RWC Knockout Stages

Hurricane's MOTM = Sam Whitelock for the line out steal with ten minutes to go. Somehow either he steals that ball or SA walk away at least with a penalty from the pursuant rolling maul.

Loved the grubber kicks even though they were poorly executed. They were our plan B when we couldn't after wave after wave make the gain line against rock solid defence.

With each kick we did their line speed got slower and slower in case they had to turn around. I am just thrilled we had a plan B even though the kicks themselves were mediocre. In 2007 we had no plan B. The kicks were instrumental in winning us the game and were only used as a last resort.

 

I expected us to coast this and 15 minutes in I realised we might be going home instead.

Nerve racking and a not a game you could relax and enjoy. At 20-18 with ten minutes to go I was beside myself but then asked myself would I rather have the 20 or the 18 points and that made me settle a little bit.

Only relaxed when the final whistle went.

Kieran Read needs to improve his discipline. Too many penalties.

 

I am trying to think of a way of posting this in a non ridiculous way but it is what it is so here goes.

New Zealand has some very very good rugby analysis shows. On Thursday night they basically predicted that Bryan Habana would come in off his wing and you just had to lob it over his head to create an uncontested run to the try line.
I remember thinking why are we giving away our tactics, then I remembered it was a tv show and they aren't on anyone's side.
Lo and behold ten minutes into the game Habana comes in off his wing, they toss it over his head and Kaino goes over in the corner.

Our cricket analysis shows that we have on TV are very poor fodder, but our rugby shows are top drawer. One Thursday when Viktor Matfield happened to be in New Zealand for a super rugby match they got him to do a masterclass on the line out. It was phenomenal viewing. His knowledge of that aspect of the game is incredible.

All that said if there are any insights our TV shows come up with about our opponent in the finals I would rather not be told in the middle of next week.

 

I think we will find it easier to get up for Australia as they have beaten us in the past many many times.

Argentina - have they ever beaten us - a draw from Hugo Porta's era possibly at home in Argentina

As professional as we are I can see us getting ahead of ourselves and rolling out the red carpet and possibly tripping over it if it is the Argies.

So yeah I would prefer Australia.

 

Good answer - although SA didn't feel hard done by in 2007 that they didn't face us.

 

DWTA - Australia all due respect to them have only a 40% chance of beating us. That is still excellent odds and we could easily lose. 40% is a big big chance.

But if we don't respect Argentina then they could have a 50% chance

And even if we do respect Argentina I am not sure we can amp ourselves for the occassion. Against Australia we will be spitting nails and the pre-game speech will make the paint run off the walls.

Argentina's speech will be "Let's not take them lightly lads they once drew with us 40 years ago".

The expression on Luke McCallister's face after he got us out to an early lead against France in 2007 was "see I knew we were going to score a try against you because we are the better team, it should be easy for the rest of the game now that we have the lead". And we lost - and we deserved to lose for taking a team lightly.

The reason we thrashed France in the quarters is that we were shit scared of them. Had we faced Japan in the Quarters we only would have won by 30 points.

 

I guess the other more practical reason I can name Weeman in case the above seems like hogwash - is that we know what we are getting with Australia. Argentina is in our rugby championship competition but we know everything there is to know about the Australian psyche. We know them like the back of our hands.
Argentina are a developing rugby country. They may find a new gear in the final. And we may not have a counter strategy for it.

Finally, they will be a huge crowd favourite in a final against us. They will be a cinderella team and the whole world will be on their side and the crowd will favour them in the stadium.

A NZ vs Australia final will see the crowd and the world evenly split on who it wants to win.

 

"If you can't amp yourself up for a world cup final, then I don't know what you can amp yourself up for."

We weren't amped for a quarterfinal in 2007

We weren't amped for a semi final in 2003 - evidenced by being so cocky that we played Leon fucking McDonald instead of Tana Umaga. How on earth and on what planet is Leon McDonald better than a fit Tana? Apparently one where you don't think you need Umaga to play to win.

We weren't amped in 1999 against France. We got out to a big lead and somehow decided to sit on our lead. France came from behind and dicked us.

We have been burned. I have been burned. When we lost in 1999 I was in a pub in Vancouver with a fellow Kiwi that I had just met. The Canadian who was coordinating the drinking event had to get both of us out of the pub in a hurry as we both started to seriously discuss what chairs we were going to smash over the table.

In 2007 when we lost it was a dark dark day in this country. And we wanted the blood of Graham Henry.

Where am I going with all of this. I don't take victory for granted against anyone. The team I am cheering for does have a history of not turning up. We have been the favourites going into every world cup or at least joint favourites and we have only won twice.

It will be easy for us to be excited and to play well in the final - but that isn't enough. Regardless of who we play Australia or Argentina we must play at our peak levels rather than just a 9 out of ten performance. We must really really want to win and I can see us having trouble getting up for it against Argentina.

Let me turn this around on you with an extreme example. If England made the final and you found out you were playing Japan in the final. Do you think you would play your absolute best against them or just put in a solid effort and expect to win.

I have no doubt we can put in a solid effort. But solid efforts don't cut it in Finals.

 

There is no possible explanation for SA losing to Japan other than complacency. Last time we played Japan it was a comfortable victory and that was only 2-3 years ago.

If you want me to I will dig up the score card and even though it was actually in Japan I am sure we won by 30 points.

Japan are not a good team - their victory over Samoan doesn't prove much to me as I think Samoa laid an egg in that game. The Samoans were deeply dissapointed in themselves.

 

The voice of the 2003 coach