Ok. It's terrible, I haven't updated for a week because I've just been feeling so blah about rugby since the All Blacks lost to the Springboks. I also accidentally wiped my old blog template and now I'm stuck with this green thing until I have the time and inclination to get around to fixing it. Grrrr! Are there any web designers out there who could give me some advice about bringing my blog into the 21st century?
But back to me feeling blah. My team, the team that I love and adore, is going through a serious blip at the moment. The scarey thing is, I'm worried the blip is going to turn into something longer than a blip. And then what? How long does a blip need to last before we'll be calling ourselves the the Wales of the Northern Hemisphere. Once, one of the greatest rugby teams in the world and now, with money ruling the day, struggling to keep up with even the minnows (read the match against Italy to see what I mean).
I'm overreacting yes. But the signs are worrying. Our backline seems to have lost the natural instinct to attack. Is this because they're being coached to stand so flat? Is it because they don't appear to have any collective intelligence (yes, yes, I know Conrad Smith has got a law degree and 'runs a good straight line' blah de blah blah blah). Why do the coaches persist with selecting players like Tialata and Eaton? The whole world has gone mad. What's happened to Mils Muliaina? He's lost his spark. The wingers have lost their speed. And Andrew Hore has lost his accuracy throwing into lineouts - although sadly I have to acknowledge it was never actually a strong point for him anyway).
The Springboks were the better team last week. Yes, yes, there was playing at altitute and the one week turnaround and the jet lag for the All Blacks to have to contend with. But I'm a bit afraid that this week we'll have no excuses if we come out second best. Of course, you're only as good as your last game. And I live in hope. I will for another day at least.
3 comments:
Ferdy, you might want to press that panic button after Saturday's game in Durban. The All Black Backs(Try saying THAT 3 times in a row)were at 6's and 7's under the high balls that Morne` and Francois Steyn were lobbing at them in the wet conditions. You cannot say that the conditions were tougher on the All Blacks-the conditions seemed like a normal wet, winter day in Wellington or Christchurch.
I think the All Blacks had flashes of brilliance trying to play ball in hand, but it's tough to create offense when you are playing the majority of the game on your side of the 50 meter line.
Two games in South Africa and not even a bonus point loss to show for the All Black's efforts.
PS-You might want to re-link with my blog. It seems that in the past week, my blog site retooled itself, so now I can finally do some new postings, but they are not showing up on the default on yours or Total Flanker's web sites.
You're right nursedude. We were terrible. As an AB fan, this one was very hard to watch.
Yeah - I'd wondered about your blog not updated. Will fix! Thanks for letting me know
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