Tri Nations: New Zealand 32 South Africa 12
I wandered round to the Eagle on Saturday morning to watch the opening Tri Nations fixture between New Zealand and South Africa in the hope of seeing some substantial game time for Ulster players BJ Botha and Ruan Pienaar.
BJ got a twenty minute run out and put in a reasonable performance in the scrum and a big performance in the loose, an area which he appears to have worked hard on over the last few years. Unfortunately with the game over to all intents and purposes it was a largely defensive performance, but he got round the pitch well and made his presence count.
Pienaar only came on in the closing minutes and I can’t recall him seeing the ball. I can’t help but feel that there is some unease between Pienaar and Peter de Villiers as Januarie was struggling throughout the game and de Villiers’ failure to bring on Pienaar earlier was mystifying to say the least. Don’t know what the problem is but I’d like to see Ulster’s latest recruit (allegedly) get substantial game time over the next eight weeks.
Despite some rave reviews on the All Blacks performance I thought the game was pretty much standard fare for the overhyped Tri Nations and typical of encounters between this pair. It all just reminded me of a one night stand, fast and furious with plenty of intensity and physicality but when it’s all over you feel just a little bit grubby.
I guess it’s something to do with the systematic cheating of the All Blacks, constantly off side and taking players out in front of the ball, and the over enthusiastic physicality of the Boks with Bakkies Botha and Butch James being cases in point. At the end of the day it was all too predictable and with Alan Lewis failing to control the breakdowns there was a degree of inevitability about the result with the All Blacks being given an almost unlimited supply of ball. It is alarming how much the results of these games depend on the performance of the officials.
At the moment I’m wondering if I’ll even bother to watch next week’s return game but I guess I’ll wait and see if any of the Ulster boys are going to get a bit more game time.
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11 Responses to “Fast, furious but still a little bit grubby!”
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The above report is in my opinion suffers from early morning sickness .It is a unfair to say the Trinations is over hyped I have watched the games for a couple of years and have seldom been bored by the experience.
The All Blacks have the breakdown play down to an art form –they make the refereeing of the breakdown extremely difficult by closely supporting the man with the ball thus the difficulty for the referee is — are they forming a ruck/ protecting the ball or taking out the player — sometimes it one — sometimes it is the other but the margin bettween one act and the other is small.
The Tri nations seldom degenerate to a game of kick tennis and players( forwards and backs) of teams have a willingness to run and pass unlike many of the 6N where the outhalf seldom recognises the fact that there are centres on the pitch and forwards who consider passing to be forbidden .
The major weaknesses of the tri nations is the advantage obtained by the home side due time differences and travelling.
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Sorry mote but New Zealand and to a lesser degree South Africa win games by inevitable attrition which is just as boring as kick tennis. Sanzar run the ball more frequently because they know they are not going to lose possession as competition at the breakdown is largely ruled out, so much so that the games are becoming more and more like rugby league with unlimited plays unless you drop the ball or make a forward pass.
Fast ferocious and skilled athletes with a winning mentality no doubt but few appear have the ability to think outside of pre-prescribed plays. It’s no wonder the attendance and viewing figures are spiralling downwards.
Things may pick up when Australia enter the competition at least they can be unpredictable.
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My own opinion would be it is not because the games are boring that is causing the fall but that results are to some extent predictable for the reason I have stated and then there is also the added lack of traditional antagonism which is present in the old 5 nations now 6
ie everyone wants to beat the English — English want to beat the French The Irish were always the underdogs and the Welsh being Welsh thought because they could sing the best they were the best..
thus the major factor absent is the emotional involvement especially for vierers in the NH but the quality of the Rugby played can not be faulted
The tri-nations also suffers from the fact it is an annual three team competion with home and away fixtures whereas the six nations have only five games playing a home fixture every other year possible revenge is delayed and it is the delay which enhances the emotional invovlement..
And while I can appreciate that All Black rugby maybe perceived as boring it must be recognised that they are without doubt the most sucessful national team from the inception of the game and it is not all down to just attrition but to a collective understanding and development of the necessary skills and the ability to apply a collective intelligence to acheve the desired result.
For example if the All Blacks have a two score lead (10 points) and under pressure inside their 22 their backline would be permitted to lie offside giving away a 3 point opporunity to the opposition.
The payback for the team being the forwards don’t waste energy defending — if the opposition score the All Blacks are now playing the game in the opposition half. ie the major objective of the All blacks is play the game in the opposition half- then gain possession for the laws of the game favour the team in possession.
