Adriaan Fondse
The Crusaders will play Super 15 rugby matches next season in their hometown of Christchurch but not at their regular home ground.
All Blacks (29) 41 / Tonga (3) 10 (Final Score)
The New Zealand All Blacks hosted Tonga in the opener of Rugby World Cup 2011 at Eden Park, Auckland at 10:30 SA Time (20:30 NZ Time).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
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The game can be summed up as Moments of brilliance by the All Blacks in the 1st half and dogged forwards attack by Tonga in the 2nd half.
It is mission accomplished for the New Zealand All Blacks, 5 Log Points in the bag.
The All Blacks have jettisoned their controversial player rotation policy and say they will stick with the hardcore of their first XV through the World Cup starting on Friday.
Read this outstanding artile by Mark Reason. I found it in the Dominion post copied and pasted it verbatim. It is so good.
If New Zealand go out of a consecutive World Cup because of another dodgy refereeing decision, they will have no one to blame but themselves. The All Blacks no longer even bother to bend the laws. They set out to deliberately cheat.
For only one piffling syllable, CHEAT is an awfully big word. “Who are you calling a cheat?” demands the card-playing gunslinger, just before the mandatory murder and the five aces sliding from the sleeve.
The All Blacks cheat in spades. Half of their tries in the Tri- Nations have been set up by blatant cheating. Continue reading
It always intrigues me how partial and narrow-minded some of the New Zealand rugby commentators can be. The constant criticism of South Africa’s style of play and the ‘drooling’ over the New Zealand expansive game is something that irritates me immensely so as if there is only one way to play rugby and as if New Zealand has the perfect game.
Kieran Read and mates doing the Haka
All Blacks number eight Kieran Read will miss New Zealand’s Pool Games and fellow injured loose forward Adam Thomson looks set to miss the opening match against Tonga.
I have a lot I want to say about the upcoming Rugby World Cup (RWC) in New Zealand, and specifically about the Tri-Nation teams, I don’t pretend to be an expert on the Northern Hemisphere teams as I do not know their best players, or those fighting to become the first choice.
It is a very distinct possibility that the next time the Springboks meet the All Blacks, following the August 20 game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will be at the 60 000-seater Eden Park in Auckland on October 23 at 9pm.
The Rugby World Cup starts in two weeks and all the national sides announce their squads this week and then depart for their bases in New Zealand.
All Blacks Coach Graham Henry and his Assistant Coaches Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith have today announced the squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The All Blacks squad in position (with province and Test caps in brackets) is:
Changes made around five key areas of play – the tackle, scrum, offside, ruck, and maul – over the past three seasons have begun to have an impact in shaping the game that SANZAR wants to see played in Super Rugby.
In the world of the IRB and specifically Paddy O’Brien, protocols supersedes common sense.
The incident in question is the Jimmy Cowan try which was not awarded during Saturday’s Tri-Nations test match in Port Elisabeth based on the fact that the final pass on the try-line from Israel Dagg to Cowan was forward.
So, the New Zealand All Blacks had made a truckload of changes from the team that trounced the Wallabies in Auckland. So, they were eight or more players short of their first-choice run-on team. So, they had never – but never – won in Port Elizabeth. They still expected to win! And a lot of good judges expected them to win, also.
What a classic Springbok / All Black test match.
It is games like these that keep the rivalry alive. Two opposing styles played almost to perfection with uncompromising defence and a bit of referee controversy into the mix.
What a game!
What a timely victory for the Springboks and congrats to the Springboks for not getting drawn into the capacious game so promoted and drooled over by the All Black ‘groupies’.
We want a contest not a flap-flap razzle and dazzle mismatch dominated by one team with a bunch of natural athletes suited to play a league hybrid gobbledygook.
Springboks (15) 18 / All Blacks (5) 5 (Final Score)
The South African Springboks hosted the New Zealand All Blacks at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth at 17:05 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
Although the Springboks did not score a try, Morné Steyn’s boot was the difference… and all the Springboks worked hard enough, to really deserve the win!
The passion was back in the faces, the focus narrowed, the set phases were good and the breakdown battle was won by the Springboks.
All Blacks coach Graham Henry was happy to turn the pressure up on the beleaguered Springboks ahead of this weekend’s test, saying a victory would be “vital” to the South Africans.
With a World Cup campaign around the corner and both sides doing some serious tinkering with their lineups ahead of that tournament, it’s a moot point who has more to lose or gain out of this Tri-Nations test on Sunday (NZ time).
The All Blacks have named their team to face the Springboks in a Tri-Nations test with Keven Mealamu being named as captain.
The All Blacks have rested 9 of their first choice players for this match including Dan Carter, captain Richie McCaw, number eight Kieran Read, lock Brad Thorn, prop Owen Franks, fullback Mils Muliaina and centre Conrad Smith.
Hooker Keven Mealamu has been named as All Blacks captain for the second time in a Test after he captained the All Blacks against Scotland in November 2008.
