Zinedine Zidane playing rugby for France? Might bring some harmony to the situation.
Bucketheads
Photos of Palmerston North people, doing what they do best, wearing buckets on their head at the rugby.
One Telegraph (UK) hack said the test for New Zealand hosting the world cup would be how the local fans responded to the Georgia vs Romania game. Looks like we passed.
Rugby is a contest
A battle in strength
A contrast of emotions
Where strategies struggle with passions
All Blacks don’t show enough
A confident All Black start was quickly stemmed by a gutsy Tongan performance. The analysis will long continue as the ABs try to ascertain what went wrong in the second half.
Some strong individual performances, but as a team the ABs looked patchy.
Beware of false pariahs. SBW fans are quick to proclaim their man’s genius. But a more judicious inspection would say SBW, given the calibre of the opposition, you made too many mistakes and did not create enough opportunities.
This was probably best demonstrated in the second half where both SBW and Toeava fluffed tries, due to poor decision making when finishing.
Compare this with Dagg and Kahui who both took full advantage of what possession they had. Dagg and Kahui showed a better variety of skills, which is what is required when the All Blacks play more educated teams in the later stage of the competition. These two guys put good stakes in the ground for retaining their All Black spots.
If you review the game, you’ll note that Nonu got a lot of scrappy ball. Yet despite this, he converted pill into advantage. He was a different class to the opposing midfield.
So what was the difference between the first and second halves. Maybe Tony Woodcock? The All Black forward pack seemed more dominant when Woodcock was on the field. Owen Franks had a good game. The All Blacks seemed to lose forward domination when brother Ben came on.
It would be unfair to say the change in half backs had a huge impact. Weepu never got a chance to show his offensive flair.
Cowan looked very ineffective, especially his kicking game. Maybe his worst performance this year. He’ll be ruing the lost opportunity to forge his position as the country’s number one halfback.
Kaino showed the difference he potentially could have made, had he played against the Wallabies in Brisbane. There’s no way Radike Samo would have clicked so many running yards had Jerome been on the field.
Kahui deserved his Man of the Match. Kaino must have been close, though.
Tonga put on a determined effort in the second half. The All Blacks could contain them. But worryingly couldn’t dominate the Pacific reds.
So not a great start. It wasn’t our A team. However it wasn’t that far off.
It certainly wasn’t a dominant display as the boys of 87 put on against a hapless Italian team in the first ever RWC game.
This was a match that reinforced the importance of building combinations as the tournament progresses.
Some good lessons there, if the All Blacks are in a mood to learn.
Rugby World Cup hottest fans
Not fans per se. But I’ve been told this trio are part of the French national women’s football team. Can this be so?
Since Thierry Henry’s handball against the Irish and a thousand other incidents I’ve not been much into French soccer.
Happy to start admiring the talents of the women’s team. They’re all there for us to enjoy. Thanks ladies.
