Up The Guts Rugby

No doubt you have seen the celebrations that ensued when Andy Ellis retained his composure for long enough to kick the ball into touch so that the All Blacks could be pronounced Rugby World Cup 2011 champions.  No doubt you have seen this footage along with the team celebrations at least 410 times by now.  For some reason, even though I’d seen all of it before and from multiple angles, I couldn’t help but watch every single piece of television coverage that described how the All Blacks won the world cup and what it meant to New Zealand.

Joel gives the thumbs up as verification that we have enough Waikato Draught before kick off

I won’t bore you with any details about the game, you’ve already heard and seen it all over a hundred times.  Instead I’d like to talk briefly about my experience on the night.  My wife and I and a group of our very close friends booked a table in a bar in the Hamilton Fan Zone in New Zealand.  We had a nice view of a couple of decent sized screens plus we could soak in the atmosphere of everyone milling about in the closed off Hood Street.

There were three moments I will remember for the rest of my life.

The first was singing the National Anthem at the top of my lungs with my arms around two of my best mates, Jay and Joel.  I had tears streaming down my face I was so proud.  This was followed by the very passionate Haka led by Piri Weepu where the French advanced.  This received massive applause from the crowd around me, everyone was on their feet screaming in ecstacy.

Nez kisses the Gilbert for luck!

The second moment was when Donald came on and was lining up his penalty goal.  I started a chant with my table, “Beaver! Beaver! Beaver!” and within seconds there were THOUSANDS of people all around me screaming it out at the top of their lungs pumping their fists into the sky.  Then he got it over and everyone just ERUPTED!  It was an amazing experience.  Having supported the Chiefs for a number of years it was an extra special moment for me and vindication for a wonderful player.

Pictured: Joel and Nez - Probably not safe to drive at this point...

Third, when the final whistle blew, and everyone realised, the All Blacks had won the Rugby World Cup 2011.  The bar had kindly let us bring in our white replica 1987 Steinlager cans so that we could drink them in celebration if we won.  After a bit of obligatory screaming and hugging we cracked them open and skulled them back furiously.  Some of the beer even made it into our mouths.  We wore the rest like a wet badge of honour on our All Blacks jerseys.  Pure euphoria!

Joel and Jay go bananas as the final whistle blows

I think it was better than being at the actual final.  It was better to have been able to share the experience with friends as we did, in a pub atmosphere, but still with tons of supporters all around us.

It got a wee bit messy after that.  We drank several quarts and steins of beer, followed by an entire bottle of Agavero Tequila, the next thing we knew a fight erupted nearby and my brother in law, an innocent bystander wore a glass bottle on his face.  Our group was kicked out while the two parties involved in the fight got to stay in the bar, such is life.  My brother in law got about six stitches and went home in not too bad shape but it was a shame that on such a wonderful nights that some idiots made some poor decisions that somewhat ruined the end of ours.

I thought I’d be done with Rugby for a few months now after being saturated in it in all but one weekend since February this year.  To be honest, I’m looking forward to the forthcoming Super 15 Squad Announcements and which All Blacks will join the exodus bound for offshore riches.  Next year should be fascinating.  The old hands have done their bit and those in their shadows will step up and become the incumbents.

Bring on Rugby 2012!

The trans Tasman clash to decide which Southern Hemisphere team will face off the best Northern Hemisphere team will be a huge occasion. Let’s not kid ourselves, the Wales vs France match is big but the All Blacks vs Wallabies match feels like the real final.  Whoever wins this match up is going to be a hell of a lot more confident about stitching up the tournament.

The year before David Kirk lifted the William Web Ellis Cup in 1987 was the last time the Wallabies beat the All Blacks at Eden Park and I reckon Captain Kirk and his mates from ’87 will be quietly confident that our current All Black lads can keep that record.

The Wallabies have been harping on all week that it’s our tournament to lose and that we’re under the most pressure.  In a way they are right, we live and breathe Rugby here and to be fair, most Australians don’t give a toss.  But that doesn’t mean they want it any less.

