Road to World Cup 2015

I don't even know where to begin with that. If I give you a comprehensive reply you won't read it as it will be too long.

In short the weaknesses I outlined in our team are real and not excuses and now that SBW is back I have updated our chances if I was making excuses I wouldn't have done that.

Secondly winning a world cup away from home will be very difficult even for the all blacks and if I am the only person who sees that then so be it. Home town advantage is huge in rugby. And that has nothing to do with choking. I don't place much importance on pre world cup form either. Don't forget Australia won the tri nations before the last world cup including beating NZ yet they couldn't beat us in the world cup.

 

You sounded more confident about the Rugby League World Cup.

 

This World Cup will be interesting for sure. Now that the apparent "hoodoo" is gone, it'll be interesting to see how NZ go away from home again.

I personally wouldn't be putting my millions on anyone just yet. Just takes a few injuries to a team to swing the favourites.

I'm not a fan of SBW and I would rather he stayed away but when he's really not stepping on anyone's toes and we definitely need him - I'll graciously say, let's have him.

 

Kearney is a fuckwit who crushed my dreams by underpreparing the team for the final

"I don't want the boys too amped up" etc

 

we have never choked:

This will be sketchy because i watched the 1995 final, 1999 semi, 2003 semi, and 2007 quarterfinals live and then never watched them again however:

1995 - we had one game plan - spinning it wide to Jonah and they managed to shut that down and we didn't have a plan B.

1999 - we had that lead didn't we and then we seemed to just want the game to end and we stopped attacking. And France just got on a roll.

2003 - We lost because our lame coaching staff played Leon Macdonald at centre. Robbie Deans was a part of that decision. And hence I never wanted him to be head coach of the ABs and it didn't surprise me that he screwed up the Wallabies for a couple of years. Aussie also had Tuqiri and he got over the gain line every time with the ball and that created good momentum as well. McCaw did his best to win anyway. I also felt we just expected to win which is a theme I will return to shortly.

2007 - here we also basically just assumed that the opponent would roll over and die for us like they do in every test match outside of a world cup. We learned once and for all the hard lesson that teams play out of their skin in world cups and we need to prepare ourselves for a battle. Those lessons helped us win in 2011.

Overall what I have learned and the ABs have learned is that winning a world cup is a difficult thing to do. We have always been the dominant team leading up to a world cup and other teams have found a way to play the game of their lives and beat us. Most teams are simply unable to create that type of intensity outside of a world cup environment. We don't choke in world cups - other teams just rise to the occasion. Because I realise it will be tough I am not making us $1.40 favourites.

I am really looking forward to the next world cup. I think it will be competitive and I think a number of teams could win it. With SBW back I would place us as favourites however.

 

Yeah maybe we choked in 99 - we got that lead and then we didn't know what to do with ourselves.

2007 didn't that muppet McCallister get himself sent off for ten minutes and they scored - then they just believed in themselves.

I was just watching a world cup review and Graham Henry said that we didn't have contingency plans for if we fell behind so maybe that is the bad game management you are talking about.

I still more feel it was a case of underestimating the opposition especially in 2007. We were cocky.

France are a team that the NZ public respects and certain French names are legendary in New Zealand. Sella, Blanco, and now more recently Dusautoir.

When they are discussed the word Great is put in front of their names.

 

My sources suggest it's a little tighter (test matches only).

France = 76.36% win rate
England = 77.78% win rate

The disparity can most likely be attributed to the fact we've played France a hell of a lot more times than England (55 compared to 36). So imo we're no worse against France than we are against England.

 

Interesting I guess the the infrequency of losses against England makes them stand out less. Definitely had France pegged as the team that caused us the most difficulty from the NH.

My perception of the teams that have troubled us are:
SA
Aussie
France
Daylight
England
Daylight
Daylight
Daylight
Daylight
Wales
Nobody else