Post RWC musings

Although this site has a category for Rugby posts, it's not a category I use very often. However, now feels like a time to use it.

Firstly, the All Blacks really didn't play their best game against the French - they didn't deserve to win based on that performance alone, however they didn't really deserve to lose either.

At the risk of sounding like a sore loser, the level of influence that a referee has over a game really needs to be looked into. The binning of McAlister in the second half had all of the commentators stunned (although to be fair, it was an all New Zealand commentary team in the coverage I was watching) as he was quite entitled to hold his line and turn into the French player. Take away the 3 points from the resulting penalty, do some navel gazing about what might have happened during those 10 minutes with the All Blacks at full strength, and you've already got the makings of a very different outcome.

But wait, there's more! There is no doubt that the pass to Michalak which resulted in a French try was a mile forward. How is it that all 3 officials missed that? If the touch judges can't keep up with the pace of the game, then they don't deserve to be there. I often wonder what goes through the mind of a referee when they watch a replay of a game they've officiated  and realise they made some bad calls.

In some ways, this mornings loss doesn't really come as a surprise. I remember a moment of conspiracy style pondering during one of the "All Blacks vs France C" tests earlier this year - thinking, what if it was all a ploy, with the French sacrificing a few tests in order to keep their cards well hidden in preparation for the World Cup? It might have sounded incredibly paranoid at the time (and I was half joking of course), but when you look back at the level of opposition we've had in the year's build up this World Cup it starts to make a small amount of sense.. watching the All Blacks under that mental pressure in the last 20 minutes of the game was pretty deflating - you could see they were mentally drained, and that it was affecting their play significantly. There's no amount of rotating and physical conditioning which can counter that sort of mental pressure, especially if you've never experienced it before (or in the case of some of the veteran players, if you haven't experienced it for the last year or so).

Anyway, that's my little rant done. Feels good to get it out and over with directly after the game, so I can move on. Which is something I fear the rest of the country might have a hard time with ;)

It's time to get mentally prepared for the possibility of cheering on South Africa for the next 2 weeks.

Link: All Blacks crash out of Cup
Link: Why do you think the All Blacks lost?

 Print | Posted on Sunday, October 07, 2007 12:36 PM | Filed Under [ Rugby ]