Let's NOT give these guys the satisfaction shall we?

I’m sure the likes of Will Genia, Quade Cooper and Digby Ioane would love nothing more than to complete 2011 with a Super 15 crown, a Tri Nations crown (and most notably, the LAST ever Tri Nations crown!) and the World Cup mantle and right to be referred to as ‘The Best Team in the World’.

Anyone else glad that we don’t have to listen to the Springboks being referred to as ‘World Champions’ for at least the next four years?  Please comment if you do!

Man for Man Stack Up

Man for man and pound for pound, the All Blacks stack up against the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup Semi Final II Show Down!

The first obvious thing that stands out is the hamstring injury to Kurtley Beale.  Beale is central to the Wallabies success, he IS their counter-attack.  O’Connor and Ioane  are very talented men but they rely on Beale’s brilliance to spark it and O’Connor has never played that flash against the All Blacks in the past.

If he has limited (or no) involvement in the game, the All Blacks will have license to air raid the Wallabies for field position all day and put a lot of pressure on the Wallabies.

Robbie Deans is leaving it right up until kick off to announce if Beale can play.  Either way it’s great for the All Blacks.  It means that poor Adam Ashley-Cooper has had to train this week not knowing if he will be centre or fullback, two VERY different positions (You can be forgiven if this is a theme you’ve read here lately!) .  We know he can play both but you want to concentrate on ONE position before a match as important as a World Cup final (slip of the tongue, did I say final?).

The second thing that stands out to me is the inclusion of Pat McCabe at 12.  This is also great for the All Blacks.  We know he has been struggling with a shoulder injury and until very recently I’ve never given him any credit as a player.  But the last two times I’ve seen him play, wow, the kid can tackle.

He’s carrying an injury though so Kaino and Nonu WILL target him and with Ashley-Cooper in two minds they could easily exploit weakness in the midfield.

If Anthony Fa’ainga does come into the mix (if Beale does not play and Ashley-Cooper plays at fullback, I know, it’s all very confusing thanks to Robbie’s crazy new formula) then the midfield is even more exposed.

So we’ve got one guy who has played very little in this tournament and didn’t look too comfortable out there, with one guy who full credit to him, is a MONSTER on defense has a badly bunged up shoulder. It doesn’t look too flash against one of the best midfield combinations in world rugby does it?

Thirdly, the bench.  It seems to be an unwritten All Black squad rule to ALWAYS have one outside back on the bench to cover wing and fullback.  It’s common sense right?  Apparently not so common sense for a Wallabies bench that’s already very thin on depth in the back three.

You would think with an injury cloud over Beale, that would be enough to warrant picking an extra outside back.  You would think, that with Ioane recently back from a nasty thumb injury, that would warrant picking an extra outside back.  Apparently not.  They have someone who can back up at 10 or 12 in Barnes, center with Horne and at halfback with Burgess but no cover for the back 3.  Only O’Connor you could be 90% confident to play the entire match.  Risky much?

On the All Black side of things I would have rather seen the dependable and versatile Isaia Toeava as the utility reserve back for the All Blacks but of course they’ve opted for the magic of Sonny Bill Williams.  Let’s hope his defensive liabilities don’t get found out.  Let’s hope Kaino, Weepu, McCaw and Cruden all nullify their opposites, our midfield shines and our tight five go to TOWN on the ‘at best average’ Wallaby tight forwards.

Also, if you’re planning on saying any prayers on Saturday night, please spare one for Stephen Donald.  Let’s ALL pray that Beaver leaves ALL the kicking to Weepu, because we simply can’t afford a trademark Stephen Donald brain explosion in a match THIS important.

I knew the All Blacks were going to win on Sunday night.  Not because I thought they were a better team than Argentina or because of the squad we had playing, the belief the team had in themselves or anything like that at all.

