Posts by Richard Llewellyn
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On the sin-binning, I recall that it came from a sustained French attacking rolling maul, with Barnes twice signalling a penalty advantage, and clearly losing patience with what he felt was the AB's dragging the maul down.
Still under advantage, the French spun it, chipped, and ran into retreating defenders. The ref just looked like he was going to ping the next poor sucker who did something wrong, whatever it was.
Bit like the Carl Hayman binning in Melbourne - often its just the straw that breaks the refs back.
As always, timing is everything :)
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Peter: But no England team has ever gone into a football world cup touted as the dominant team and favourite in the way that the ABs were before this tournament. Brazil usually and the Dutch in 1978 and 1974 but never England.
I think it was Giovanni who pointed out earlier that there are many parallels between the AB's and Brazil, who didn't win the World Cup between 1970 and 1994 (24 years), who went to several of those interim world cups with absolutely fantastic teams (Socrates, Falcao, Zico anyone?), and who for five long tournaments discovered to their cost that playing the prettiest football doesn't always win you the game.
Sadly, the beautiful and romantic game often loses to the prosaic, ruthless, and pragmatic :)
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I seriously hope this wasn't any of our people ...
Me too. That story reminds me of the night England lost to West Germany on penalties at the 1990 World Cup. We were at Wembley (to see the Stones) and lots of the crowd had radios etc to listen the football (while at a Stones concert - go figure).
When the result came through, a wave of disappointment swept the crowd, and as we filed out of Wembley at the end, a large group of 30-40 english 'fans' started ripping all the hood ornaments off every Mercedes and BMW they could see in the surrounding streets, while singing that charming old ditty, '2 world wars and 1 world cup'.
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One of the minor benefits of being knocked out so early (I'm really clutching at technical straws here :) is that the draw for the 2011 RWC will be based on these results.
The tiny upside as a result is that we will likely end up in the same group as one of the real heavyweights, England, France, SA or Argentina. In theory, we should then get a taste of tough rugby in the group phase, thus avoiding one of the criticisms I hear being levelled at this particular campaign.
See, the NZRU ultra-long term strategy will soon pay off :)
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Would that referee been as bad for the Wallabies with George Gregan in his ear? Would we have lost if we had milked a few penalties shots as a result of sly, dirty, Fitzpatrician cunning?
Thats a good point too - that is still the thing that amazes me about the game itself, France had 25% territory, 25% possession, made four times as many tackles, and didn't concede a penalty for the last 60 minutes of the game!!.
Say what you like about the ref, thats phenomenal defensive discipline. And maybe, given that discipline, a penalty or two needed to be "encouraged" to keep the score ticking over.
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You know, considering our record over the past few years, I am going to have to disagree with the idea that anyone on the All Black team displays 'arrogance' or 'hubris'. The media: yes, arrogance and hubris all over the show. But not the team. It's all very well to say 'play a different style or be proved arrogant' - but if you keep on winning, as we do, with the style we were using before (even against France!), why on earth would you change it?
Totally agree Danielle, from what I've seen, the players and coaches have shown nothing but class, respect, and honesty. That goes for the French team too, who haven't gloated at all.
If anything, its the media war between the aging hacks of the NH and SH thats more immature and acrimonious than anything that goes on between the young sportsmen on the field.
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After (very) briefly waking up this morning hoping it was all just a horrible wretched nightmare, I actually started to feel much better about things as the morning has progressed.
The sun is shining. Life goes on etc. Summer is well on its way, I had a lovely day yesterday playing in the sun with the kids. We seem to have - with some dishonourable exceptions - developed a greater sense of national perspective and humour about where rugby should sit in terms of national identity etc etc yada yada
So relaxed and accepting of the cruel vicissitudes of sport (it is just a game after all) was I that I just made the terrible mistake of ignoring my own advice, and reading what our good friend Stephen Jones had to say
Sigh. Wish I hadn't done that :)
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Some miscellaneous thoughts ...
At least now I can stop being so nervous :).
Still very proud of the AB's - they are judged by their own high standards, they at least went out on their shields, and I am sure they more than anyone will be feeling completely gutted. They are still the most prized scalp in the game. I hope we can take this result with the same class that Henry and his team have shown over the last few years.
'Rub of the green' a good description - ya need a bit of luck, and this all feels like some kind of cosmic joke against us. If the RWC is indeed to remain the be all and end all of rugby success (for better or worse), well, when we eventually do win it, the glory will taste all the sweeter for the pain we have suffered (that almost sounds catholic).
Boston Red Sox had to wait 90 years.
The game itself? - stupendous defensive effort by the French. Yes, some very tough calls went against us at crucial times, but the bit that frustrated me even more was our inability to force penalties to keep the score ticking over and consolidate our lead - the French did a great job of judging the fine line between what the ref would allow or not at the breakdown (penalty count 3 to 1 against AB's) - as an aside, I think rugby union could learn a lot from league with regards to policing offsides and reducing human error in refereeing. The game would be a lot more attractive as a result.
Fantastic game from Ali Williams. In fact I don't believe anyone had a bad game. I thought taking Jerry off was a bit premature though. Still, the game wasn't won or lost by any individuals and hopefully the inevitable inquest doesn't identify any scapegoats.
So, no snap election then :)
What will Chris Rattue write tomorrow, and how much will the NH journos enjoy pricking the bubbles of those who so blithely and confidently declared NH rugby dead and buried?
I don't want to read - and frankly don't care - what Stephen Jones has to say about it. Fuck 'em.
Even if we had forced a match-winning penalty in the last 5 minutes, we probably would have been struggling to put together a fit team for next weekend - dropping like flies we were.
Why didn't Nick Evans take the conversion for Rodders try?
England and France both winning - who'd have thunk it? - what odds Scotland to fly the flag as well?
Go the Phoenix.
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Besides, not insides, I'm going to bravely go to the same pub as last time - the Dolphin on Crown St - stand where I did last time - alone - and cheer like I did last time
Heh - I admire your fortitude. I watched same game at the Wollombi Pub, literally the only AB supporter in a packed NSW country pub, and by the end I was the object of - to make it even worse - pity and sympathy (bartender wouldn't even let me buy my drinks to drown my sorrows).
Wouldn't ever want to repeat that experience.
I am doing my best to think positive though, superstitions aside (its only when I see our media declaring us 'certainties' I get the strongest sense of deja vu).
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On a more positive note, did anyone else see possibly the finest on-field moment of the RWC so far?