Rugby Championship - what's the point?
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@act-crusader In the earlier draws (Tri-Nations) we seemed to often start in SA, then play Australia in Australia before playing the return games in NZ. It was reasonably challenging.
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Honestly, there isn't a point. Training run for the All Blacks every week.
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@beardie said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
@act-crusader In the earlier draws (Tri-Nations) we seemed to often start in SA, then play Australia in Australia before playing the return games in NZ. It was reasonably challenging.
Definitely. I recall in 2005 after the Lions series we went to SA first and lost
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@rustycruiser said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
Honestly, there isn't a point. Training run for the All Blacks every week.
We take one of those games lightly and we lose. We've a history of losing as soon as we take the foot off the pedal (usually after we've wrapped up the silverware, true).
While the Wallabies and the Boks are off their peaks, it's more than a little condescending to call them "a training run". Neither the Irish nor the English found them to be push-overs.
Our dominance dates back to when Auckland constructed a team of pure class. They refused to lower their standards and demanded everyone else raised theirs. Slowly they did. The result was a far better quality of provincial rugby -- fast and accurate, not the reliance on brute power of before.
The world needs to come to us, not vice versa. We're not big or rich.
That said, one poor coach and were back in the pack. Both the great Auckland and Crusaders sides found that out.
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@chester-draws rusty is a Springbok supporter.
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@chester-draws not sure Fred Allen would agree with your circle jerk about our dominance beginning with that Auckland team
pfft millennials...😉
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@mariner4life said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
If you take us out if it, it's a pretty good competition. The other teams are all pretty close, and tend to split their results (except for Argentina's strange mental block against Aus).
Do you think the 6N would benefit from having us in it? (ignoring the huge geographical issue). You would end up with the same thing, and even competition with a runaway leader (less so because every team only plays us once).
Which ever way you look at it, we're the anomaly.
We need to find someone else to play
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@kiwiinmelb our day will come I reckon.
This last decade or more has been truly remarkable but while I savour the sweet taste, there's a lot of us that remember what bitter is eh?
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@siam said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
@kiwiinmelb our day will come I reckon.
This last decade or more has been truly remarkable but while I savour the sweet taste, there's a lot of us that remember what bitter is eh?
Yeah , it has been a great ride ,
And i think we have more in front of us ,last year we were a little flat at times ,
but we are starting to hum again
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@chester-draws said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
@rustycruiser said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
Honestly, there isn't a point. Training run for the All Blacks every week.
We take one of those games lightly and we lose. We've a history of losing as soon as we take the foot off the pedal (usually after we've wrapped up the silverware, true).
While the Wallabies and the Boks are off their peaks, it's more than a little condescending to call them "a training run". Neither the Irish nor the English found them to be push-overs.
Our dominance dates back to when Auckland constructed a team of pure class. They refused to lower their standards and demanded everyone else raised theirs. Slowly they did. The result was a far better quality of provincial rugby -- fast and accurate, not the reliance on brute power of before.
The world needs to come to us, not vice versa. We're not big or rich.
That said, one poor coach and were back in the pack. Both the great Auckland and Crusaders sides found that out.
Totally agree.
I think what we have to get our heads around is that the ABs have worked out a style that when the ability/effort margin is a few % the score margin is a lot.
The scores look like thrashings but the effort has to be fully focussed or the result will switch.
We don't get many close wins, we get close losses or big wins that look easy on paper. -
Would you be happy for the ABs to lose more often in order to make RC more tense?
While you are deciding please take a seat on the rock over there or if you prefer there is a hard place to the right.
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It's going to sound ridiculous, but in some ways the All Blacks are ruining World Rugby. It's obviously not their fault, but if things pan out as you would expect, another World Cup beckons.
As in all sports, it's great to watch champions at the top of their game, but it's also great to see the occasional underdog step up and knock the champ off their perch.
It's been way too long since the ABs have been knocked off their perch in a game that really matters. I'm not sure the Lions really count, either.
I think NZ's dominance of the game at all levels has contributed to the malaise here (there are 50 other factors, sure).
Maybe it's everyone else's fault for not being good enough. But I'm starting to get a bit bored with the state of rugby. It just feels like the same thing year after year. NZ dominance is a part of that, as is similar draws, Wallaby struggles, Super issues, etc.
But NZ dominance is undoubtedly part of it.
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@barbarian I felt the same way when Auckland dominated NZ rugby in the late 80s/early 90s.
Also felt the same way about the Australian cricket team through the Taylor/Waugh/Ponting years.
I guess the one thing these eras teach us is that all good thing come to an end!
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But you'd have to admit we're approaching a decade of this, and there are no signs of it slowing down.
Australia's cricketing 'golden era' lasted from, roughly, 1995-2005 (from Steve Waugh's heroics in the Windies to the Ashes in 05).
I'd argue the All Blacks have dominated fairly solidly since 2008, and the gap could be as wide now as it's ever been.
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@barbarian said in Rugby Championship - what's the point?:
But you'd have to admit we're approaching a decade of this, and there are no signs of it slowing down.
Australia's cricketing 'golden era' lasted from, roughly, 1995-2005 (from Steve Waugh's heroics in the Windies to the Ashes in 05).
I'd argue the All Blacks have dominated fairly solidly since 2008, and the gap could be as wide now as it's ever been.
Grand Slam was in 2006, and we thrashed the World Cup holders in 2004, and of course the 3-0 Lions series in 2005. I'd argue that we've been dominant for even longer (it's why the Barnes performance was such a big deal in 2007).
As has been said before, it's not up to use to get worse, it's up to other teams to find ways to improve. There is more than one way to play rugby, and if England and the Boks play to their strengths they could strangle the All Blacks style of play.
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Just look at Ireland - limited gameplan, but executed really well.
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