I knew the All Blacks would win on Sunday night because they weren’t playing a Fullback at Centre.  The last three times we’ve been knocked out of a Rugby World Cup we’ve been so arrogant and confident in our teams abilities, that rather than put the guy we selected in the 30 man squad to back up our incumbent centre, the All Black coaches chickened out and stuck their Fullback there instead.

Remember how they put Mills there against France in 2007?  Apparently Ted whispered “13″ in Mills’ ear at training a few days before and he was super excited because he hadn’t played a test match there in ages!  How did that work out for us again?

Remember 2003 when we gave Leon McDonald a crack there when Tana was injured?  How about when we gave Cullen a crack there in 99?  He was a great Fullback, surely Centre couldn’t be THAT different right? WRONG!

We’re so lucky to have such a brilliant Centre pairing in Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith.  Let’s hope they remain fit for the minutes the All Blacks have left in this Rugby World Cup.

The only man playing out of position on Sunday night was Sonny Bill Williams.  And while I wasn’t overly impressed by the decision to put him out on the wing, he couldn’t do TOO much wrong out there right?  He only let Argentina’s only try in…

Let’s not play guys out of position again shall we? i.e. YES Piri seems like he can do no wrong at the moment but let’s snap back to reality for JUST a moment, he is a half back, let’s leave five eighth to the specialists.

What a whirlwind two weeks.  First the country’s devastation at losing Dan Carter and now we lose his back up Colin Slade AND our seasoned campaigner at fullback, Mils Muliaina.  That’s a lot of test cap experience to lose all at once.

It’s times like these that the inexperienced players have to step up and the other old heads have to do about 20% more.

Mils and Slade's World Cups Over

When Colin Slade and Mils Muliaina made untimely exits and Aaron Cruden was thrust onto the field, I immediately thought to myself, “Every single player in the backline bar SBW has played for the Hurricanes and only Isaia Toeava wasn’t a current Hurricane this year. The Hurricanes were terrible this year, we could be in trouble.”  The proof will be in the Semi Final result this weekend.

Isn’t it amazing how a Test jersey transforms players though?  Piri Weepu, Cory Jane and Ma’a Nonu have all stepped it up into overdrive since their woeful Super Rugby seasons.

In particular Weepu has looked calm and assured.  He has run our backline from halfback, kicked all the goals superbly, led our haka and rescued our boys from late night binging sessions.  Like I’ve alluded to in a previous article, I can’t help but come back to the fact that being controversially left out of the 2007 All Black squad as the ONLY ‘protected’ player not to make the cut, it has only made him stronger, twice the man and probably triple the player.  Not even snapping his ankle in half could stop him from being this good.

Piri Weepu - It's Under Control

Todd Clever - My Man Crush™

I have a huge Man Crush™ on Todd Clever.  He’s an athletic, strong and extremely talented Rugby player from the USA Eagles.  He’s modest but hugely aggressive on the field, wears his heart on his sleeve and is a wonderful ambassador for American Rugby.  And, he pretty much looks like a wrestler straight out of the WWE!  His physicality in the Rugby World Cup was immense.  The way he threw his body into huge collisions for the whole 80 minutes with no regard for self preservation hugely impressed me.

During the Rugby World Cup I recorded a few clips that took my eye that really show what a character Todd Clever is on and off the Rugby pitch.  Don’t worry they’re all very short and will only take a moment to load.

The first is of Crowd Goes Wild reporter James McOnie discussing the Cold War™ match up between the USA and Russia, one of my favourite matches of the Rugby World Cup.  He couldn’t resist a good Cold War joke and Todd hilariously plays along with a great sense of humour.  The match had a massive intensity and both teams just threw the kitchen sink at each other.  There was a lot of tension too as both teams desperately wanted the win.

