All Blacks and England - Twickenham showdown

As the All Blacks go into the final test match against England, the old great haka debate has resurfaced once more. Love it or hate it, the haka is here to stay although it wouldn’t be a trip to the north without people moaning about it.

I agree that some All Blacks take it all a bit too seriously (Nonu – what the heck are you talking about mate – just keep your pretty little thoughts on the rugby ok?) and others just look like they’re at an amateur dramatic panto audition (Ali Williams take a bow).

I personally hope the All Blacks don’t do a haka at Twickenham this weekend at all. In fact, it would please me greatly if they never did another one in England again. Yes, it would be a case of giving the British hacks that decry the haka what they wished for. But I’m sure it would only take a few years for them to start whinging even louder to bring it back.

But enough of this haka malarkey. Let’s get onto the rugby. After England’s hideous defeat against South Africa on Saturday it seems too many people are writing off Dad’s army. I wouldn’t be so hasty. The All Blacks are great ones for getting complacent when they think they’ve got a test sewn up and the English will be licking their wounds hungry to make amends.

If I was a betting women, I’d wager a wee flutter on the English this weekend. Also, England are never easy to beat at Twickenham and with a northern hemisphere ref calling the shots, chances are there’ll be a few yellow cards fluttered around evening the chances for England, especially if McCaw gets binned.

Thanks to nursedude too for sending through this great article from the guardian – they’re onto us indeed ND! You’re only as good as your last game and the beautiful thing about sport and the oval shaped ball is that anything can happen on the day.

Also – on a different note. Rumours are floating around that Carl Hayman is talking about making a return to New Zealand. For all the depleted rugby stocks in New Zealand as former All Blacks plied their trade up North, there have really only ever been two decent All Blacks that we’ve truly missed IMHO – Carl Hayman and Nick Evans. The UK can have the rest (and yes, that even includes McAlister). So it could be good news all round.

All Blacks 29 - Wales 9

A great day today for New Zealand sport. The Kiwi rugby league team producing the upset of the century by defeating Australia and winning the Rugby League World Cup. Yay - we've won a world cup that isn't for lawn bowls. Awesome and well done to Steve Kearney and his guys.

The All Blacks followed up with a comprehensive final score against a spirited Welsh side in Cardiff this morning - but the score did flatter the ABs who were pants in the first half. The naughty step award could have been shared by Carter and Cowan who both had off nights.

Highlights? Great plays by Mealamu, McCaw, Kaino and of course Rodney (does he ever have a bad game?). Awesome too Joe, and even Sivivatu was OK. But the biggest highlight was definitely the haka stand-off. Now that's the way to issue a challenge. Brilliant!

For full match report read here

The Passionless People

Much has been made during this wonderful month of autumn internationals about the passion of the UK crowds.

The mainstream media in New Zealand seem even more confounded this time around by the vocal northern hemsiphere rugby supporters and to prove it, there's been a flurry of rugby articles written to back this up, marvelling at the 'spontaneous eruptions' of the celt crowds.

The most recent of these naval gazing articles is from Gregor Paul in the NZ Herald. Apparently "Home Nations and France see the expression of their nationalism as almost being more important than the result." Also, Mr Paul believes that "It is the followers of the All Blacks who lack emotional depth and the inability to see a test as more than just 80 minutes of rugby."

Well Mr Paul. Speak for yourself. I think I have quite a lot of emotional depth thank you very much, and I believe All Black supporters and New Zealanders for that matter are no less passionate than any race on this planet. However, there is a simple fact why we do appear so and I'm just surprised that 'esteemed' rugby hacks are pondering this still and wasting column inches of space.

New Zealanders don't sing. It is a sad, horrible fact about this country and as a result we look right uptight for it, especially when we're in direct comparison with an amped Welsh rendition of Bread of Heaven. You just have to watch the All Blacks sing the anthem. You're normally lucky to get a lip movement.

Why don't we sing? I can never work it out as I'm a singer and I know scores of beautiful singers from this country plying their trade in the opera houses of Europe and North America.

I have a theory that New Zealanders have lost the ability to feel confident about singing over the years. I don't know what has caused this but I believe it after being privledged to meet a group of former All Blacks at the New Plymouth test this year where the case was illustrated to me.

I was the anthem singer for that match and Dave Loveridge and co beforehand asked if I would sing the national anthem for them in their dressing room. There was a group of about twenty - baby boomer age and up and after I started the 'god of nations', to my wonderful suprise, they all joined in.

It was wonderful to see these former All Blacks greats singing along with gusto and without self-consciousness. It made me think how today's All Blacks would never join in such a rousing chorus. A spontaneous haka maybe, but can you imagine them singing for the fun of it, in front of other people?

So we've lost our ability to sing when we're sober in this country. But I don't think it means we're less passionate however or that we're emotionally retarded compared to the Irish, Scottish and Welsh.

For whatever reason Mr Paul, we're just quieter, but even still rivers can run just as deep. So please don't label me because it is not our culture to sing out. Label yourself maybe, just leave me out of it.

