All Blacks end of the year tour

I tell you what though. The reaction of the coaches who saw that game won't be "Well gosh, that is how the game made in heaven should be played, I must pick a squad that'll play like that!" Because what the coaches of other countries would have seen is not a great game of rugby, but in fifteen metre tall flashing LED letters "39-12."

They'll look at the game, conclude it is suicide to play running rugby against New Zealand, and tell their players to try and emulate emulate South Africa - kick the ball as far down the field as you can, play offside as often as you can, make sure you take every opportunity to take support players out without the ball and generally just be the cheating bastards that they naturally are.

The ABs coaches see the result of that game as creating a disincentive to kick to the ABs though. It certainly wasn't just about the French trying to play an open game.
The ABs played like this for about 20 minutes in the last test against the Springboks and started to take them to pieces.

Agree PFunk.

That was a magic game. Undoubtedly it was the best game of rugby I've had the pleasure of watching live at the ground.

We were sitting up behind the goalposts where NZ started from, surrounded by Kiwis. It meant that most of the action happened down the other end of the field, but thankfully it's a big stadium with steep seats, so the view was really quite good.

Conrad Smith was my standout from what I saw. There were three or four moments where I thought a French player had slipped through the gap, but he turned quickly and monstered them in the tackle. Stunning stuff.

and that fend

Watched the game last night. What a cracker.

Aside from the obviously outstanding interplay by all (yes ALL) of the backs, it was a real pleasure for me to watch and ABs game where we didn't absolutely butcher 50% of the lineouts. Admittedly the French lineout isn't as good as the South Africans or some of the others, but it has been such a frustrating part of our game for so long now, that it was good to see us winning a few against the throw and being relatively clean on ours.

Topsy turvy day up front. Quite interesting what the commentators were saying about how it's difficult for the front row of the team putting the ball in. Why is that?

That backline was absolutely genius. I'd like to point out someone who stood out from the rest, but tbh they were all fast, strong, decisive and incisive. Very low error rate, and strong distribution and vision showed by all. Imagine how awesome rugby would be if games like this were, say, 1 in 5 instead of 1 in 50.



gc.

All Blacks for the weekend:

Cory Jane, Ben Smith, Tamati Ellison, Luke McAlister, Zac Guildford, Stephen Donald, Brendon Leonard, Rodney So'oialo, Richie McCaw (c), Liam Messam, Anthony Boric, Jason Eaton, John Afoa, Corey Flynn, Wyatt Crockett. Reserves: Andrew Hore, Neemia Tialata, Adam Thomson, Tanerau Latimer, Jimmy Cowan, Mike Delany, Sitiveni Sivivatu.

Not sure why they're playing McCaw tbh. Latimer is more than capable and Richie deserves his rest.

I only say bits and pieces of the game, but do you fullas think the buzz about this game has more to do with how shit rugby has been over the kast few years more so than how good the actual game was?

All judgements are relative after all

*only saw

*last few years



/goes and gets his glasses

I watched the whole game and I'm a bit bemused by all the media hype.

Yes the backline was good and they scored some tries. Wow. Just wow.

Barbarians: Drew Mitchell (Australia), Joe Rokocoko (New Zealand), Jaque Fourie (South Africa), Jamie Roberts (Wales), Bryan Habana (South Africa), Matt Giteau (Australia), Fourie du Preez (South Africa), George Smith (Australia), Schalk Burger (South Africa), Rocky Elsom (Australia), Victor Matfield (captain, South Africa), Carlo del Fava (Italy), WP Nel (Free State), Bismarck du Plessis (South Africa), Salvatore Perugini (Italy).

A little weird to see most of them are aussies and saffas...

Surely as genuine sports fans you two can put your league inferiority complexes behind you for once and just enjoy a decent game when you see it?

To be honest I think DC should be playing! These Barbarians have the potential to scare the 2nd-string AB's I reckon.

My comments have been a reflection to the media take on it rather than the game itself. Naturally the rugby heads got a bit defensive.

You'd think it was the second coming of Christ!

The thing with Barbarians bro, they are usually brilliant individuals, but being able to gel them as a team is a hard task. So I don't think we should have too much issues beating them. All Blacks have systems in place where all players, whether they belong to fringe or main group know offensive and defensive calls. These are drilled to know these plays to the point of it being a second nature.

Yes a definite reaction to the shit games of late, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that this game was played how *it should be*, and if all rugby was like this, then I wouldn't be such an ardent league fan.

The backs.were.awesome.



gc.

What a wicked game. Plenty of running rugby, but not as good as a game last week. Awesome work by Barbaas.

Fuck I had forgotten how poor Donald is at this level.

Please PLEASE let Robbie Robinson and/or Aaron Cruden make the step up next year, because without Carter the All Blacks are quite useless.

Yeah, Donald is fucking average. And I agree on Cruden and Robinson. They already have tons more talent than Donald. We'll see how they go on Super level.

I do feel a bit sorry for Donald though, his inability to step up isn't due to any lack of effort or heart on his part.

I am also praying a flanker from this years NPC will kick on in the Super 14 next year.

WTF was with the make up of the team?? Ending up with Leonard on the wing, Sivi at centre, and having McAlister, Donald & Delaney all the team seemed ridiculous.

Baabaas played well. Very much in the mould of a South African team... especially with such quality Saffa players in the team, and Mallet as coach as well. Habana the great scavenger picked up a couple of 'typical' Saffa tries.

But at the end of the day we have to stop making those mistakes under pressure.



gc.