the northern hemisphere teams have won so many world cups and tour so well...QUOTE]

The Northern Hemisphere teams have figured in all but one final ... They just didn't win as many :) If things had been different it could have been only 1 Southern win! Apart from 87 and 99, all the games have been very close and could have gone either way.

87 - NZ vs France
91 - Aus vs Eng
95 - NZ vs SA
99 - Aus vs Fra
03 - Aus vs Eng
07 - Eng vs SA

As to the touring - when they send their full sides, which isn't very often, they go alright in the South. In 2003 England sent their full squad and beat NZ and Oz. Last year France sent their full side and upset NZ. This year England finally sent a full compliment again and they beat Oz - although that was largely thanks to Matt Giteaus ineptitude, not due to ENgland ability, and the fact that the Aussie scrum was an embarrassment.

Realistically with the way the global season is players are burnt out by the end of their respective domestic seasons and many do not tour as they need surgery or simply need a rest. The ONLY reliable yardstick is a World Cup as that is the only time there are no excuses and all the best players should be on deck.

Australia will have a few back next year. The fitness of Horwill will be key and as will whether QC (Quade Cooper) learns to tackle by then...
Everyone has written off South Africa already but they have some brilliant players to come back from injury including Heinrich Brussouw who was the best forward in the world in 2009!
New Zealand - can they hang on after it seems they have peaked to early again. If Carter goes down that would seem to be their biggest problem. They have great cover everywhere it would seem apart from at 10. They would also struggle if McCaw gets hurt.

I was referring more to the comment you made about NH teams being better at winning the crunch matches because of the style of their comp. Doesn't seem that the SH teams have a problem with that as they win THE crunch match, the final. NZ might beg to differ come world cup time but as a whole the SH doesn't have a problem with crunch matches I believe unlike how you make out.

The point about touring was that the NH teams generally get spanked down here regardless of who they send and what weather there is. In 2003 England had the best team in rugby, it wasn't just that for once they decided to send their best players down. The SH sides generally win when they tour the NH, simple as that, while the opposite is true when they tour here.

So what you are saying is that the NH nations never really play their strongest squad against the SH until the world cup and we shouldn't think the gap is that big between north and south because of it? Rubbish.
 

dobduff11

Trevor Allan (34)
Muttonbird what did you make of Whitelock, Matthewson, Gear and SBW?

Whitelock was impressive around the park not sure about the lineout though
Matthewson was sharp but sometimes was hesitant before passing
Gear was razor shap and looked the goods especially that run
SBW good in parts the offloads some of his running, lacked a little compsure early on though, wasnt happy with Roks pass though haha
 
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Muttonbird

Guest
Hey DB.

A 3:30am kick-off and no pay-TV means I am at a double disadvantage and am yet to see the game. I will catch the reply and watch out for the new and newish caps above.
 

ACT Crusader

Jim Lenehan (48)
Whitelock was excellent, into absolutely everything last night. He wa taking good LO ball as the ABs used him at the end of the LO throughout.

Mixed bag from all the starting backs. SBW had some good moments but I think the pace probably took a but to get used to. It was pretty frantic at times and Eng played okay when the pace was high. They dictated the pace a fair bit

A few interesting decisions by the TMo and the scrums seemed to be hit and miss (woodcocks side seemed to struggling) but happy to get the win to start the tour.
 

Bullrush

Geoff Shaw (53)
Was it just me or did the ruck area in both the NZ and Wallaby games look like the rucks from last year? eg. tacklers not releasing the ball carriers before going for the turnover. I thought both refs could have done better in the contact. Compared with what we saw in the 3N, I thought the contact area looked really messy again.
 

Reddy!

Bob Davidson (42)
Gosh, Sonny Bill is a brilliant offloaded. I reckon he is going to be a fantastic impact player once Conrad gets back.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
Thought that England played bloody well last night, but you could see the gap in class on the attacking front. The AB's seemed to break the line almost at will and were it not for some excellent England cover defence, would have scored probably three more. I haven't seen an All Black scrum taken apart like that for a while, but they were very efficient in the other areas. Agree that Whitelock had a strong game.

Saw a lot of niggle in the game, especially by the two hookers, but it got a bit tasty at times.
 

Nusadan

Chilla Wilson (44)
Was just finishing off watching the recording of that Twickers match, I noticed McCheat pushing down the English halfback about to dart off with the ball whilst putting himself back into position from behind a ruck after making the tackle in the 56th minute, in front of the referee! He didn't raise his arms as most would have if being close to the ball carrier if in an offside position...

He makes me want so much to get on the field to smash him into tiny little bits...

Also when English winger had his try disallowed in the final ten minutes due to dropping the ball over the line whilst being pushed out into touch, the TMO didn't tell the ref to penalise Toeva for charging into the winger i.e. he didn't attempt to wrap his arms around the player in question, just simply barged into him...

Oh I could so name a couple more incidents...
 

Blue

Andrew Slack (58)
Nusadan. Big deal. You clearly did not see the off the ball shit the English got away with. Another ref would have blown the Poms off the park. Niggle after every whistle, players off the ball pushing and shoving, after the tackle pushing people into the ground.

Anyway the Abs got mullered at the scrum and their second half performance was woeful.
 

Blue

Andrew Slack (58)
The ABs were terrible in the second half. They should humbly thank the Poms for botching a string of opportunities in the last 15. A more skilled backline would have taken that game. The Poms seem to panic when they go beyond a first phase.

Fuck me that scrum of theirs is a monster. The ABs will look for excuses but I have never seen Myth owned like that. Having said that another ref would have penalised the Poms for standing up (which was mainly due to Sheridan) but they were way more powerful.

England will get better. They have some good players now and if they can find a settled midfield combo they will be a real threat. They need a skilled 13. Tindall is an old style crash baller.
 
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Muttonbird

Guest
He makes me want so much to get on the field to smash him into tiny little bits...
Oh I could so name a couple more incidents...

It's a bit exhausting, maintaining that sort of one-eyed bitterness isn't it?
 

dobduff11

Trevor Allan (34)
Lots of niggle in this match Dylan hartley and Keven Mealamu were at it for a bit.

Toeava's shoulder on Hape was technically illegal but I would never have given it, great bit of defence from ice

Tindall had a poor game and doesn't know what to do when he has the ball in open space lol, we have so many skillful backs in england but we pick someone who can't execute a pass off of his left hand.

Also I told you boys that we had a strong scrum, someone a few posts back said we had the worst scrum out of all of your opponents.
 
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