Seldom has so little been expected of an All Black Team as this season.
Last week against the Australians, most expected a loss and we were pleasantly surprised. The feeling was very different last night against South Africa at home and at altitude with New Zealand being defeated 28-19. Unfortunately this loss has brought home that even with our full strength side (minus Ali Williams and Dan Carter), the Springboks at home may be too good for us.
Against France our inexperience was for all to see and can be pinpointed as a significant reason for the loss of the Dave Gallagher trophy. The team sheet last night had plenty of test caps beside the names and it was disappointing that despite this, there was a lack of composure when cool heads were required.
To be fair, it’s difficult to win football games when playing 40 minutes of rugby. Momentum is the name of the game at test level with inevitable ebbs and flows, but with a referee seemingly hell bent on whistling us out of the game, the Springbok flow became a torrent in that 1st half giving us no chance to play.
When down by a halftime score of 14-3, the coach will either read the riot act or give the ‘its not as bad as it looks’ speech and I suspect Henry would have given the latter. There can be no arguments in the second half however as the game was there to win if we were good enough.
Last week against the Australians, most expected a loss and we were pleasantly surprised. The feeling was very different last night against South Africa at home and at altitude with New Zealand being defeated 28-19. Unfortunately this loss has brought home that even with our full strength side (minus Ali Williams and Dan Carter), the Springboks at home may be too good for us.
Against France our inexperience was for all to see and can be pinpointed as a significant reason for the loss of the Dave Gallagher trophy. The team sheet last night had plenty of test caps beside the names and it was disappointing that despite this, there was a lack of composure when cool heads were required.
To be fair, it’s difficult to win football games when playing 40 minutes of rugby. Momentum is the name of the game at test level with inevitable ebbs and flows, but with a referee seemingly hell bent on whistling us out of the game, the Springbok flow became a torrent in that 1st half giving us no chance to play.
When down by a halftime score of 14-3, the coach will either read the riot act or give the ‘its not as bad as it looks’ speech and I suspect Henry would have given the latter. There can be no arguments in the second half however as the game was there to win if we were good enough.
As Henry has stated, this is an excellent Springboks side and I suggest that they will be too good next week as well.
I missed the game. My efforts at explaining to Gemma over the phone how to record on our satellite hard drive failed.
ReplyDeleteNow about to trawl through you tube to find some highlights; well um Conrad's try at least.
I have no confidence that today will be a different outcome.