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Friday, December 07, 2007

You Want Surreal? 

Try this...

A bloke comes along and takes the best and most well known rugby team of all time and starts handing out their jerseys to fucken anybody half decent and tours with b-teams and then fails to field the same lineup or anything close to it for consecutive weeks for about two years, and then this team starts playing like shit from the end of year tour last year right through this year but wins most games because a) most sides we played were crap and b) we win most games all the time forever anyway. And then he takes our best 22 rugby players in the country and makes sure they don't play rugby for half the year meaning a guy like Mealamu gets 9 starts in all rugby games in all of 2007 and most others don't get many more. And then he comes out and says it was a mistake and that they will have to go back to the drawing board and work out when a good time to rest these guys is. I'll tell you mate and you don't need to give me a consultancy fee either. It's called the fucken off season! It goes for about 2 months with no serious training and about 3 months with no games. I'll even tell you the months. December to the end of February and if you aren't on the AB NH tour it goes a month longer. And then he says he doesn't want to win the WC playing ugly rugby even though he knows thats probably what it will take.

And we reappoint the guy?!

And why? Because the retards that run the game were just as responsible for allowing the AB jersey to be cheapened and the professional game domestically to get sold down the river and so by giving Henry the boot they would effectively be saying that a) they fucked up and b) Henry was a scapegoat and if he goes we should go too.

They had no choice.

Henry is a good coach, theres no two ways about it but he joins a long line of AB coaches who buried their head further and further up their arse as their time in charge went on. I seriously reckon that the NZRU should appoint a brand new coach 12 months out from every single WC because all our coaches have gone fully bananas by the time 4 years rolls around. They have gone stir crazy and spent so much time plotting for this one event that they can no longer see the wood for the trees.

But I'll tell you what. It would take a long fucken time with Henry picking the best team we have available and not a single word about systems and processes and strategies and squad building and player depth and all that crap for me to even develop a hint of respect for any of those mongrels.

Why in fucks name do you need player depth (with 15 of those guys watching the game), and two year strategies to win a WC (which you never win) meanwhile shitting all over the games in between and then watching a side with no journey, process, system or strategy or massive depth or anything come through and win the WC?

Ah fuck this. And when you see those polls with 70% support for Henry it just goes to show that 70% of those surveyed watch rugby and 30% actually give a shit about it and understand it and the damage that has been done to it.

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Comments:
Here's a scenario for you.

RWC 2011 and a Robbie Deans coached Wallaby side knocks the ABs (possibly coached by one G. Henry) out of the tournament.

Just imagine the fall out from that!

(disclaimer: as an ex-Cantab' I may be ever so slightly biased in my opinion)
 
I would never have thought it possible but I've actually gone off the ABs. In the past couple of years I've listened to RS in the evenings as Kent Johns has constantly criticised the rotation and resting of players because the ABs could be knocked out in one fluke game and it seemed an outrageous sacrifice to be making.

Callers were by and large taking a wait and see attitude mixed with other scpetics and sure enough two years of meddling and sabotage turned out to be for nothing.

You wait though for Henry to spin all the depth building once our next test rolls around because half our side has buggered off overseas. He'll make it out to be a master stroke when it had nothing to do with the real reason he was doing it.

To be honest I won't give a shit about the ABs until they themselves (meaning the coaches and NZRU) actually start giving a shit about the team, the public and the game in NZ.
 
My grizzle is that's there's simply too much rugby these days. With the S14 starting in January and then the end of year tour in October and there's only really about 2 and a half months of the year with no rugby.

I started becoming over-satiated in about 2001. From religiously going to every home game for the S12 and trying to get to the home tests I am now at the stage where I can't be arsed watching on TV any more.

The thrill is gone.
 
You've got that right. Outside of the WC I'd say I watched about 6 games live this year.

The domestic comp needs to get cut down to the 9 pool games it used to be with just 10 teams maximum in the top flight. OR the Super 14 needs to expand to include the Pacific teams and go to about 18 games plus playoffs and the domestic comp essentially ceases to exist as a professional competition.

We want about 25-30 weeks of professional rugby a year not the 39 or thereabouts that we currently get.
 

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