Complacent All Blacks blasted
2 Jul 2006
The All Blacks have been told to up their game ahead of the Vodacom Tri-Nations.
All Black manager Darren Shand confirmed the 30-man squad met in Christchurch last Thursday where team management had stressed the need to ward off complacency.
Shand said some players had shown signs of complacency, in preparation and performance, during the three Tests against Ireland and Argentina.
“That’s why they were given the message,” he told NZPA. “We felt it important from a management point of view for us to put a dictate down, to put a line in the sand, say ‘look boys, we need to reach this point and we don’t feel we’re there now’.”
Asked for the signs of player complacency that so worried management, Shand responded: “Have a look at our performances. We don’t think the way we prepared was good enough; that’s right across the group. We have to keep raising the bar and demand a high standard. We don’t think we had those levels in the group previously.”
Meanwhile, Shand denied a NZ Sunday News newspaper report which claimed some All Blacks players tried leaving their Buenos Aires hotel in Argentina last month without settling their room accounts.
19 Comments
2 Jul 2006, 20:03 pm
1ste,yippee!
2 Jul 2006, 20:06 pm
Hulle is nie verniet 1ste in die wereld gerate nie. Hulle sal maar weer die span wees om te klop in vanjaar se tri Nations!!
2 Jul 2006, 20:07 pm
I like pie.
2 Jul 2006, 20:10 pm
I don’t like pie, but I eat it.
2 Jul 2006, 20:15 pm
A newborn killer whale is 8 ft long.
2 Jul 2006, 20:18 pm
Aids is sexually transmitted.
2 Jul 2006, 21:25 pm
Shouldn’t that last sentence read ‘without emptying their mini bar fridges’?
3 Jul 2006, 00:52 am
Defnitley the favourites for the Tri-Nations.
3 Jul 2006, 02:25 am
They will cream this Tri-Nations…the WC is only next year
3 Jul 2006, 02:32 am
10!!!! YEAH!!! Anyone out there….?
3 Jul 2006, 05:06 am
Well well what you say koos?
3 Jul 2006, 05:07 am
Oh sh*t that was 2 hrs ago. HE he he.
3 Jul 2006, 05:12 am
Tis OK Pompies, thought the rest of the world was gone…
3 Jul 2006, 05:12 am
But it was a very solid 10!
3 Jul 2006, 06:54 am
Where did “blasted” come from. Nothing in the article refers to being blasted. Perhaps Keo can work “Weapons of Mass Destruction” into the title?
3 Jul 2006, 08:12 am
The actual press release from the team manager Darren Shand states that
“the issue of complacency formed only a small part of a meeting lasting three hours”
it wasn’t the main purpose of the meeting nor could it really be spoken of as a blast, it was a talk from the team ‘mental manager’ on “good character making good All Blacks”
3 Jul 2006, 19:04 pm
Yes…surprised Keo didn’t come up with “Mental Manager Blasts Blacks” or perhaps he was too busy working on his ‘Umunga gives birth to duck baby’ article.
4 Jul 2006, 05:20 am
Sh*t which team did he blast there are three of them.
6 Jul 2006, 11:41 am
So, the All Blacks think they will win? Big deal! They usually do. Everyone knows that. Even the AB players themselves.
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