Has Hansen gone stale?
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@mariner4life said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@sparky said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
On the subject of overweight people, Steve Hansen gets more and more corpulent. Someone could buy him a exercise bike to use a bit in the off season.
Joe Schmidt be contrast is as thin as a rake.
He and Foster must chew through the catering budget
Is there anything worse than a fat rugby coach yelling at you to run hills harder in preseason? fuuuuck you tubs, you could use these more than me!
There's absolutely no excuse for anyone in high paid jobs to be fat fluffybunnies. None whatsoever. It's not like all him or Foster can afford is a couple of loafs of white bread to feed the family.....
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@sparky said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
Nah! 2007 was all about the failure to set up the drop goal. Lots of opportunities to pop it over in the last few minutes there but McAlister didn't take them.
Why go for the drop goal when you just ran a ~16 phase pick n go and scored with relative ease a few minutes prior. There also was an inevitable feeling that a penalty would come at some point.
This team got out of jail a couple of times that cycle playing for the try - twice against the Boks at home in 2004 and 2005. If anything the half arsed attempt at setting up for a drop goal (and subsequent attempt) was the mistake.
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@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mokey said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life Can you imagine trying to explain those years to kids nowadays.
Well, poppets, we had some rough times. The Wallabies were on top of the world. Locks kicked. Richie cried. Anton couldn't count. The French routed us. John was on a journey...Has someone still got that Gorgeous Grogan post as he rode into the sunset...?
Ladies, Gentlemen and Adults of Indeterminate and/or Transitional Gender
May I present to you Peak Fern, the most awesome post ever. Shared by long lost and departed @Gorgeous_Grogan (I added the @ just in case he’s still lingering …) the day after 23 October 2011 …
Enjoy.
(Sorry cloud image didn't work ... imagine it )
Ding dong the Witch is dead
Today, without a hint of overstatement, I can now die a happy man. Before I indulge you as to why first look at this picture of lovely little clouds...
(Cloud image)
They are as light and as fluffy as my soul today.
Now look outside your window gentlemen. Does the sun not shine a little brighter today? Does the grass not appear a little greener? Does the World not appear as though it has returned to a blissful harmonious state after seeming strangely off-kilter for the last 2 and a half decades or so? As you listen to birds warbling "The Hallelujah Chorus" in glorious symphonic unison, contemplate this simple truth...
Our team, yes OUR team.....are Champions of the World.
In the last World Cup of our lifetimes to be played on home soil, the annointed spiritual guardians of our great game have faced their demons, and stared them down. With an irresistible fusion of pure, concentrated mana, Aaron Crudens' lefty, and the terrifying power of an all-consuming Blackness, they have inscribed their indelible legacy into the pages of history forevermore. And if that act wasn't sufficiently "Brad Thorn" enough, we did it.....
...Without Dan Carter
...Without Dan Carters replacement
...We even did it without our cancer surviving, mono-bollocked, rough-headed Carter-replacement-replacement for fucks sake, it reads like a hollywood script. (Come on Peter Jackson, get off your arse and do something for New Zealand, prove you're still street. "Invictus II - The Redemption", it's as good as written)
...We did it with half a McCaw
...Against the Wallabies in a sudden death semi-final
...Twice against France
...In the style and spirit of the '87 pioneers (We even did it with cute little white collars on)
...With so many others gleefully, even desperately willing us to chokeFurthermore, for once our unparalleled player depth actually DID count for something at the pointy end. The Cartel redeemed themselves. The Duck redeemed himself. After falling twice Richie McCaw (The greatest living New Zealander bar none, now surely the undisputed greatest All Black, possibly player, of all time and general all round good fluffybunny) finally gets his reward (and probably an instant knighthood, a minted coin, maybe a postage stamp and at the very least an undie commercial).
Yes, for today my friends, we finally lay to rest the ghosts of failed campaigns, heartbreaking memories of drop goals in overtime, intercepts, forward passes, and explosive diaherrea. Tears of grief, humiliation and ridicule, missed opportunities, disastrous selection policy, fate, merciless sledging, raw disbelief and referees. Of fallen warriors such as Cullen, Jonah, Zinzan and Tana who deserved more for the blood they spilt in black and who fought and fell on foreign soil, with the Silver Fern on their chest.
Today is a rebirth.
Today I can watch rugby and actually enjoy it again (rather than through my fingers, with a burning, twisting knot of anxiety and nausea in my stomach)
Today I will no longer have to wonder if we will EVER win another world cup.
Today we no longer have to hear the "Choker" tag burning in our ears (usually from supporters who jump on the French because their own teams have been knocked out long before us, might I add)
Today I no longer have to hear the (annoyingly inaccurate and lazy) cliche about the All Blacks peaking between World Cups or about "losing their aura"
Today that evil little goblins' "Four more years" sledge suddenly hurts no more.
