You could see the smile on his face widen when the question was finally asked. There was no doubt that Wallaby coach Robbie Deans had been waiting for the opportunity.
News24
When it finally came, Deans was more than happy to front up and give all those rugby fans across South Africa and Australia the best news they will hear for a long time: The All Blacks are not streets ahead of everyone else.
While New Zealand may have won the Tri-Nations with a game to spare after a clean sweep at home and victories in Australia and South Africa, making them odds-on favourites for next year’s World Cup, they haven’t exactly left the Boks, or the Wallabies for that matter, quaking in fear at their form.
The Boks will have taken many positives out of their performance at FNB Stadium in Soweto a week ago, while the Wallabies, who still have a return date with the All Blacks, believe the Kiwis have shown their hand rather early ahead of next year’s World Cup.
Deans was adamant that both his Wallabies and the Springboks had definitely not played to their potential, and this, rather than an awesome shift in form for the Kiwis, was the biggest factor on the Tri-Nations scene at the moment.
“They are clearly not that far ahead but they are ahead,” Deans said when asked about the All Blacks.
“The Springboks showed that last weekend that the All Blacks are capable of being beaten. The All Blacks are brimming with confidence and thanks to that they get the rub of the green.”
Deans admitted the difference was perhaps that the All Blacks were more “streetsmart” than the other two teams, and went further to say they “played” the referees well to get the most advantage out of the game situation.
“They seizing on those moments in the game and turning opportunities into points. But they’re not that far ahead. The margins are tight, they are fine. Clearly us and South Africa are chasing but if you go back a year, the All Blacks didn’t win a single game against the Boks. That’s how tough the margins are,” he explained.
“The All Blacks are streetsmart and they’ve had the advantage of continuity. They’re injury free and have a playing group that is experienced. They’re clever in the way they play the referee and the way they combine.
“You’d have to say off the back of last year that there wouldn’t have been too many who would have picked the 3-0 response to last season.”
Deans’s final word on the matter was possibly the most heartening for both the Boks and Wallaby supporters, as he believes it can easily be turned around in a year.
“I wouldn’t be reading too much into the future other than possibly the response.”
I kind of agree with him, the All Blacks have upped their fitness and can therefor play faster, their technical execution at the breakdowns seem superior at the moment, but that is really all that has changed.
We all know the drawbacks currently impeding the Springboks, and even the Wallabies have not fielded their best forward pack yet.
All this culminates in the All Blacks looking better than what they are, but make no mistake, SA and Aus will need to sort out their house before RWC 2011.
A article i agree with. Why did we went so ballistic this week?
We played the All Blacks for 77 minutes perfect, the lessons from losing in the last 3 minutes might just be our best for 2010.
Neither Deans nor PDV are likely to admit that they are too far behind.
That is an admission of guilt.
However there is a world of difference between why the Aussies are behind and why we are behind.
The Aussies simply don’t have the player base, especially in the tight forwards, but they understand the importance of playing a skilled game at pace that looks after the ball.
We have the best player base, but have been caught fast asleep in our preparation in the space of 12 months.
Just heard on the news Blue bulls player has been arrested for killing a police officer in Sunnyside Pretoria, but they dont know the dedails yet. 🙁
Bees Roux
2@ superBul:
We had and still have very good reason to go ballistic….
1. We could not close out a 5-point lead with 3 minutes to go.
2. We surrendered 12 points in less than 3 minutes at the end.
3. We still sucked the hindmost tit in many of the match stats, possession count as well as territorial count.
4. Some of our players, most notably some senior players looked aweful despite a good showing by the Bokke in general for the 1st 70 minutes.
5. The smallest and / or youngest Bokke showed the most “HART” in the Test…. little Hougie & Aplon & Juan de Jongh…. and big Flippie.
6. We lost ON HOME SOIL and AT ALTITUDE.
7. Bokke seems to be underconditioned or unfit.
8. We still kicked away senseless possession.
9. There is very little balance in our GAME PLAN compared to an ALL ROUND GAME PLAN by the All Blacks.
We sucked because we lost!
