ACKS?
The All Blacks have been unbeaten
in the Rugby Championship and have
hardly lost a game since winning the
Rugby World Cup in 2011, but while
there are some great players in this All
Blacks squad, I actually think the All
Blacks have been made to look better by
some average opponents short of world
class performers. Even the traditionally
powerful teams like South Africa, Australia
and England have been average over the
past four or five years. The Wallabies
were great in the early 2000s, while
England and South Africa were good in
the early to mid 2000s, but stars like John
Eales, George Gregan, Jonny Wilkinson
and more recently Victor Matfield have
been missed and beating England, South
Africa and Australia in recent years has
hardly been a challenge.
Only this year are we seeing some depth
in Australian and English rugby especially,
meaning that the All Blacks don’t just
have to show up to win. In more recent
seasons, the All Blacks have won even
when playing badly and you can count
on one hand the number of complete
performances by the All Blacks. Last
year’s win in South Africa was impressive,
the Rugby World Cup semi-final vs
Australia was great, while they have
performed well in Argentina in the Rugby
Championship, but inbetween times, their
performances have been patchy, but they
have managed to scrape together some
narrow wins. It is the sign of a good team
that can win when playing badly, but this
All Blacks team does have this undeniable
belief that they can win every game.
While they haven’t been overly
convincing in the last four years, the
All Blacks have managed to win when
it counts which is important looking
towards the Rugby World Cup 2015 in
England. Teams like Australia, England
and South Africa are more of a threat
heading towards the 2015 tournament
with more depth than their recent past
and these teams are pressurising the
referees into penalising Richie McCaw a
lot more than in the past. The Wallabies
now have a combative tight five, long
considered their achilles heel, while
England seem to have discovered some
genuinely threatening ball runners in the
loos e forwards and backline.
All this means is that the Rugby World
Cup 2015 is going to be a beauty with
Australia and England on the rise, while
the All Blacks will be slightly on the
decline making for a great tournament. -