Comments on: All Blacks brace for all-round assault

By: poppa69

poppa69 — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:58:31 +0000

and I laugh at your rant good stuff

fact is, if nz weren’t a couple of games off the record, I doubt you’d even mention it.

it’s like the calls for SA to go up north.

they come up when saffa supporters just can’t cope with the ABs success anymore.

how sad for you. .

By: bryce_in_oz

bryce_in_oz — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:05:39 +0000

@J.B. Cowper-146: And ferocious...

By: J.B. Cowper

J.B. Cowper — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:06:06 +0000

@bryce_in_oz-144: You're probably right - though Hayman, Bakkies and Joe are still delivering top-quality rugby - and we know so too is Lobbe ... but you're right, their set-pieces are an art form and that French club rugby is actually bloody good and bloody fast

By: J.B. Cowper

J.B. Cowper — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:03:25 +0000

@cane-143: Worth every penny

By: bryce_in_oz

bryce_in_oz — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:08:09 +0000

@J.B. Cowper-141:

Half of those guys are over the hill and would get run ragged by a top 4 test team… their set-pieces might be fine… but they’d get destroyed in the SH…

Awesome names though… in their prime they’d have been scary…

By: cane

cane — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:04:20 +0000

@J.B. Cowper-141:

Money Rules J.B.

That pack must have cost the owner US$20 million to assemble. (given the term of each individual contract…………………………….maybe even more).

By: bryce_in_oz

bryce_in_oz — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:00:54 +0000

@Transformation-101:

Er… yet muppets suggest that Kiwi Islanders and Aussie Islanders that have been in the country since their early teens have been poached???

Give me a break… next we are going to hear the Beast didn’t actually get a place at the Sharks Academy ‘after’ school and that Raymond Rhule isn’t really Ghanian…

Pull the other one pal… personally I could not give a toss it’s a world game… and the Japies should do even more to harness their bigger built African neighbours…

By: J.B. Cowper

J.B. Cowper — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:54:56 +0000

BEST TIGHTFORWARD PACK IN THE WORLD – EASILY: TOULON TEAM

ANDREW SHERIDAN, SEBASTEIN BRUNO, CARL HAYMAN = FRONT RANK

SIMON SHAW, BAKKIES BOTHA = LOCKS

LOOSE TRIO – LOBBE, JOE VAN NIEKERK, GEORGE SMITH

JOHNNY WILKINSON AT FLY-HALF

COACH = BENARD LAPORTE

DOES IT GET BETTER THAN THIS? POSITION IN FRENCH LEAGUE = NUMBER ONE (THE STRATEGY IS OBVIOUS – BASH THEM DOWN, JOHNNY CONVERTS – IN TRUTH IS THERE A TEST TEAM PLAYING AT PRESENT WHO CAN MATCH THIS PACK? NONE THAT I KNOW OF).

By: cane

cane — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:53:25 +0000

I see Goosen is limping and unable to practice place kicking.

Morne, Morne,
wherefore art thou Morne.

By: goodstuff

goodstuff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:05:28 +0000

@Hurricane-121: Not really, the AB's deserve any achievements they well...achieve. It will be funny one day when the eventual dry spell appears for NZ rugby and the quality of players thins out for a couple of seasons. But I can only hope.

By: goodstuff

goodstuff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:01:08 +0000

@Brads-123: You forget that the treasure you talk about was shared with NZ.

By: goodstuff

goodstuff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:57:29 +0000

@Skeppie-134: Nah, we have the proteas who win regular games a lot of the times but fail to win any true international tournaments, I'd rather keep the world cup memories. Winning all the time gets you arrogant idiots like Poptart.

By: goodstuff

goodstuff — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:54:59 +0000

@poppa69-117: Last I checked in 1998 we reached the win record that was held by NZ. Also since 1992 we have won two world cups, a lions tour and three tri-nations. So I would not call it ordinary at all.

We get it poptart, NZ rugby is all there is, we other nations trying to emulate your gods of sport are but ants to your greatness. What can we do but grovel at your feet. (please add extreme sarcasm).

Don’t get me wrong, a top tier country holding the record deserves the acolades, but I just think it is pathetic that the current holder of the record has never qualified for a WC. But your rant was entertaining!

By: Brads

Brads — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:10:06 +0000

@Skeppie-134: Quite right, SA have won two titles, the first of which was particularly meritorious. Those RWC's were major gongs worth crowing over. However, the IRB's WC can not be compared to FIFA's WC and the status that has for the winner in the pecking order of their code. I don't know where to rate the winning of the RWC, because the format is so much like a lottery.

By: Skeppie

Skeppie — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:53:41 +0000

@Brads-133: Personally I am proud of the Boks WC record, it shows we have the ability to win some really important games but that said I would far rather have the AB's W/L ratio than any number of WC's.

By: Brads

Brads — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:50:46 +0000

@Skeppie-130: And it is nice to see this AB outfit values winning every test, and not just trophies. Unlike the RWC Champions over the last 3 tournaments.

By: melkiwi

melkiwi — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:46:53 +0000

@Skeppie-127: I would have agree with that considering the record based on the fact that the 17 wins was over a four year period. But consider Lithuania is a third tier nation where everyone will no doubt be non professional and with the lack of resources they've managed to achieve something most countries would be proud of

By: Skeppie

Skeppie — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:46:16 +0000

@Brads-129: I reckon you would need to look at it in a similar way to the cricket ranking which is around 4 year cycles I think. In a year that we clean sweep the AB's we can righly lay claim to being the current best side but if they beat us similarly the preceding two years and the year after then it shows their dominance over us over a period of time and I suppose that's a fair reflection.

By: Skeppie

Skeppie — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:44:01 +0000

@willievz-128: Exactly

By: Brads

Brads — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:42:21 +0000

@Skeppie-124:
The only time span to measure that is worth considering is over a specific frame of reference.
Pre isolation is a time slot on its own.
Post isolation is a separate one again.
Professional era – that is where we are at today