Aura watch
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@Snowy said in Aura watch:
@canefan Winning does make us easy to support.
Saw loads of AB jerseys around Asia. Mostly Hong Kong, China and surprisingly Taiwan. Probably all cheapo copies but supporters nonetheless.
I’m always surprised seeing them in Darling Harbour on non Kiwis (but not Aussies obviously) ... it’s quite frequent.
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She sure does get around alright. Here she is peeking out from behind that Times paywall
Rugby World Cup: McDonald’s napkins, dairy farms and mirrors: the makings of the All Blacks’ aura
In the south west corner of New Zealand’s north island, Pungarehu sits between Mount Taranaki to the east and the Tasman Sea to the west. Pungarehu used to have its own primary school where the number of pupils could be as high as 80 or as low as 50. The school closed the same year England won the R
McDonald’s napkins, dairy farms and mirrors: the makings of the All Blacks’ aura
David WalshIn the south west corner of New Zealand’s north island, Pungarehu sits between Mount Taranaki to the east and the Ta$man Sea to the west. Pungarehu used to have its own primary school where the number of pupils could be as high as 80 or as low as 50. The school closed the same year England won the Rugby World Cup, 2003.
To find Pungarehu on a map of New Zealand you must press the “zoom-in” key many times. This is a tiny settlement 250 miles south west of Auckland and 1,300 miles from Sydney on the other side of the Ta$man. It’s thousands of miles from anywhere else.
Late last night in Pungarehu, Kevin Barrett and his wife Robyn watched the All Blacks play Canada in a pool B game at Oita Stadium in Japan. By the time the game got to half-time, it was past midnight in Pungarehu but, I suppose, when you’ve got three sons playing for the All Blacks you’re not likely to doze off.
Not only did Beauden, Jordie and Scott Barrett all start yesterday’s game but all three scored a try. Back in his living room in Pungarehu, Kevin treated himself to a Guinness. Back at the Oita Stadium the New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen was asked about the brothers Barrett. “When you’re blessed, you’re blessed - and the three of them are blessed,” he said. “Their parents should be pretty proud tonight.”
How could this family of dairy farmers in Pungarehu be so blessed? There’s a case for arguing it wasn’t entirely a genetic accident. Kevin Barrett played 167 times for Taranaki and was a much admired back rower. On the occasion of his last appearance for Taranaki he was interviewed on the pitch and asked what next.
“I’m gonna go breed some All Blacks,” he said, by way of telling his neighbours that it was time for him to start a family.
There is, though, a message in the wonder of three sons of Pungarehu, who went to the local primary school before the bureaucrats shut it down, that speaks to the story of All Black rugby. If one family from this corner of New Zealand could produce three All Blacks, then it’s not a stretch that the country itself with a population of just 4.79 million could come to dominate world rugby.
Take the wisest rugby experts at this World Cup, put a gun to their heads and tell them their lives depended on correctly nominating the winner of this tournament: they would all say New Zealand. Four minutes of brilliance dismantled South Africa in their opening pool game and showed that the All Blacks are the best attacking team in the tournament.
The Barrett brother — Jordie, Scott and Beauden — all scored for New Zealand yesterday
The Barrett brother — Jordie, Scott and Beauden — all scored for New Zealand yesterday
HANNAH PETERS/GETTY IMAGES
England and South Africa may have more power and physical strength, Wales may have the best defence but the team seeking a third consecutive World Cup has the most balanced team. Underpinning everything is a culture that has the group above the individual. It has become fashionable to see this culture as a modern-day creation, a response to defeats at five consecutive World Cups before 2011.The greater truth is that the roots go back to a time long before new buzz words came to describe old ideas. Two days before the 2011 World Cup final I travelled to the home of Sir Fred Allen, the former All Black skipper and head coach, at Wangaparaoa, 25 miles north of Auckland. He was 91 and in the last year of a pretty extraordinary life.
With perfect clarity he recalled the 1945 Kiwi army tour to Britain. At the end of the Second World War they decided to select a team of Kiwis drawn from men who’d fought in Europe. Rather than return immediately to home, they went to trials in Austria, Italy and finally in Kent. Allen captained the side that played 33 games in Britain and lost only two. The Kiwi army team beat both Wales and England.
Later as coach to the All Blacks, Allen applied the standards he’d lived by. Colin Meads recalled Allen’s reaction to Meads’ accidentally yawning during a team meeting. “He nearly jumped over the table in front of him. ‘Am I boring you, Pinetree? Because if I am, there’s a bus leaves on the hour every hour for Hamilton and you’ll be on the next one’.”
This has ever been the Kiwi way. In the spring of 1987 the New Zealand Barbarians toured Britain and Ireland. They’d selected a hugely talented young squad of All Blacks and soon-to-be All Blacks. I met their young right wing John Kirwan in Dublin. Already capped, Kirwan would be joint-leading tryscorer at the inaugural World Cup which New Zealand would win later that year.