Clever had so much tension built up that he threw the referee around a bit, make sure you check out that video to see what else unfolded.  And finally, one of my favourite tackles in the World Cup.  Todd Clever couldn’t stop an Irish try but he made sure Tommy Bowe knew exactly what the score was between himself and Todd! *swoon*

Ice sporting a SENSATIONAL Moustache

Isaia Toeava is an electrifying rugby player.  He has one of the best fends you will ever see.  He can fend off both hands and has massive upper body strength making him very hard to take down in a 1 on 1 tackle.  One of his greatest strengths is his ability to to stay upright in tackles for a very long time to make some extremely skillful offloads.  He is a natural fullback but has massive utility value.  He can play every position in the back line from 10 to 15 and has done so at provincial and Super rugby level to a very high standard.

Today Ice gets to play fullback for the All Blacks for the first time in his career and I am absolutely FIZZING at the prospect.  Isaia was the most in form player for the first half of the Super 15 this year until he was cruelly struck down with injury.  Sky TV’s Re-Union named him as the first choice fullback in their weekly top 15 every week he played in that first half of the season.

This is an amazing opportunity for Toeava and I’m sure he’ll grab it with both hands and really leave the coaches scratching their heads.  They know they have to put him somewhere, his talent is too good to ignore, but where?

Check out this brief highlights reel to get a glimpse of the amazing try scoring power Toeava posesses and his ability to put other players in space and give try assists.

Let's hope we don't need to put up with this joke again this year

I know the All Blacks are the perennial chokers when it comes to the Rugby World Cup.  Everyone knows we haven’t lifted the trophy since 87 and despite regularly beating our biggest southern hemisphere rivals since then, they have lifted the trophy twice each to our once.

Why are we labelled chokers though?  Is it because we are expected to win the World Cup or is it because we keep coming so close but aren’t able to go the distance?

Many a New Zealander has debated this.  Is it better to be consistently #1 in the world or to consistently perform well at the World Cup?  Does winning the World Cup really make up for all the soul destroying losses the previous 4 years?  I couldn’t tell you.  You’d have to ask an Australian or South African supporter because they’d know best.

I'm really hoping I won't have to go out and buy one of those on Monday 24 October

One thing I do know though, is that if coming close and missing out is the definition of being a choker then clearly, France are actually the biggest chokers in world rugby.  France have more play offs appearances than any other country and have made two finals appearances without being able to win one.  New Zealand is 1 from 2, Australia 2 from 3, England 1 from 3 and South Africa with an impressive 2 from 2.

Wow.  One more sleep.  All the hype about the Rugby World Cup and finally it has arrived.  It’s actually hard to believe.  I don’t think I will believe it till it actually starts.  It feels like we’ve been talking about it forever.

There has been a LOT of rugby on this year.  Since 18 February, there has only been ONE weekend that I have counted where no Rugby Union has been played.  That’s pretty hard to stomach for even the biggest rugby fans like me.  I’m not going to lie.  Once this tournament is over I’m actually looking forward to watching a bit of cricket and taking a time out so that I can get excited about rugby again in time for next years Super 15!

Israel Dagg - Most ridiculous facial expressions in world rugby

People keep saying that Sonny Bill Williams is all hype.  Well, the hype machine has stepped into overdrive this week and it’s not about SBW.  It’s about Israel Dagg.  Yep, the kid had a MASSIVE game against South Africa, his only match of the year.  On the strength of that everyone is touting him to be the top try scorer for the All Blacks and top in the tournament.  He’s  played ONE GAME this year!  Not only that, in his 7 test caps, he has started on the wing every time and he is a specialist fullback.  Tomorrow is his first crack ever at full back in a rare starting spot ahead of veteran Mils Muliaina.  Let’s hope he lives up to the hype and doesn’t end up being another addition to the long list of All Black fizzers of players with potential that never eventuated.

If Izzy Dagg is the real deal, he will effortlessly slot into the All Black starting 15 just as Mils leaves New Zealand.  It’s always nice when a world class player turns up just as we lose one rather than at the same time and having to sit behind the incumbent during their best test playing years.

On a side note, Mils is teetering on 98 test caps with the possibility of only being eligible for 4 more before he leaves New Zealand (if All Blacks god forbid, get knocked out in the Quarter Final).  It would be a massive shame if he didn’t get to hit the 100 mark wouldn’t it?