Today I will no longer have to watch our team flog themselves to exhaustion season after season trying to live up to impossible expectations under intense public scrutiny, conquering all before them, winning test after test yet always having one eye on an looming World Cup which will apparently invalidate it all (but we've still got our 85% winning record right guys?.....Guys?)
Today I no longer have to endure losing a World Cup and then listening to pasty, bandwagon-jumping, fair-weather twats with shit ginger Tarquin haircuts who know less than nothing about rugby, regurgitating the latest bullshit trendy newsfeed narrative that's been fed to them as though they have aaaaaaany fucking idea what they're talking about.
Today I became genuinely impervious to any bitter trolling that Welsh "journalists" may scrawl about the All Blacks. Negative articles will now simply slide right off like so much dust off a gumboot (as opposed to previously, when it was more like say, irritating dog turd nuggets mashed right into the sole, requiring a stick or some other implement to extricate from the tread, and even though you're sure you got it all there always still seems to be a vague lingering turdy smell following you around all day, even after you've given them a couple of good goings over with the hose, (maybe you got a bit on your sleeve).......Anyway, what I was getting at is that the petty squealing of "the Irrelevant" matters not when you're the World Champions. Yep you heard that right, WORLD CHAMPIONS...(And yes, even now when they'll probably just put out articles claiming we can only win the thing at home)
Today brothers and sisters, "The Curse" has lifted.
As pathetic as it may sound, after the continual gut-wrenching failure and heartache I have endured for my entire adult life, over a quarter of a century, today IS that important. Indeed we may never lift another world cup in my lifetime. But to me at least, it simply no longer matters. Say it with me now.....It No. Longer. Matters. We knocked the bastard off. The searing agony of 4.5 million Kiwis has been extinguished, and now we all get to ride off merrily into the sunset to our pre-planned victory parade in our big-arsed jumbo with our front row repainted all over the front. See kids? Dreams do come true.
All Blacks.................Fuck yeah!
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not gonna lie, i rubbed one out reading that.
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@rotated said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
There also was an inevitable feeling that a penalty would come at some point.
That was the injustice of it. We should have had several - the most obvious one right in front of me - and Barnes - on French try line. French player on the ground using hands in a ruck as well as the back line all off side. It was pretty fucked.
I'm going to read @booboo Grogan's post again, otherwise I will have anger issues (again).
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I took 2007 harder than 2003 ,
Because I had more belief in the team , actually thought they would win ,
2003 I suspected England might win it . hate to say it , but ireland are reminding me of them ,
But 2007 I thought it was ours , didnt make it past the quarters , who saw that coming .
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@kiwiinmelb said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
I took 2007 harder than 2003 ,
Because I had more belief in the team , actually thought they would win ,
2003 I suspected England might win it . hate to say it , but ireland are reminding me of them ,
But 2007 I thought it was ours , didnt make it past the quarters , who saw that coming .
2003 I was sure they'd make the final and probably lose to England.
2007 I thought was a lay down misere.
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@kiwiinmelb Yeah I had a funny feeling going into the semi in 2003 that an upset was on as everyone was going in very overconfident with Australia looking poor for large parts of that year. England were always gonna win it anyway let be honest.
I thought in 07 that we were gonna do it in a canter and that our drought would be over. Everyone was expecting an Australia v All Blacks semi but which never happened haha.
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@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@booboo Awesome! Still awesome!
Wish I could claim credit.
I copied and emailed to a few bods when he posted it. So I had it in my email archives (thought I had it elsewhere too but couldn'tfind it, have now saved a MS Word version too).
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2003 I thought we'd make the final but the 13 v 15 English that beat us meant it we were always up against it with one of the better, if not boring, English sides.
2007 was a cake walk...stats show we shoulda beat France by 20+, scoreboard and Barnes gave the big old
to that -
Meanwhile the national broadcaster over here had this to say:
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New Zealand blames Australia for All Blacks' struggles ahead of Rugby World CupIt has never taken much for New Zealand to ridicule the Wallabies but Australia's national rugby union team is now being blamed for the All Blacks' stuttering displays less than a year out from the World Cup.
Key points:
The All Blacks recorded three convincing wins over the Wallabies this year
The Wallabies have won only four of 12 Tests so far in 2018
The All Blacks' loss to Ireland has been described as a "failure" and a "disaster" in New Zealand
New Zealand's rugby community is delving into a period of deep introspection in the wake of the All Blacks' 16-9 defeat to Irealand in Dublin last Sunday (AEDT), a result which followed a narrow escape the previous weekend against England.The All Blacks had snuck home 16-15 at Twickenham, but the finger of blame for their recent performances has been squarely pointed at the Wallabies because of their struggles on the international stage.
The Wallabies have won only four of 12 Tests so far in 2018, a return that includes three comprehensive defeats to the All Blacks, who have claimed the last two World Cups.