I asked what he thought made New Zealand different. His explanation came in anecdotal form. “Last year we’d just lost a game to Australia and in the changing room afterwards I was pretty annoyed. Taking off my shirt I said something like, ‘it’s hard to play without the ball’ and the captain Andy Dalton tapped me on the shoulder and indicated we should talk outside.
“He took me to a toilet, pointed to a mirror and said, ‘John, after a bad game with the All Blacks we look in the mirror and say could I have done any more for the team today? And when you’ve done this, see if you feel criticising anyone else?’ It made a pretty big impact on me,” said Kirwan.
The sense that the culture is different, that rugby matters more to them than us, resurfaces every time you speak at any length with one of the more influential Kiwis. Four years ago at a café near Rugby Park in Christchurch, Richie McCaw recalled a Christmas Eve from his youth. The McCaws and his mother’s people, the McLays, used to have a get-together at McDonalds in Timaru on the day before Christmas.
“Do you want to be an All Black?” uncle Bigsy McLay asked the teenage boy that day in McDonalds. Bigsy had been a strong provincial player himself.
“Oh yeah,” said McCaw.
Bigsy then got a pen, smoothed a paper napkin and said, “Let’s map out how you become an All Black.”
The boy said he wanted to play for Canterbury Under-19, New Zealand Under-19, then the New Zealand Colts, Canterbury Under-21, then the Canterbury team. For each team, Bigsy asked him for a target year. The years were nominated. “But you don’t just want to be an All Black,” Bigsy added, “you want to be a great All Black.”
McCaw asked his uncle to keep his voice down, people could overhear him. Still, he didn’t flinch. “Yeah,” he agreed “I want to be a great All Black.” Bigsy recorded it all; the teams and the years. At the bottom he wrote, “Richie McCaw, GAB.” “Now sign it,” he said. McCaw signed. Later he pinned the napkin to the inside of a wardrobe in his bedroom, so high that only he would know where it was.
McCaw lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy twice in his illustrious career
McCaw lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy twice in his illustrious career
MARC ASPLAND/THE TIMES
Wherever they go now, they bring their history, their aura and their tackle bags. Through the last two weeks they have become “the second team” for Japan’s rugby followers. At the two All Blacks games, hundreds of Japan fans turn up in black replica shirts rooting for the favourites. Every team in the tournament accepts that for them to win, the All Blacks must be beaten.Their eminence in the game is why Gary Lineker’s attempt at humour concerning the New Zealand haka backfired. Before the Canada game, Lineker tweeted: “Must be so hard not to just laugh at this if you’re the opposition.”
John Campbell, a New Zealand TV broadcaster, didn’t take kindly to Lineker’s joke. “It’s extraordinary, a generation into the 21st century, that even people as (reputedly) thoughtful as Lineker can peddle this kind of contempt, condescension & ignorance. English whiteness as normative . . . and other races/cultures as comedic or inferior or odd. Grow up.”
On or off the field you don’t mess with the All Blacks. Lineker quickly deleted his tweet and ran for cover.
Faced with the power of the All Blacks, that’s not an uncommon reaction..
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Three comments:
For the longer term TSFers, the above was written by the same bloke who wrote the legendary piece about how the AB's were shit before we destroyed France in 2004.
Secondly, for all the criticism that the UK rugby media (rightly) gets, when they decide to do it properly, their research is usually very strong.
Thirdly, given Walsh's usual ego-driven writings, I'm rather surprised he hasn't written more of his own opinions on the last 4 paragraphs ...
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@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
Three comments:
For the longer term TSFers, the above was written by the same bloke who wrote the legendary piece about how the AB's were shit before we destroyed France in 2004.
Thanks for that, I still think that was the genesis game for the modern era of dominance. I was casting around for ideas on what to watch tonight, and now you've solved the problem for me.
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@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
Three comments:
For the longer term TSFers, the above was written by the same bloke who wrote the legendary piece about how the AB's were shit before we destroyed France in 2004.
Secondly, for all the criticism that the UK rugby media (rightly) gets, when they decide to do it properly, their research is usually very strong.
Thirdly, given Walsh's usual ego-driven writings, I'm rather surprised he hasn't written more of his own opinions on the last 4 paragraphs ...
No that was Simon Barnes who wrote that piece.
All Blacks trading on nothing but worn out myths
FOR once, the great, implacable, unstoppable All Blacks machine has made an error. Today, New Zealand must take on a half-decent rugby team. How they managed to allow France on to the schedule of one
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@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
Three comments:
For the longer term TSFers, the above was written by the same bloke who wrote the legendary piece about how the AB's were shit before we destroyed France in 2004.
Secondly, for all the criticism that the UK rugby media (rightly) gets, when they decide to do it properly, their research is usually very strong.
Thirdly, given Walsh's usual ego-driven writings, I'm rather surprised he hasn't written more of his own opinions on the last 4 paragraphs ...
Thought that was Simon Barnes?
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@Frye said in Aura watch:
@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
Three comments:
For the longer term TSFers, the above was written by the same bloke who wrote the legendary piece about how the AB's were shit before we destroyed France in 2004.