Everybody watches the All Blacks the envious of their success will frequently identify their aggressiveness or infrigments and the failure of referees as the key factors and fail to recognise their rugby intelligence and understanding of the game and they are basically instilled and taught those at a very early age — support your player with the ball- isolate the opposition player with the ball etc
You should never be bored by the All Blacks because you should watch them and learn how to play the game from them
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Mote – I’m afraid you are way off base if you don’t think there is great rivalry between the Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. What is putting people off is the formulaic rugby from the All Blacks and South Africa and the fact that Australia only produce a team once every four years.
With regards to New Zealand being so successful, well that’s also a matter of opinion. Australia, South Africa and even England have been more successful in the World Cup. New Zealand’s “success” outside of that is more of the hype.
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Ed – I have to agree with you. New Zealand are serial chokers in matches that matter ie the World Cup, they won it in New Zealand in 1987 , when the Springboks were not competing due to the international sports boycott, and failed for the next 20 years. Hopefully this trend will continue in 2011.
The only thing the All Blacks are best in the world at is cheating , why give 7 points away when 3 will do, in that aspect they are world class.
No rivalry between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa???? Yea and theres no rivalry between Rangers and Celtic or City and Utd.
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The problem New Zealand have at the world cup is that they tend to develop teams that peak the season before the world cup they also have one other weakness related to the size of the population and that is every All Black team has a weakness in the last world cup the weakness was at scrum half they lost to the french because their scrum half failed to capitalise on the possession due to his inability to identify the best option available quickly..
Its not necessarily the lack of rivalry it is the sameness of the opposition and frequency of games
In the 6 nations Ireland will only play England and France at home evevy other year ie the trinations suffers from the sameness of opposition not an inferior standard of rugby.
And the point of my comment is that your report infered the rugby was of poor quality and the result was down to bad refereeing and that is definitely not the case eg the result could have been more emphatic had Botha been red carded for the head butt.
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New Zealand stopped picking a “New Zealand “team 20 years ago they would be better called the “South Sea Islanders”. You only have to look at the cosmopolitan make up of their team.
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mote – you’re not reading what you’re seeing. I didn’t say it was poor quality rugby I said it was predictable rugby.
Lewis, like many referees before him, was overwhelmed with the speed and frequency of offences at the breakdown giving the All Blacks almost unlimited supply of ball – a well documented issue that needs to be addressed before the next World Cup.
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RR and Ed – I have to agree the All blacks have been the best ‘cheaters’ in the modern day professional game. Most refs let them away with it cos there is just so many offences committed at the breakdown and they are so quick at exploiting the ‘loose’ ball either legally or illegally. McCaw is a grand master of playing right over the edge in every game both at the loose and indeed in the scrum where in most cases his binding is a token gesture.
With regards to the Botha headbutt… yeah he deserved to get a red card IF the officials had of seen it ……..which they didn’t and of course they also missed the probable reason for his frustration when he was pulled back by Jimmy Cowan.
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Junty – you are completely right.
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Come on . Lewis did not have a bad game as Ref ( bar the butt )
As stated previously the All Blacks are so quickly up in support of the player with the ball the fine line between taking the man out and forming the ruck is a blur and a hard call but it in substance is no different from much of the pushing that goes on round the fringes of the ruck week in week out ie ( its playing a man without the ball ) the difference is that by doing what they do they ensure a quick recycle of the ball and stop the opposition from killing it.
TBH most of the recycles were from set backs in the rucks and only on three or four ocassions was there occasion to say the man taken out.
You may not like it but it is effective and really there is a hint of envy in the tone — if only we could be as effective.
Mc Call in my view is not the p[ayer he was two seasons ago he seems to have lost pace power and purpose– his major offence is not taking the man out as above — but joining an All Black( Possession) ruck from the side and going over the ball — he is not the only player to do it — Cullen is quite good at it to — he just seems to do it more often.
After the ball has gone into a scrum — is there a wing forward who actually binds ( applies a shoulder to the push ) — McCall is not alone — they are all one hand one.
Off -side by the backs is a hard call for a ref especially in a ruck situation most refs stand in field with their back to the backline refing the ruck whereas the only way he could referee the backline off side is to stand on the narrow side. Therefore if the referees are instructed to referee “in field” off side should be a linesman call but they like everyone else are watching the ball.
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