Gregor Paul's Article

Ps - as a side note there has been the odd All Black in recent times who has gloriously thrown the dour stereotype out the window. Byron Kelleher was so passionate, in haka, anthem and just general demeanour that I remember once he even tore a muscle doing warm-ups. And Richard Kahui is another that doesn't seem to be afraid to sing like there's no-one listening.

Munster All Black Haka

Ireland down, Doug Howlett's Munster to go

It was another good day at the office for the All Blacks when they took on Ireland at the magical Croke park on Saturday night.

Not such a great night for Ireland who had hyped the game up quite considerably beforehand - which is not surprising as the talk-ups between test matches - particularly in the NH - seem to be part and parcel of tests nowadays.

Unlike the rest of the critical New Zealand rugby public, I thought the All Blacks showed a lot of heart. To restrict both Scotland and Ireland to tryless final scores says a lot about this team’s excellent defensive structure. And the backline looks exciting when it gets a bit of space.

Star player for me was Ma’a Nonu who made Brian O’Driscoll and co look ordinary. An easy looking fend flicked O’Gara into a green heap at one stage and the Wellington man ran some great lines – especially leading up to try he built with Joe Rokocoko.

New Zealand was a bit selfish when it came to releasing the ball. Particularly – and surprisingly – from Mils Muliaina. There were at least three passes that he didn’t release on potential overlaps and I’d like to think that will be picked up by the coaches and remedied come Cardiff. There’s no "I" in team Mils!

Meanwhile the All Blacks prepare for a midweek test against Doug Howlett’s Munster. Whether the Munster men will turn in a haka to challenge the Abs is anyone’s guess. I hope they do – it will make a good spectacle.

Highlights of the weekend

The polite Irish crowd remaining silent during the penalities - unlike us uncouth colonials who heckle and boo to our hearts content when the opposition kick for goal.

Australia taking it to England’s forward pack. Dingo Deans must be laughing smugly after the way the British media has harranged the Aussie scrum.

Lowlights

Ireland’s lack of guile, often getting pinged for offences when they were right in front of the ref. What was up with that?

Ireland taking up to five minutes to come onto the pitch before each half - keeping the crowd, the world and the other team waiting. Maybe a little prima donna-ish perhaps boys?

Why do the All Black coaches persist with Sivivatu?

So Graham Henry has announced the All Black team to face Ireland with a good thing being that Joe Rokocoko makes a return to the wing. However, I’m not so thrilled about the reselection of Sitiveni Sivivatu on the other. I mean, Why? The guy can’t defend for peanuts (several tries against the All Blacks this year have been directly related to him and his shoddy defence).

And if that wasn’t bad enough, has he scored any tries for the All Blacks for the whole of 2008? I mean, he’s meant to be a winger for one of the best backlines in the world for Pete’s sake. Declan Kidney’s Irish will be licking their lips I’m sure and no doubt there will be plenty of punts on the fact that several Irish bombs will be heading Sivivatu’s way come the weekend.

I’m not the only one that’s frustrated – here’s a very succinct letter to the editor in the DomPost in June from an equally exasperated fan, summing up Sivivatu’s capabilities quite well: “Hopelessly out of position in most of the games and his handling is dreadful. Apart from his burst of speed and the compromising photos he has of the selectors, there is not much there. C at best verging on D.”

Amen to that brother.

But for handling errors, bad defence, lack of positional nouse, not to mention poor sportsmanship, the main reason why he shouldn’t be in the team is more clear cut. He has a record in the courts of domestic violence. Ok – only once that we know of, and everyone deserves a chance of redemption right? No. Not when it comes to the All Blacks. His membership should have been stripped as soon as word came out that he had hit his wife. For a country that is drowning in the blood of its many domestic violence scandals, there should be no room for a person to represent the national team in what is supposedly the national sport.

He can seek his redemption out of the public eye as far as I’m concerned. Mud sticks

All Blacks Grand Slam

Sorry everyone that I've been off the radar for quite some time (as all three of you have probably noticed). I've been doing other things as of late but with the Autumn Internationals now on and in full swing, I've got a few thoughts to throw into the blogosphere. What do you think?

• Wayne Barnes. Did he favour the ABs or the Scots? The Scots think no and so do the All Blacks. Should the dude just be dropped from the IRB panel for good?



• The credit crunch. What does this mean for rich English clubs like Newcastle that are sponsored by the languishing Northern Rock? Could we see some former All Blacks such as Carl Hayman coming back to the shores of Aotearea to ply their trade? God I hope so.



• Is Danny Cipriani the new Daniel Carter or is he another Andrew Sheridan - buoyed up by the British media only to fall on his face?



• Why did the Wallabies struggle against Italy?



• And does this guy have a bee in his bonnet or what??

Also - thanks to The Naly D Scene for giving me a mention on their blog. Thanks ... I think! "Her writing is good and her insight is valuable - a lack of real technical analysis and the fact there are only news posts after the All Blacks play are both a positive and a negative, however."

Ouch! Well Naly D, thanks for that and kia ora. I just write about rugby from a female perspective. It doesn't all have to be put in technical terms, I personally think the blog makes for better reading if it isn't generally layered with jargon, but I appreciate the link and hope you come back soon.