The second:
Casey Williams is a fucking panther. And I don't mean that in a sexually euphemistic way (ala "cougar"), although she is hot. What I mean is she's a predator. Her eyes very rarely leave the ball, she's constantly aware of her surroundings and she attacks everything. It was about half way through the game when I realised she was hunting down the fucking ball.
This is winning, and winning with intent.
But if the Magic lose it's annoying (to Magic fans). Such great potential squandered usually because of stupid mistakes. But unbeaten seasons are rare.
There is an urban myth that the surviving members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins (the only NFL team to ever go through an entire season unbeaten) open a bottle of champagne and have a toast each year after the last unbeaten team finally loses one. Sports people take great pride in their invincibility.
So it shouldn't come as a shock that the All Blacks aren't happy about their loss to France. Neither are some fans and neither are a bunch of reporters.
Personally I'm content. I'm not pleased but I'm far from writing a frothing diatribe about it. A very good French team came and completely outplayed the (admittedly not top-strength) All Blacks.
Don't expect it again.
Before the Dunedin game everyone was talking about 1994 French tests. Nineteen Ninety Four! That's the last time they beat us here. We cry when they send us under strength teams, we cry when they beat us. But we need those losses.
The All Blacks are a myth. The Bledisloe Cup is a myth. For every lengthy winning streak by the greatest rugby team of all time, there has to be a trough where we can't seem to string a set of passes together. For every extended stay for the cup on this side of the Tasman there needs to be a similar (though somewhat shorter) trip over the ditch.
The All Blacks are nothing without their losses. We need the "remember that time they beat us". Can you imagine how arrogant and posturing the All Black fan would be if we had won all those World Cups we were supposed to? For goodness sake, we're not Australians.
So when the losses happen, revel in them. Drink and cheer with the victors (heck, they may be buying the drinks). And remember that losses are good for us.
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And because I know you kids love this stuff, here are the official stats from the last game. Sorry about the jpg, but that's how I got them:
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Quick notes:
- I keep forgetting to pimp Jed Soane's photographs, which is bad because I keep dragging him to boring netball matches that are hard to photograph.
- Due to a flu-like illness I couldn't make the All Black press conference yesterday, so instead I sent cub-reporter Naly D. His write up and audio will be on the Dropkicks soon.
- Naly sent me a text saying "Just spent 15mins talking to Rokocoko, afterwards realised recorder was on pause"
- Last week I posted a story featuring pics of a jersey sans man, Emma posted one featuring pics of a man sans jersey.
- I'm just about to head to the NZRU for a press conference with Steve Tew, any questions for the man? (I'll check the site beforehand)