An excellent effort from both teams. Good to see the so-called s12 powder-puff fowards showing the Poms who’s boss. MOM has to Jono Gibbes for his excellent efforts in the air and for showing what ABs were missing at blindside previously.
And the backs…way, way too quick. Well done Mr. Henry! (And Capitana!)
read the story about the thrashing:
nzherald.co.nz/sports/rugby/ … =allblacks
An enjoyable day, but expect the English to come back strong next week.
Do you mean the completely reorganized World Champions? Yes you do, and yes, the All Blacks did humiliate them. So have Ireland, so I don’t know what this really means. Let’s see them play a real team, like Australia or France.
tinman wrote:[quote]the All Blacks did humiliate them. So have Ireland,[/quote]
Do you understand what humiliate means? In the case of the All Black’s victory it was the scoreline 36-3. How exactly did Ireland humiliate the English? Oh, that’s right, simply losing to Ireland no matter the scoreline is humiliation enough.
Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya…haven’t I heard this story of the All Blacks humiliating England? NZ beat the crap out of them and England looked good, too. It’s just that the All Blacks were great, and that’s the truth. But NZ’s done this before to England and Australia and South Africa and gone on to loose again and again when it really mattered. I won’t go on and on about this because you’ve heard it all before, otherwise you wouldn’t be on the net jumping up and down over one victory. Let’s just hope they can keep it up; I’ve heard that Prozac sales in New Zealand have been going through the roof ever since the last World Cup.
Tinman,
Nice side-step of the question. So how exactly have Ireland humiliated England?
Well, Tinman, I used a provocative headline (straight from the NZHerald article), but my post had a number of balanced points. All you did was whinge. Excuses eh? I read extensively before the test, and no one was complaining about tiredness-rather, English were quite confident. The fact is, if we lost then English would have been well pleased. I think they were shell shocked by some outstanding (but not perfect) play. When it happened to us against Ausy in WC semi we didn’t whinge, we just cried then dumped our coach.
Here’s a quote from the beeb, Lol (Yellow-cardio) on no excuses:
“In most areas, we came second best. When you lose 36-3, it is easy to say you are tired, but there are no excuses.”
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u … 801005.stm
Here’s an example of why NZers are leery of English rugby arrogance:
A previous S. Jones article (I know he’s Welsh, but he writes for an English paper, and typifies the standard of English commentary)…
'Henry
That’s exactly my point; NZ is the better team. How come they don’t have the World Cup?
bc:
English are damn tough, and were great last year.
A whinge…what could have been if we didn’t have a stoopid coach.
I hope we win our next WC before 2087 
On a good day, the All Blacks are the greatest team that ever walked this planet. Coaching might be one reason, but there is an all too unsettling trend of the All Blacks chocking under the big pressure.
First of all.Well done to the allblacks for crushing England.What a great game.England had a great team,but happy to say,it was only for one season.If they had not won the world cup last year,there would not have been another chance of winning it in the next 10 years.
As a South African,once again Im proud of my teams performance last night and it was a great feeling to see my team thrashing Ireland.
So to all the teams out there,SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY is on its way back and Im feeling great.
I will put loads of cash on the Allblack vs England game for next week.
All blacks 53-3
Good to hear. Hope NZ has some decent competition in the 3N this year (but of course still win).
edit: here are the weekend results…note the SH-NH balance restored… 
u21’s
nz vs eng 42-13
Aus vs fra 25-24
sa vs scot 69-15
arg vs italy 43-10
Smartarse response:
I can tell you in two words why the English only managed to score 3 points - No. Wilkinson. I mean come on, how many points did the rest of the team score at the RWC? And talking about the World Cup, any team that needs to field 16 men to beat… who was it, Samoa? 
To be honest, in that game, the English were outclassed, plain and simple. The AB’s had greater possession, and made more of it when they had the ball. The English played well, but not that well, and they’re capable of more. I’m expecting a much tougher game for the AB’s next time the two face off. But the game just been, the English got exactly what they deserved judging by the way they played. Mind you, the AB’s deserved a few less points too, given the sloppy passing that was almost endemic to them throught the game.
Please, cut the crap, harping on about what a crap coach Mitchell was. That’s arse and you know it. How many games did the AB’s lose under his coaching? He only got the arse 'cause we didn’t win the World Cup. And that alone is a BS excuse for dropping a coach with a record like that. I don’t expect NZ rugby to win another World Cup until we can stop throwing bloody tantrums and firing our coaches the moment their team loses. And unfortunately I have to agree with tinman on one point: the AB’s do seem to have a tendency to choke when the going gets really tough.
One inopportune bad day. That’s all it takes, that’s all it took. Who knows, if that match’d been a day later, maybe the AB’s could’ve taken it; as it was, they didn’t have it when it was played.
Go Go GO-----South Africa.Hope my team will kick some ass on Saturday.
Bokke Bo.
Maybe it’s you who is cr***ing on on some shaky small point. How do you know what I think?
Well here we go then…Mitch got the boot bc he wasn’t professional enough, and we had Henry/Hansen/Smith to move AB rugby into the future. You’re right that they have choked a lot over the last 5-6 seasons, but before that with zinny, fitzy, shelford, we had some tougher nuts and often pulled the game out of the hat.