See the happy faces?
A major All Blacks sponsor on Thursday cancelled a campaign urging New Zealand sports fans give up sex to support their team during the World Cup, after a public backlash.
The New Zealand Rugby Union has supported a campaign encouraging All Black fans to abstain from sex in support of the All Blacks.
Shock and horror, many big names have been excluded from the All Black squad to play the 3N Test in South Africa. Continue reading
Hurricanes loose-forward Victor Vito has been called into the All Blacks squad preparing for the TriNations rugby match against the Springboks in Port Elizabeth.
I wrote this article on Sunday for another web site, and thought the guys on Rugby-Talk wouldn’t want to hear how good the All Blacks are, but seeing that superBul provided us with such an enlightening article about the infringements at the breakdown, I thought I’ll put my 2 cents in.
There is a bit of a public hysteria at the moment in South Africa after the first two Tri-Nations Tests this year, specifically because of the way the Springboks lost in both these games.
I don’t think any Springbok supporter will ever be happy with ‘throwing’ Test matches for the sake of a ‘larger/bigger’ objective. However, this is exactly what happened in 2007. Continue reading
After their loss to the All Blacks in Wellington, Springbok lock Victor Matfield said that “It seems as if they are untouchable. The refs allow them to get away with murder. … I cannot say much about the ref (Alain Rolland), because I will get into trouble. But there were a few times on attack when we struggled to play because our ball was deliberately slowed down.”
Just whingeing, or did Victor have a point? We decided to take a close look at the All Blacks’ “rules of engagement” at the breakdown.
The Crusaders home ground of AMI Stadium in Christchurch will remain closed during the 2012 Super Rugby season forcing the Crusaders to play their matches on the road again.
AMI Stadium suffered heavy damage in the February earthquakes which hit Christchurch and killed 181 people.
The All Blacks look set to rest Richie McCaw and Dan Carter for their tour to South Africa where they will play the Springboks in Port Elizabeth.
Sonny Bill Williams has told his All Black team-mates that he will not play Super Rugby for the Crusaders next year and is expected to announce where he will play next year later this week.
All Blacks (17) 30 / Wallabies (0) 14 (Final Score)
The New Zealand All Blacks hosted the Australian Wallabies at Eden Park, Auckland at 09:35 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
The All Blacks sailed to a commanding lead early on against a Wallaby side which was unusually error-prone. In the second half the Wallabies tried hard but it was always going to be nigh on impossible to come back from so far behind.
The All Blacks will field the oldest side in their test history against the Wallabies at Eden Park on Saturday.
Coach Graham Henry has nailed his World Cup colours to the mast by naming a team of veterans that will closely mirror the starting side in the knockout phase of the World Cup.
Not only will “Ted’s Army” be the most ancient starting XV in the All Blacks’ 477 tests dating back to 1903, they are also the most test-hardened team in rugby history.
Barely one third of New Zealanders are enthusiastic about the Rugby World Cup, a mere five weeks out from the sport’s global showpiece, said a survey released on Tuesday.
Peter de Villiers was in a buoyant mood despite back-to-back defeats for the Springboks over the past two weeks on the away leg of the Tri-Nations in Australasia.
All Blacks (18) 40 / Springboks (7) 7 (Final Score)
The New Zealand All Blacks hosted the South African Springboks at Westpac Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand at 09:35 SA Time. This was the match thread for discussion of the game. The match was broadcast live on SuperSport 1, SHD & M-Net on TV in SA.
6 Tries to 1… what else can one say…
The world expects the Springboks to lose. More than they expect the All Blacks to win they expect the Springboks to lose.
Many hope that they will lose just to chastise them for this ‘weakened team’ on tour.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has made one positional change to his starting line-up for their Tri-Nations clash against the All Blacks in Wellington.
The 21-year old Patrick Lambie will now slot into the flyhalf position, with Morné Steyn moving to fullback.
De Villiers earlier named Steyn at flyhalf and Lambie at fullback.
No wonder Steve Hansen produced a feisty response when asked who would start at No8 on Saturday night.
A seemingly innocuous question yesterday about whether Liam Messam would get another run in the position was enough to earn a gruff rebuke from the All Blacks forwards coach who was in no mood to ruminate about who would start against the Springboks in Saturday night’s Tri-Nations match.
Would it be Richie McCaw, who has trained in the position this week, or would Messam get another shot at No 8?
As it happens, neither.
The Crusaders’ all-conquering scrum could result in some happy pills being lobbed into Steve Hansen’s rugby diet this year.
After last season’s Grand Slam tour a fuming Hansen threatened to implement “golden oldies” scrums into the All Blacks game plans during World Cup year after his men were repeatedly penalised by northern hemisphere referees. Eight months later, however, the All Blacks’ forward coach’s anger needle is out of the red zone and the Crusaders’ powerful set-piece during the Super competition may have been instrumental in his mellow mood.