Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown & Dublin Duel
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@nzzp said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
@Pot-Hale said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
Great game of rugby and the response from New Zealand media and fans has been astonishing.
Most rugby people are good people. Don't believe what the media says - they are wind up merchants of the highest order.
Agreed. I have a healthy level of disregard for a lot of media reporting. But, in fairness, the reports to date have been overwhelmingly positive and balanced. So credit where it's due.
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If you actually listened to Watson's rant it is far from bait. His key points were:
- The ABs will destroy Ireland in Dublin and learn from their mistakes.
- This loss will have a positive impact on the ABs performance against the Lions next year as they will learn from their mistakes.
- The winning streak title is dubious given many victories happened last season with a distinctly different side.
- If you factor in the Olympics (very important) - this was the worst year for the NZRU since 1998.
I would agree with all those statements except 2002 was clearly worse with the Smith resignation (and Mitchell/Deans appointment), woeful on field performance, Cantablacks caps and the subhosting debacle.
I don't find his opinion any more stupid than the "best of all time" nonsense that was getting thrown around earlier in the season by many pundits.
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@rotated In the 2 mins I heard he also laid the blame for the loss at pandering to AIG, said the notion that Hansen was the best AB coach ever was a joke , kept frothing about the Olympics loss, said Tew should resign immediately and hung up on a guy who said he was a bit strong.
If that's not a rant I don't know what is. RS is a joke station, staffed by typical Kiwi "celebrities" who know jack about sport, but Watson is the nadir. He makes Lose look good.
That's also a rant - but mine is far more accurate than Watson's
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@rotated Also - I think you might be getting your years mixed up. 2001 was when Smith resigned and Mitchell took over (end of year tour) and we failed to get any teams in the Super Rugby playoffs. 2002 was Cantablacks year I think (Crusaders were undefeated Super champions in 2002).
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Wasn't Watson the guy that got smashed in fight for life a while back? Let's see that again!
worse than 1998? Not even close. 2016 we won the Bled, TRC well before the end, lost to a spirited Ireland team without first second or third choice locks, without first choice MF or wing FB combination? (no disrespect to Ireland, they fully deserved the win but this is about us). Watson is a waste of bandwidth -
The only similarity with 1998 and this year is they are both rebuilding years after a host of retirements the year before. In 1998 they lost five in a row. This year we had four teams in the SR playoffs, the ABs beat Wales and Aus 3 zip and had a perfect RC (all games won with bonus points). I predict a perfect RC will never happen again, so not such a disastrous year. As for the Olymics, Fiji is the best team in the world at sevens and totally deserved their gold.
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I listened to the Watson rant on radiosport last night. He loves to distort facts is what I took out of it, like saying that half the wins were achieved against minnows at the RWC. When has 3 out of 18 ever equated to 50%, Mark? He was also very tough on the selectors for selecting Cane over Ardie Savea and Todd. What is this guy on? Anyone who knows even a bit about rugby can see that Cane is definitely a step up from Todd and Savea is simply not physical enough at this stage to warrant a starting role. And for him to discredit all the wins against the other big teams this year due to this loss was extremely unfair as Ireland are not a bad side. The reference to 98 was simply laughable.
Having said that, I did agree with him that the Abs and the selectors did go into this game without the total focus that they would have taken into a test against the boks or the wobs.. The selections and rotation as well as the drop off in intensity in the first half were an indication of this. I also support Mark's stance that this was a terrible day for All Black rugby as the proud record against Ireland is now gone, and am with him when he had a go at all the pc idiots like Veitch and his little sidekick, Guy Haveldt who actually appeared to be happy about this result.
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The trouble with Ratpoo and his buddy Watson is that they both burnt bridges with the NZRU many years ago and now get ignored by them. The shoulder chips are enormous and they back each other up on calls that the powers of NZ Rugby are arrogant arseholes.
