Field Theory: The Return
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Am I just being ignorant when I think the hard data points to GH as the better coach?
I'm not sure if comparing the win records of the ABs versus the Wallabies is a fair way to judge the coaches. There's this little thing of the players and their talent. Australia has less depth, lesser domestic competitions bringing up young talent, less successful at all levels of the game - sevens, age group etc.
Robbie Deans is probably the greatest coach we've seen at the level below internationals in the professional era. The test of of Robbie Deans at the international level will be in three years when he's had a chance to have some impact upon Australian rugby. Six months you can't do that much.
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According to a head Rebel Sport honcho, in the week they have been available, the grey Crusaders strip is flying out the door. Let's not forget the strip is about sales and not rugby.
Tell that to the officials at the World Cup quarter final who asked the ABs at halftime to change back into their black tops because it was getting confusing.
Yes merchandising of the tops is big, but the primary purpose still remains telling the two teams apart on the field when they play each other.
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Graham Henry is a very good coach, but I do not think he is great. I fear Graham Henry reads too much into his own press bellieving he is truly the "Great Redeemer" and when the pressure comes on has a tendency to play unsupported hunches.
It has been a good year for the All Blacks and NZ rugby, but how much of this year's results have been down to Graham Henry?
A large part of AB success seems to have been due to having a more coherent team structure, gained by dropping of the rotation policy and dropping the mainly off field conditioning programs we had last year. Those dubious methods were implemented by Graham Henry in 2007 on the basis of "trust us it will pay off in France". This year has seen ABs greater game time in the S14 and as a unit. Similar coaching methods to what occured in 2005, 2006 have seen a return to the form of 2005, 2006.
The strange selection policies of 2007 were implemented by Graham Henry acting on an intuition of what he believed was a better way, he was wrong. I have concerns that come 2011 Graham Henry will have another "inspiration".
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The Crusaders' jersey? Seriously? A sword on the front?
I feel that this sort of phallic symbolism encapsulates much of rugby culture quite nicely.
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The test of of Robbie Deans at the international level will be in three years when he's had a chance to have some impact upon Australian rugby.
He's the Isaia Toeava of coaching!
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Shit I sound preachy
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It strikes me that we often forget exactly what happened in the fateful quarter-final.
There has never been a rugby international like it, and I doubt there ever will be.
The All Blacks' dominance of the match statistics was as comprehensive as any I can think of in a match between two major test-playing nations: 72% possession, six French lineouts stolen, command of every facet of forward play. Ali Williams played his best game in an All Black jersey. For all the running down of the reconditioning system, the evidence suggests their physical fitness was actually very good.
The back play? Not so much. And I think McCaw and the other on-field leaders did lose composure when nothing worked -- but who wouldn't? No team on the end of a statistical trouncing the way France was has ever given up only two penalties in an entire match. It won't ever happen again.
Yup, they couldn't put together a drop goal to snatch the win. But they did have both first-fives (ie: the two players who'd practised such a move) off the field injured, and the guy they did have there at the end of the game had only ever played that position at the top level because of the rotation system. They also probably figured they'd win a penalty at some point.
I think it was a team past its peak, but still good enough to win the tournament (which went on to deliver the most ugly and forgettable final stages we've ever endured in a RWC). But it was a very, very strange day in Cardiff.
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"There has never been a rugby international like it, and I doubt there ever will be."
Thanks mate,.That ref "was' a joke..
That's the problem of the last world cup .Full Stop.........I wish people would read stats more.No nation has a team like the all blacks......the utter intensity you've got to put yourself through to try and beat us.
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No nation has a team like the all blacks......the utter intensity you've got to put yourself through to try and beat us.
And yet in the last 20 years the rest of the world seems to have managed okay.
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Robbie Deans is probably the greatest coach we've seen at the level below internationals in the professional era.
Except maybe Graham Henry. He won the NPC four years on the trot, won two Super 12 titles* (and was finalist in another) before he headed to Wales.
*technically three
Stir stir stir
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And yet in the last 20 years the rest of the world seems to have managed okay.
Though only in one game every four years
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Though only in one game every four years
It was a few more than that in the horror run of 1998.
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The back play? Not so much.
That’s the whole point. For decent back play you need combinations. That is exactly what caught us out.
Not so sure about the fitness thing either. Carter and Collins both carried injuries into that match.
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There almost seems to be a concerted effort in being the best team in between World Cups. Now, I'm not saying that it's only the World Cup that counts, but surely it's too early in the cycle to judge either Deans or Henry, no?
I think Henry is our best available coach and I don't believe he should have been sacked. In fact, by not sacking him we finally broke the stupidity cycle of automatically sacking our coaches after each RWC failure. The fact is that it's rugby's only knockout tournament, one average game and you're gone. Any team, no matter how great can get chucked out and that's what has happened to us.
It's a sad fact that Henry has had one average year as the ABs coach and unfortunately it was a RWC year. It was planning for the RWC that made them do things differently and it failed to pan out. Although even then we were still capable of winning the thing but we came up against a weird game from hell as per Russell's comments.
