Better Rugby Rules

Richie McCaw – Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell the blood of a Afrikaner !

The Dan Carter and Richie McCaw show was awesome at Capetown. To win in South Africa is hard and rare enough and to hold them to zero score was just outstanding, or was it ! I must say the Boks were just horrible, no game plan, stupid break down errors with a ref they know wont hesitate to blow the whistle. The Boks were not the same team that played in NZ a few weeks back. Once again the tri nations team that has a couple of weeks spell, return with a very much sub par performance.

Once Sitiveni Sivivatu left the field I was a happier chap, he is too lazy to be an All Black ! How the hell did Doug Howlett ever get away! After the Sitiveni injury the ‘marsh mellow’ Toeava came on, then we had three specialist centers on the field (Kahui and Smith the other two), and to be fair he played well. But where has the blinding pace gone (Jeff Wilson and Christian Cullen types), oops, I know the preferred selection of Wayne Smith has seen the not wanted, and better talented go overseas !

The first half fell into the typical non directional ELV run and kick mess, in the second half Dan Carter was obviously reminded about the tactical kicking for the corners (last seen in the Auckland Aussie tri nations test), then the quality of the game stepped up a notch. However the rugby in this game was not as good and pre ELV style, I mean the Zinny, Fitz and Bunce years. You dont agree, then ask your self when you last saw back line versus back line try occur by the Abs? (The Aussies did one against us at Auckland, but the ABs have not had one yet in the 2008 Tri Nations, [note: forwards in the back line dont count]).

Dan Carter scores very poorly on drop goal skills, he stands far to flat, he must step back and setup correctly. Of course he is awesome at all other matters, but drop goals, not so good. Please do better Dan the RWC final in 2011 just may depend on this !

Richard Kahui is turning up trumps, he has a fine rugby brain on his shoulders, and looks like hes been playing test match rugby for years !

Jimmy Cowan continued on from his fine performance in Auckland, however Piri Weepu proved he is no slug, looks like these two guys are the front runners for the half back role. Keep it up we need you both ! Still dont agree with subbing half backs for rotation reasons.

Keven Mealamu was subbed onto the field and his very first lineout was a disaster, so what you say, well this trend has happened in every Tri Nations game, the first lineout has been lost by Keven’s error. I will repeat myself again subbing off hookers and half backs is not the smartest move for pure rotation. Sure we were points up and it didnt matter this time, but it did contribute to the home loss to the boks last month. ( Here : All Blacks(28) vs Springboks(30): ABs do a Veitch !)

The Bok scrum had the edge on the us, Afoa seamed to even things out, maybe Somerville was sub par, dunno, need to raise our game here and I am sure Mike Cron will do just that.

The back play (for either side) was never allowed to develop, I have said before the ELVs have the ability to destroy traditional back line play as forwards break up the much needed skill set in the back line. I do not like this ELV side effect. If it continues why bother picking a specialised center, you may as well pick a 6′ 5″ monster and use him to run and bash the ‘field wide trench defense’.

The ABs have two weeks off, and will face an exhausted Aussie team in Brisbane, and I hope that’s a real ripper! Go the ABs.