4 & 5@ Treehugger:
Yip, apparently Bees Roux was arrested for bliksemming a Speedcop… dead, moertoe… early hours this morning in Hatfield.
@ grootblousmile:
O hel nou vir al die Bulls bashing. Phweeeewt phwwweeeeeet kom hier alle Bul haters hiers kos vir julle.
Eish dis nou nag vir Bees
ok everyone has the nes ciaoooooooooooooooo
lol
Could be self defence, Joburg cops bullies and think they above the law in my experience.
superBul wrote:
Nee man, someone has died and a man (who happens to be a rugby player) is in custody so I don’t see the point of your smiley face, I find your comment offensive.
@ grootblousmile:
All the points you mention are like that for many years now, nothing new, even in Jakes time we lost here, at Loftus with a massive score, but we win with small margins, very seldom that we run over them. They smash us with big scores , we win with small margins.
And you dont for one moment think the forward pass if called could have made a total different outcome?
I hate losing too but really the point is this OLD TEAM we supported wholeheartedly. Now we write them off. Why ? Because the All Black coaches tell us all sorts of stories, outdated game plan(they hate it because they know when executed properly you are with your backs to the wall)players not fit, players too old, on and on and what do the public do they are so gullible they believe them.
I wonder if this is not just a opportunity to jump on Peter De Villiers back.
One thing is forsure, the Blacks took a lot more into these games in terms of continuity… They had far less injuries to players, especially in key positions than the Bokke or Wallabies.
No one wishes injuries on any team but the law of averages would have had me a bit worried if I were them…
I still believe with some good planning and a good conditioning program for players we will be up there with the best next year. I think the Wallabies will also be a team to watch next year. If all players are well rested and conditioned this could be the run on 15 and they can regain the WC for us.
15. F. Steyn
14. JP. Peterson
13. J. Fourie
12. J.de Villiers / J.de Jongh
11. B. Habanba
10. M. Steyn
9. F. du Preez
8. P. Spies
7. J. Smith
6. H. Brussow
5. V. Matfield
4. B. Botha
3. J. Du Plessis ( hopefully someone better by then )
2. J. Smit
1. G. Steenkamp
Other players in the mix : S. Burger, F. van der Merwe, A. Bekker, F. Hougaard, D. Stegmann, D. Potgieter, P. Lambie, etc etc…
We could very well go all the way again !!! 🙂
12@ superBul:
Does the fact that it has been happening for a while make it right or excuse it…. no, never!
@ Bullscot:
Smilley taken off, sorry. But i hope my post is water on the heads of Anti Bulls.
15@ superBul:
Why that type of comment at all??
@ superBul:
Cheers mate, its just that there are a few areas in life I don’t appreciate going with humour and death is one of them. Would be ‘swak styl’ of anyone to use this as an antiBulls bashing opportunity. Anyway, respect to you superBul for your apology.
@ grootblousmile:
The fact that we talked about it all the time did not change it before. I just dont like the way we eat all the crap about our experienced players up as fact. We debated the rest many times and we could not agree here, even when Dr Tim Noakes placed articles. Now Graham Henry says it and we all want to discard our great players.
@ Blouste:
Yip I think you raise a very good point there regarding continuity Blouste, the All Blacks made very few changes especially in the forwards so the guys must have built up a good understanding of each other. This probably more one more the historians (nudge McLook) among us but if I can remember correctly one of the features of the long run of Nick Mallets successful team was how much continuity he had with his pack of forwards, plus also I guess he had a great forward coach too.
superbul @ 12
hehehehe
wonder whether the “WISE MEN” of nzrugby
will rest their players again next year? 😉
@ Ashley:
Or even better with their building a second team , as GH said they will do from now on, will they again be confused, who is the best player.
@ grootblousmile:
GBS I will add #10. The ABs were close to scoring 6 tries not 3. That was a telling statistic.
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