Sunday special: All Black talent runs deep
Rugby Championship doubleheader notebook dump; more Silver Lake shenanigans; Black Caps fall-out and Waikato's NPC pain... PLUS: The Bounce's first prizewinner.
DOUBLE-HEADER NOTEBOOK DUMP
All Blacks v Argentina
Some of the All Blacks handling in close quarters during their 36-13 win against Argentina was sublime. That was a patchwork quilt of a starting XV that we may never see lineup together again, yet the interplay in the first half was impressively accurate.
The finishing however, was horrendous. Four dead-set, nailed-on tries blown: two down to mistiming that led to forward passes (Samisoni Taukei’aho to Will Jordan and Jordan to Rieko Ioane), one down to a bad drop (Finlay Christie), and one due to a full-blown hungus attack (Ioane).
Ioane’s decision to dummy rather than hit TJ Perenara or Jordie Barrett with an inside ball was forgivable; his decision when dragged down short to try to crawl across the line rather than pop it up to the support or place it for a quick recycle was less so.
You suspect it will be used in the argument against Ioane at centre though I’d suggest this was less a fault of his distribution skills per se as it was a massive case of tryline fever.
Taukei’aho is great fun to watch. If Dane Coles can regain full fitness and fizz, the All Blacks depth at hooker is sensational.
There was not much to cheer about if you’re a Pumas fan. Even with Nicolas Sanchez at the helm they were lacking vision; without him they were utterly directionless.
Santiago Carreras did not have a good match at first five-eighth, yet the angled kick he dropped into the hands of wing Emilio Boffelli was a candidate for most skilful moment of the match. The ball had to be kicked at that pace, at that angle, with that parabola and land at that spot for there to be any chance of a try.
Barrett watch: Scott is really good at rugby; Jordie is the best goalkicker in his family; Beauden did not need that pointless exercise in cap collecting.
Australia v South Africa
The 28-26 win last week was restorative for the Wallabies, this 30-17 victory was so much more. Australia outplayed and out-thought the Springboks and we saw a template from Dave Rennie’s side that can be effective against all-comers.
Michael Hooper is an absolute champion and has become even better as he has got less whine-y on the field. He is as important to this Wallaby side as Richie McCaw was to the All Blacks.
Before you start, I’m not saying he has the body of work that McCaw compiled (yet), just that the fortunes of his side are as entwined with his own as they were with McCaw and the ABs.
Have the Boks been talked into an identity crisis of sorts? At times during the first half it looked as if they were trying to prove to the world that they’re not just a kick-chase team. It can’t be easy when you’ve been accused of trying to kill rugby but I’m pretty sure Springbok fans would rather win ugly than lose pretty.
This from league guru Phil Gould was interesting.
As was this.
Gould has one of the most active timelines on Twitter. It’s exhausting.
I find the framing of this story regarding the Lachie Swinton red-to-yellow card interesting and a little troubling. It is far from being “everything that is wrong with rugby”. If anything it says a lot about where rugby is trying to go right. World Rugby needs the tackle zone to go lower. Under no circumstances was Swinton trying to clash heads with Springbok No8 Duane Vermeulen but his upright position and high starting point on contact made such an outcome much more likely. Yellow was probably the right call, but Swinton’s hit is the sort of tackle the game’s leaders are trying to stamp out, not because it’s “intended” to injure but because the body position makes it inherently more likely to cause harm.
This might well be a valid question.
Silver Lake stake lowered
Hard on the heels of this piece in The Bounce comes this news in the Herald. 😏
The first questions I’d ask would be:
If Silver Lake is so easily willing to drop their stake from 12.5 percent to 7.5 percent and place a higher value on New Zealand rugby’s commercial rights, what in the hell sort of due diligence did the 26 provincial unions undertake before unanimously signing off on the original deal?
Or were the unions just told what to say and do?
If it was the latter, is the NZR constitution that supposedly places the power in the hands of the unions just a hollow shell?
Black Caps in Pakistan… Just say “no”
No, New Zealand Cricket does not owe you a detailed explanation for why they brought the Black Caps back from Pakistan.
No, the Government does not owe you a detailed explanation of the credible security threat and subsequent advice that led to that decision.
No, it doesn’t matter how loudly you shout on Twitter or Facebook; that’s not how the intelligence world works - or the intelligent world, for that matter.
No, NZC did not set out to hurt Pakistan Cricket, even though they knew that’s exactly what this decision would do.
No, they would not have taken the decision lightly.
No, just because they made the decision to pull out on Friday, it does not mean it was a mistake to go in the first place - risk threats, like many other things in the world, are fluid.
No, they did not do it to appease India and the BCCI in some IPL-funded global cricket geopolitical conspiracy.
No, the security around the Blacks Caps was not lacking; it was presidential level in terms of feet on the ground and technological capability and probably impervious to the type of attack that occurred on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009 (which saw six police and two civilians killed).
No, the players are not the only ones whose safety needs to be considered.
No, there is no practical equivalence to the dreadful Christchurch mosque shootings that nearly saw the Bangladesh cricket team caught up in the tragedy.
(But, no, Bangladesh did not stay on and play the Hagley Oval test, understandably leaving for home as soon as they could.)
No, the Pakistan players and public won’t understand the decision and nor should they be expected to because they have lived with and to a certain extent managed the threat of terror most of their lives.
No, the Government and NZC can’t make decisions based on what might be Pakistan’s desensitivity to these threats.
YES, this is a really heartbreaking moment for world cricket and Pakistan cricket in general. Given that this threat was deemed credible and came from multilateral intelligence sources, it will give other touring countries pause for thought.
The ICC needs to find a way of wrapping its arms around Pakistan cricket at this time. Twitter is not the best place for this to happen.
Waikato wuz wobbed
Waikato lost 19-20 to Canterbury in the Bunnings NPC on Friday night but they should have been afforded another chance to turn a one-point loss into a one-point win.
Having scored in the final minute, ex-Cantab Fletcher Smith had a chance to steal the win with his conversion. Canterbury charged early and were sent back by the referee Cam Stone. Smith missed the kick.
Under the precedent set by Nigel Owens when the All Blacks scored their stunning come-from-behind win in Ireland, Smith should have had another shot. He was denied, with the officials believing the charge had been caught early enough for him to start his process again.
If that was the case, they should have instructed Smith to start again.
A refereeing source spoken to yesterday believed this was a clear mistake.
PRIZE WINNER!
I’m giving away a free annual subscription. The winner will get to choose the a friend or family member to gift this to.
And the winner was… my former boss Trevor McKewen! Well done Trevor, I’ll be in touch.
Lockdown fatigue is real judging by the look of enthusiasm for the lucky winner draw at Chateau Cleaver.