A 38-13 triumph in Sydney was followed by a 40-12 scoreline in Auckland during the Rugby Championship, before the All Blacks added a 37-20 victory over the Wallabies in the third Bledisloe Cup encounter in Yokohama last month.
The dominance over Australia has been apparent in Super Rugby as well, as illustrated by the 40-match winning streak New Zealand teams enjoyed against their trans- Ta$man opponents until earlier this year.
New Zealand considers the Wallabies, who it plays more regularly than any other international team, as too weak to adequately prepare for the likes of Ireland, England and South Africa, who it lost to 36-34 in Wellington during the Rugby Championship.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has regularly offered faint praise to the Wallabies but he now believes they are hindering his side in the build-up to their World Cup defence in Japan next year.
"There is definitely something missing because they [Wallabies] are not quite right and are not performing to the level they can," Hansen said in Rome ahead of the All Blacks' Test against Italy this weekend.
New Zealand's rugby media has also not held back from laying the boot into the Michael Cheika-coached Wallabies, who sit at a lowly sixth on World Rugby's official rankings.
Amid headlines across the Ta$man that referred to the All Blacks' "failure" and "disaster" in Dublin, prominent journalist Gregor Paul took aim at the performances of the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup, which New Zealand has held since 2003.
"It's starting to feel like New Zealand have been living in a false economy and the weakest currency is the Bledisloe Cup," Paul wrote this week in the New Zealand Herald.
Hansen clearly does not consider the Wallabies a threat at the World Cup, highlighting the Northern Hemisphere powerhouses and the Springboks as the teams to watch out for in Japan.
"The more we play teams like South Africa, Ireland and England, France, which we have done this year, it is good for us," Hansen said.
"We have had a bit of a preview so to speak."
The Wallabies, meanwhile, face an uphill battle to beat England at Twickenham on Sunday (AEDT), a team they have beaten in their past five matches.
A 26-7 win over Italy in Padova last weekend has done little to raise the confidence of the Wallabies, who have been hit by a gastro bug in the lead-up to the England Test.
-- Note: No editor or journalist has had the courage to put their name to this.
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@antipodean said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
New Zealand's rugby media has also not held back from laying the boot into the Michael Cheika-coached Wallabies,
since when, oh thats right, since he started coaching the Wallabies, kinda comes with the territory doesnt it!
I dont think they have upped thier criticism of him recently, if anything he is almost irrelevant, his coaching box tirades barely garner a mention anymore.
Paul has written 1 decent article in the past half dozen or so he has written.
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@rancid-schnitzel Our discipline was poor that night and was the difference in the game. McCaw’s inexperience showed in that game with him not reading the game or ref well.
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@act-crusader said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@rancid-schnitzel Our discipline was poor that night and was the difference in the game. McCaw’s inexperience showed in that game with him not reading the game or ref well.
It was more than discipline. They were simply better that night.
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@mariner4life said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life He wouldn't have if Benny had been taking the kicks!
Carlos looked alright nailing that one from the sideline after he scored that ripper try for the Blues v your mob. Maybe a little faith aye Agent Robbie?
Let's also not forget his kicking won us back the Bledisloe earlier that year. In any event, Carlos was an exceptionally better kicker than the guy we currently trust to slot them over.
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@junior said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life He wouldn't have if Benny had been taking the kicks!
Carlos looked alright nailing that one from the sideline after he scored that ripper try for the Blues v your mob. Maybe a little faith aye Agent Robbie?
Let's also not forget his kicking won us back the Bledisloe earlier that year. In any event, Carlos was an exceptionally better kicker than the guy we currently trust to slot them over.
Really? Anything to back that up?
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@bones said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@junior said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life He wouldn't have if Benny had been taking the kicks!
Carlos looked alright nailing that one from the sideline after he scored that ripper try for the Blues v your mob. Maybe a little faith aye Agent Robbie?
Let's also not forget his kicking won us back the Bledisloe earlier that year. In any event, Carlos was an exceptionally better kicker than the guy we currently trust to slot them over.
Really? Anything to back that up?
Which part?
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@rancid-schnitzel said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@act-crusader said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@rancid-schnitzel Our discipline was poor that night and was the difference in the game. McCaw’s inexperience showed in that game with him not reading the game or ref well.
It was more than discipline. They were simply better that night.
Flatley kicked 5 penalties. We created a number of opportunities to score I thought. But we ran out of steam and our bench didn’t add what was needed.
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@junior said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@chris-b said in Has Hansen gone stale?:
@mariner4life He wouldn't have if Benny had been taking the kicks!
Carlos looked alright nailing that one from the sideline after he scored that ripper try for the Blues v your mob. Maybe a little faith aye Agent Robbie?
Let's also not forget his kicking won us back the Bledisloe earlier that year. In any event, Carlos was an exceptionally better kicker than the guy we currently trust to slot them over.
His kicking won us back the Bledisloe? Say what? He might have been the kicker but I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim it was his kicking that won it for us. We scored 2 tries to 1.