No, I'm pleased we stuck with him and as far as I'm concerned he's proved the better coach vs. Deans this year. I'm also hoping that we keep some of this coaching team's experience going into 2011 as what they learned the last time may prove invaluable.
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The Crusaders' jersey? Seriously? A sword on the front?
The Southern Region Ice Hockey emblem (not actually used on any of the tops for good reason) which is a rep region for everything south of Christchurch is a picture of a knight sticking a sword through the head of some other guy on the ground.
He's the Isaia Toeava of coaching!
Not at all. His coaching is fine now, but you can't change a rugby's coaching, throughout the whole sport, or at the top level overnight. You have to change the culture - of players, coaches, officials, and administrators - and that often takes years. Even for minor changes.
If you think about what you'd have to do to change the English rugby team from their typical 10 man game, to a flowing, fast-running, exciting 15 man game. Anyone could tell the team to do that by giving instructions 10 minutes before kickoff. Doing it successfully so that you get a world-class team doing it - probably take a decade.
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Chris Rattue is what happens when a journalist paints himself into a corner using intemperate language.
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Jerseys? I still have my Chiefs one from 1996 that's still nicely, thanks.
Those new Adidas ones are designed to go well with jeans (and possibly spew down them), it's a joint effort by Adidas and the NZRFU to get some cash off you. Don't get sucked in, team.
On coaches, I'm pleased we stuck with Henry, I think he's great, and everyone else did too, until we were done over by Wane Barnes. Oh, and France. To me, the coach's role is overplayed, it's the blokes on the field that are out there doing it - with McCaw really coming on as a leader, we're nicely placed. My pithy approach to all this would be:
'Support the guy we've got. Ignore sensationalist newspaper columists.'
And read smart arse bloggers of course. -
That’s the whole point. For decent back play you need combinations. That is exactly what caught us out.
Totally agree Legbreak. Though he's had a great season this season, I thought Sivivatu was the wrong player to have been selected in the quarter final mostly because he's not a good defender and can't kick - not nearly as well as Howlett. Sivi ran at defences several times in the game not because that was the best option and he had support, but because that's pretty much all he ever did (then) whereas Howlett could easily have kicked into touch where our lineout was performing well.
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'Support the guy we've got. Ignore sensationalist newspaper columists.'
Yes. Ignore the fact we lost, it was all the ref's fault. And do the bidding of the outgoing coach, who also blamed it all on Barnes (as if France had had any business being even close in score with the ABs). That ought to work in three years time.
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Yes. Ignore the fact we lost, it was all the ref's fault.
My approach implies a certain amount of getting over it, too. If we're stil moan about Henry v Deans in 2011 god help us. lf Henry is winning Tri Nations and Grand Slams like this year, he's not going to be sacked between now and then.
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There almost seems to be a concerted effort in being the best team in between World Cups
Frankly ,I tire of the 'best team inbetween the Cup' line.
The nature of a knock out tournament is such that the best team need not be the team that wins the thing.An off day, a crook ref, a team having a blinder,illness ,injury etc...any one or all of these can contribute to an unexpected loss or win.There is a concerted effort to be the best team ..at any time. Why else bother?
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There is a concerted effort to be the best team ..at any time. Why else bother?
Yes. It's not like football, where anything that's not a tournament is basically a friendly match.
Things like Lions tours and Grand Slams have a long history and they still matter. It's a shame that the Tri Nations has rather cheapened the contest with our southern rivals, but there's still a hell of a lot to be said for holding the Bledisloe Cup. The idea that these things don't count, and only the World Cup does is simply wrong.
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The day before the match against France, he was proclaiming a massive victory by an invincible team under a great coach. The next day, the plan had been flawed from the beginning, Henry was a disaster, hanging was too good for them &c &c.
Ah, yes, happier simpler times. To quote Rattue before that fateful day...
France pose absolutely no threat to the All Blacks ... the All Blacks could play in sackcloths and they'd still stomp all over France ... France's problems start at the top, with their coach Bernard Laporte ... The All Blacks may not have reached the standards which the initial part of Graham Henry's reign suggested they would reach at the World Cup. But they are still well honed, with a forward pack in the prime of its career and enough clout in the backs to deal with the likes of France.
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Things like Lions tours and Grand Slams have a long history and they still matter.
Less and less, though, you'll agree. The World Cup may be a huge cash cow and promoting tool but I could really do without it. As much as we can say it ought not to be the only thing that matters, it pretty much is. Now they want to concoct a test cricket world cup and I really, really hope they fail.
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Less and less, though, you'll agree. The World Cup may be a huge cash cow and promoting tool but I could really do without it. As much as we can say it ought not to be the only thing that matters, it pretty much is.
I dunno. How long were the Springboks feted as world champions this time? About five minutes, by my recall.
Are they, as world champions, a bigger draw than the losing quarter-finalists? Nope, not nearly.
No one seriously thinks that they're the best team in the world, still less that England were next-best.
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