Secondly, for all the criticism that the UK rugby media (rightly) gets, when they decide to do it properly, their research is usually very strong.
Thirdly, given Walsh's usual ego-driven writings, I'm rather surprised he hasn't written more of his own opinions on the last 4 paragraphs ...
No that was Simon Barnes who wrote that piece.
All Blacks trading on nothing but worn out myths
FOR once, the great, implacable, unstoppable All Blacks machine has made an error. Today, New Zealand must take on a half-decent rugby team. How they managed to allow France on to the schedule of one
That was not a booboo. He only beat me by a couple of minutes while I was typing my reply ...
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@Frye said in Aura watch:
@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
Three comments:
For the longer term TSFers, the above was written by the same bloke who wrote the legendary piece about how the AB's were shit before we destroyed France in 2004.
Secondly, for all the criticism that the UK rugby media (rightly) gets, when they decide to do it properly, their research is usually very strong.
Thirdly, given Walsh's usual ego-driven writings, I'm rather surprised he hasn't written more of his own opinions on the last 4 paragraphs ...
No that was Simon Barnes who wrote that piece.
All Blacks trading on nothing but worn out myths
FOR once, the great, implacable, unstoppable All Blacks machine has made an error. Today, New Zealand must take on a half-decent rugby team. How they managed to allow France on to the schedule of one
Stephen Jones wrote an article before the 2002 test vs England pointing out how pathetic the ab team was on paper. “ where’s McCaw, where’s Jack ?” And “ who is Ali Williams? Mr Johnson your breakfast is served “ were the stand out quotes from it .
I tried to find it after the game but it was taken down .
Where do they find these piston wristed gibbons? -
Ok I’m confused as fuck. Or just getting old.
Walsh was one of the first to write about Armstrong and Armstrong really came after him. I distinctly remember many a convo about him trashing us too, and I was sure it was that article.
Well, there you go. All the credit I’ve not built up on TSF over 14 years. Gone.
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@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
All the credit I’ve not built up on TSF over 14 years. Gone.
Trust me it's really great. Absolutely nothing to lose.
You can just call them "correcting fluffybunnies" and feel better about it too.
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@Snowy said in Aura watch:
@MajorRage said in Aura watch:
All the credit I’ve not built up on TSF over 14 years. Gone.
Trust me it's really great. Absolutely nothing to lose.
You can just call them "correcting fluffybunnies" and feel better about it too.
The one enduring gift Donald has given us is the phrase "fake news". Now any time someone calls me out or proves me wrong, I get to move on swiftly with no embarrassment or admission of my stupidity.
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@voodoo said in Aura watch:
Now any time someone calls me out or proves me wrong, I get to move on swiftly with no embarrassment or admission of my stupidity.
More likely to get called out for being right around here. Stick to fake news, (opinions, myths, fallacies, stereotypes are all fine too) avoid facts at all costs.
I like this, albeit yet another thread diversion:
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Irish gunna Irish . Their former test captain claims the abs cheat with impunity. You bet your arse they do you whining man child
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@jegga said in Aura watch:
Irish gunna Irish . Their former test captain claims the abs cheat with impunity. You bet your arse they do you whining man child
Any sentiment I had about them winning the cup is gone. Perhaps they should own the fact that their success is predicated by the need for a ref that allows them to compete illegally for the ball at the breakdown and to constantly line up offside?![alt text]
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If you are playing rugby, and you are not "cheating" then you are not trying hard enough
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@canefan said in Aura watch:
@jegga said in Aura watch:
Irish gunna Irish . Their former test captain claims the abs cheat with impunity. You bet your arse they do you whining man child
https://i.imgur.com/ZSdJll8.mp4
Any sentiment I had about them winning the cup is gone. Perhaps they should own the fact that their success is predicated by the need for a ref that allows them to compete illegally for the ball at the breakdown and to constantly line up offside?
I hope we play them in the quarters and the game is decided by a couple of dubious reffing calls .
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@jegga said in Aura watch:
@canefan said in Aura watch:
@jegga said in Aura watch:
Irish gunna Irish . Their former test captain claims the abs cheat with impunity. You bet your arse they do you whining man child
Any sentiment I had about them winning the cup is gone. Perhaps they should own the fact that their success is predicated by the need for a ref that allows them to compete illegally for the ball at the breakdown and to constantly line up offside?
I hope we play them in the quarters and the game is decided by a couple of dubious reffing calls .
As long as those dubious calls are in our favour right??!!!?
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@canefan said in Aura watch:
@jegga said in Aura watch:
@canefan said in Aura watch:
@jegga said in Aura watch:
Irish gunna Irish . Their former test captain claims the abs cheat with impunity. You bet your arse they do you whining man child
Any sentiment I had about them winning the cup is gone. Perhaps they should own the fact that their success is predicated by the need for a ref that allows them to compete illegally for the ball at the breakdown and to constantly line up offside?
I hope we play them in the quarters and the game is decided by a couple of dubious reffing calls .
As long as those dubious calls are in our favour right??!!!?
Yep and all the things Neil Francis thrashwanked about
