Awesome
It's taken 24 hours to get off cloud nine after watching the All Blacks blitz France, the supposed No.2 team in the world, 47-3 in the weekend. It's not the 47 that I look at, it's the 3 scored by the opposition and the defence shown when going through long periods in the second half without the ball. Reminiscent of the defensive display shown in the first Tri-Nations game against Australia when the score was a lot closer.
That the All Blacks can show such tenacity in defense when they could perhaps be forgiven for slacking off due to the bloated scoreline speaks volumes about where their head space is at. While the general public will be wary that we have been down this road before ("peaking between World Cups"), 10 months out there are only two things that can happen that will stop NZ winning the RWC next year:
a) another team showing a marked level of improvement - in this category I'd keep an eye on Australia and Ireland
b) an injury to Dan Carter.
That's it. But the All Blacks are now just over evens in the betting markets to win RWC 2007. That's a crazy, and stupid price - if I had some spare change that I wouldn't mind being tied up for 10 months I'd lay the sh!t out of it as there is not much downside. Given that the possible opponents for the All Blacks at the business end of the tournament are France, Australia and Ireland (who happen to be ranked 2, 3 and soon to be 4 in the world), I fail to see how the ABs will start on average $1.27 each game, which is what the winner's price is suggesting.
That the All Blacks can show such tenacity in defense when they could perhaps be forgiven for slacking off due to the bloated scoreline speaks volumes about where their head space is at. While the general public will be wary that we have been down this road before ("peaking between World Cups"), 10 months out there are only two things that can happen that will stop NZ winning the RWC next year:
a) another team showing a marked level of improvement - in this category I'd keep an eye on Australia and Ireland
b) an injury to Dan Carter.
That's it. But the All Blacks are now just over evens in the betting markets to win RWC 2007. That's a crazy, and stupid price - if I had some spare change that I wouldn't mind being tied up for 10 months I'd lay the sh!t out of it as there is not much downside. Given that the possible opponents for the All Blacks at the business end of the tournament are France, Australia and Ireland (who happen to be ranked 2, 3 and soon to be 4 in the world), I fail to see how the ABs will start on average $1.27 each game, which is what the winner's price is suggesting.
Labels: post mortems
posted by Rob Crawford at 11:23 AM
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