Hate to break it to you guys but they treat you with disdain because you don't report facts, you make shit up and present it as facts. -
@akan004 said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
I listened to the Watson rant on radiosport last night. He loves to distort facts is what I took out of it, like saying that half the wins were achieved against minnows at the RWC. When has 3 out of 18 ever equated to 50%, Mark? He was also very tough on the selectors for selecting Cane over Ardie Savea and Todd. What is this guy on? Anyone who knows even a bit about rugby can see that Cane is definitely a step up from Todd and Savea is simply not physical enough at this stage to warrant a starting role. And for him to discredit all the wins against the other big teams this year due to this loss was extremely unfair as Ireland are not a bad side. The reference to 98 was simply laughable.
Having said that, I did agree with him that the Abs and the selectors did go into this game without the total focus that they would have taken into a test against the boks or the wobs.. The selections and rotation as well as the drop off in intensity in the first half were an indication of this. I also support Mark's stance that this was a terrible day for All Black rugby as the proud record against Ireland is now gone, and am with him when he had a go at all the pc idiots like Veitch and his little sidekick, Guy Haveldt who actually appeared to be happy about this result.
Slight correction, the record is not gone. It stands that we were unbeaten against Ireland for 111 years. Which is fucking incredible given the quality sides and world class players they've produced over the years - that is a record we can be bloody proud of.
Also, I'd never defend Vietch but congratulating the Irish does not mean you are happy the ABs lost. It was a cracker of a match, being able to sit back and acknowledge that as well as acknowledging the gravity of the win for Ireland shows a level of maturity sadly lacking among the likes of Watson and Ratpoo. All AB loses hurt as they are few and far between, and I was bloody gutted on Sunday morning. But when you see what it means to Ireland rugby you can't help but say "yeah, well done, I can imagine how good you must feel right now".
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@No-Quarter Veitch did more than just congratulate the Irish. He actually said that we should be happy about today (Sunday) and enjoy it since it's a great day for world rugby. He even had a go at some guy who texted in saying that this was a terrible result and there was nothing to celebrate from a NZ perspective.
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@Pot-Hale Enjoy the victory mate, it was well deserved. Makes the beer taste better too doesn't it?
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@akan004 said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
@No-Quarter Veitch did more than just congratulate the Irish. He actually said that we should be happy about today (Sunday) and enjoy it since it's a great day for world rugby. He even had a go at some guy who texted in saying that this was a terrible result and there was nothing to celebrate from a NZ perspective.
Fair enough, as I said, I'm never going to defend Veitch.
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I think these comments from Lochore are right on the money.
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@akan004 said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
@No-Quarter Veitch did more than just congratulate the Irish. He actually said that we should be happy about today (Sunday) and enjoy it since it's a great day for world rugby. He even had a go at some guy who texted in saying that this was a terrible result and there was nothing to celebrate from a NZ perspective.
Well, I agree with him.
That was a good result for world rugby.Wins only matter when there's also a chance of losing.
With the post-Mandela ANC abusing the peaceful handover of power, and hobbling the Boks. World rugby needs new powers.
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@Rapido It may be a good result for world rugby, and I emphasis the word may, but why should we be ok or happy about it? It's not our job to prop up world rugby. The bigger nations already have a significant advantage over us in terms of player and financial resources. I wonder if you will be ok with us going back to having a 75% win record rather than the 90% + that we have enjoyed over the last few years? Be careful about what you wish for.
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@akan004 said in Ireland v NZ - Chicago Showdown:
@Rapido It may be a good day for world rugby, and I emphasis the word may, but why should we be ok or happy about it? It's not our job to prop up world rugby. The bigger nations already have a significant advantage over us in terms of player and financial resources. I wonder if you will be ok with us going back to having a 75% win record rather than the 90% + that we have enjoyed over the last few years? Be careful about what you wish for.
Christ. We didn't do it on purpose.
We lost a game, that result is good for the bigger picture of world rugby.
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@KiwiMurph not so sure I agree.
It was a bad day at the office.
The test v Aus was always gonna be a battle, more mental than anything, so is always tough to truly gauge those sorts of thing. The Aussie had tripped us up before, we had been sitting at this precipice before. We had the same issues with the RWC, it wasn't that we werent good enough, the mental side plays a huge part.
I heard Andy Murray say something on the radio yesterday that I thought resounded for the AB team...was something along the lines of after you achieve something great (the record) next time you come out, there is a risk you can be a bit flat.
