Richie McCaw and Kieran Read showing off the Bledisloe Cup.
The All Blacks have become like those bad guys in western movies who you hate so much you end up loving them.
Yet again Australia had their pants pulled down and we have this deflating scenario where the Test year is nine days old yet nothing seems to matter any more.
The Bledisloe Cup is gone, the four nations title is on its way out the door yet for some reason I feel minimal pain because there is a sense that justice has been done.
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The best way to cope with the annual pain of defeat is to convince yourself you actually love what the Blacks are about — I find this easy because I genuinely do.
Here’s eight reasons why:
- BECAUSE, despite their success, they stay grounded. One All Black tradition is that the senior members of the team sweep the dressing rooms after a game, as if to reinforce that no task is beneath the team’s best players and the journey to the next match will start from rock bottom.
- BECAUSE they have the best and most powerful jersey in world sport. Pure black. That is all. It’s as simple as a kids crossword yet as powerful as a prison search light. How sick do some of those minestrone soup-styled rugby league jerseys look compared to the All Blacks jersey?
- BECAUSE they respect the game. After the first Test at Sydney last week the Australian captain emerged for his press conference in a beanie. The New Zealand captain wore a coat and tie.
- BECAUSE they attack harder than any other team in the world which is nothing less than their fans demand. New Zealand is the only country where Test fans break out into a chorus of fierce jeering if any player in silly enough to attempt a field goal. It’s tries they want. And tries they normally get.
- BECAUSE, relatively speaking, they don’t get paid much. When former New Zealand cricket captain Steve Fleming signed his first Indian Premier League contract, several All Blacks told him they were in awe of the size of it. Officials from Queensland and NSW Super Rugby sides are amazed at how dear their players are compared to New Zealand stars.
- BECAUSE their players have the most magnificent names. What commentator would not enjoy calling Victor Vito, Joe Rokocoko, Mils Muliaina, Zinzan Brook, Israel Dagg and Rene Ranger?
- BECAUSE they are such an exotic brew. Crack centre Conrad Smith is a highly qualified barrister yet through the years they have had players from all ends of the spectrum. All Black great Colin Meads was often pictured with a sheep under each arm. They’ve had chatter boxes like Justin Marshall, pot-stirrers like Sean Fitzpatrick and introverted props like Olo Brown who barely said a word. They’ve had any number of Pacific Islander-bred players who just wanted to quietly get on with the job to the more aggressive Josh Kronfeld, who used to paint anti-nuclear slogans on his head gear. You would not think they would mix perfectly but somehow they just do.
- BECAUSE, despite the presence of nigglers like Richie McCaw, they are occasionally capable of random acts of great chivalry such as the time when Joe Stanley gave his All Black jersey to Tim Horan after the youngster played his first Test.
Mind you, it’s easy to be nice when you are winning.
Olo Brown is a chartered accountant….Joe Stanley a truck driver…..Colin Meads a farmer, therein lies the secret of Nz Rugby success….
@ Te Rangatira:
Smokin’Joe!
Yes, farmers, natural athletes…we had the likes of Piet du Toit and Chris Koch, who very seldom attended practice nights in town.
@ Pietman:
Yep, so many farmers have been great Abs…natural athletes whose work on the land strengthens body parts that don’t get the same attention in the gym…like ankles….
I remember Olo Brown when he played for Mt Albert Grammer…our own first xv had a Nz secondary schools frontrow and Olo would struggle against them…
Smoking Joe…. like Frank Bunce was a late bloomer… an Auckland Rugby Legend….
Natural strength v gym strength
Pierre Spies is a good example, problem is, all International players are expected to bench X amount, squat X amount etc., so who is really stronger than who?
That’s why I fail to buy into all this “SA players are stronger malarkey and we dominate the other teams with power talk.
NZ players are just as strong, only they have other skills as well, they can offload and out others into space where we think we can run over 10 tacklers
@ nortierd:
Morning Nortie, I don’t know what it is, but maybe it is our belief in having hard muscles yet maintaining the suppleness.
@ Te Rangatira:
Howzit TR, tough going in the ITM and NRC picks.
I’m also not sure what the difference is, but I think it begins at schoolboy level.
By us it has always been a matter of giving the ball to the biggest bloke and let him steamroller his way forward, that works when you are 10 years old, but you get found out when the other kids also grow.
In NZ you play weight groups as opposed to our age groups, so if everybody is equal in size, you need to develop other skills to break defenses down
Yeah, there are weight divisions in school boy Rugby… a guy like Dane Coles played in the backs growing up but was never going to make it as a second five, but has brought those skills into his role as hooker.
Learning to pass the ball is drummed into you from an early age here, and with that comes the idea of support play and hitting holes…
7 @ Te Rangatira:
The opposite happens here, you play according to your age, and there is always one kid who is much bigger than the rest, and everyone gives him the ball and he just steamrollers forward….kind of like your ’95 WC team with Jonah 😆
@ nortierd:
I played open weight, and was nearly always one of the smallest, but it taught you how to tackle big guys…Jonah was dangerous because not only was he super powerful and fast, but he had excellent footwork, that once he got you flat footed, he could swat you away…. saw him a few months ago from a distance and didn’t recognise him.
@ nortierd:
Natural strength.Henry Honiball.Farmer
G,nite all
@ ryecatcher:
Exactly Rye.
I wonder if the “death of Platteland rugby” (rural) for our foreign readers, hasn’t also played a part in us not producing so many natural strong players?
Those buggers never saw the inside of a gym.
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