And, here’s some more of what I think, since you were guessing. Argue and agree with points in good humor, be gracious, but keep your insults to yourself please. It’s always good to learn and improve my understanding.
My major problems with Mitch were his rude dumping of Cullen-who could have been coached better, made fitter and faster. Also, his and Deans’ treatment of Mehrtens, same story. Also, trying Soc’iolo (sp) at number 8 for the English one-off last year-against big mean LoL of all people…and playing Collins out of position for so long (he’s a 6). Then there was the clinging to ‘suitcase Thorne’ (who is actually a very good 6, but needs a break to freshen up, and to do some speed work, also to make some space for Umaga/Gibbes) because of Deans again-whereas we should be picking the best players for their positions first, then choosing the captain. Another point would be non-playing of Umaga for the semi or play-off, instead putting panadol McD in there (out of position, and he was leaving at the end of the year for Japan). The centre solution in this case would have been Umaga with a back-up of Muliaina with Cullen/McD at FB…and that would have stopped ‘larikan’ and ‘moreco*k’ in their tracks. A few other issues such as wishy-washy treatment of press and sponsors and public (the ‘journey’, cough cough), etc. There’s much more I could say. Oh, here’s another point related to Hart-and Mitchell-thank f**k we’ve got the AB trial back. Etc etc etc.
I am a big admirer of English coach ‘SCW’. One thing I especially like was his focus on consistency and momentum. He really built a class team. I hope the ABs can do the same over the next few years. I’d like to see them all get in great shape (like Neil Back was). To do that, they will need close communication and support with a smarter AB management/coaching/exercise/physio team/plan. As I alluded above, both Cullen and Mehrtens (pie fan) would have benefited enormously from some medium-term fitness planning/support from Mitchell…if he had thought of it-but he was too busy making them enemies.
On the plus side, Mitch did pull together a number of excellent players, especially cocopops.
Henry brings to the table excellent consistency with Akld, and hope he can get this for ABs. He’s defensive coach for the blacks, and it will be good to have three old hands focusing on their respective areas (W.Smith, well respected, Hansen, and Henry). Having more tough men in the team is great (Robinson is a pig hunter, need I say more (knife in teeth crawling through scrub)), and there are also three s12 captains. Plenty to be excited about in the future, but bc of the bad years since Fitzy et al-the last 5-6 years, I won’t get too optimistic that we will win every game-the Convicts (Wannabes), Saffies, and Poms are also excellent and seriously competitive.
We are just faster and more skilled. 
I think they held a lot back in the second half against the English, so hopefully we can get another comfortable win. Still, as Henry says, only 40% now (55.5%?) 
So England lost again.Ha Ha Ha.They suck.
Im happy to see my springbucks are getting better again.
Hope we can crush Wales this weekend.
Yep, they suck. Not only that but Dame CW had a long miserable winge :fume: live on NZ TV, the plonker. He’d expressly told his forwards to knobble/injure Robinson, and they tried at their first opportunity. :fume:
Kneeing a guy in the back/shoulder area could leave any number of bad injuries (remember how Smith :fume: (another cu*t) purposely late tackled and flattened from behind Marshall in the Semi at World Cup, fracturing M’s rib), and Shaw deserved the card, and if the IRB pulled their heads out of their collective arses, he deserved three weeks-but got off on a pathetic technicality. Note, Shaw also smashed Mealamu in the side of the head from behind, causing Kev to go to the bloodbin in the first test.
Smallcock later rucked Carter’s head, got caught on a spectator’s vid cam (some smart kiwi obviously watching him closely) and got 3 week suspension. The cu*t, should be banned.
Anyway, we won, they are the worst world champs ever, and all is right with ABs restored as No. 1 (until the next choke :s ).
Go the wobby wannabes this weekend!
Good luck to the Springboks in all games except v’s ABs.
My favorite part, from what I heard, was Sir Clive trying to convince everyone that despite a 72-15 drubbing over the two tests, and the English being kept in their long drought of tries in games v the ABs, that the English were the better team! I mean COME ON 72-15 for the TWO test series! That’s an asswhupping by anyone’s measure old son.
And I’m a big fan of Robinson now. 'bout time the ABs had someone willing to give it a bit of mongrel (without being a dribbling mental case like Troy Flavell).
Oh, and a couple of other things:
Eezzee, my “crapping on about Mitchell” comment wasn’t specifically at you, just a general vent at the general public of NZ last year. Sorry, should’ve been clearer.
I have to admit, though, that although we did end up absolutely handing it to the English last weekend, for the first half (excluding that kneeing mong) the English looked a lot better than we did. Thankfully we pulled it out and pulled it out well for the second half.
Yes, it sure was clear to anyone watching that NZ can beat England any day as long as NZ’s a man up. While Shaw deserved to be expelled, NZ’s victory against an undermanned England is hardly a demonstration that they can dominate the field. I hate the Pommies as much as anybody, but it’ll take a whole lot more than this to convince me that the All Blacks are the team that they used to be.