This is the thread for all discussion about the all-blacks tour....

herald

The all blacks are going to destory you great britain people!

Destory, murder, KILL!!1!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~!

*skulls beer and crushes can with forehead*

Ohhhh how i wish o'driscoll was playing, then we could sick tana on him again (but instead he's crying still and tana will be sitting the game out with security around him)

We should make a forum pool for fun, y'know like you get a certain player and if that player gets points you get E-penor

Finally, someone here has made a thread dedicated to the All Blacks. Not that I know much about rugby, but I sure love to watch an ABs game!

The games are all on at about 5am. Which is annoying.

Well...a convincing win... 5 tries vs nil, final score 41 - 3.

3 tries to Rico Gear
2 to Dan Carter, perfect conversion record.

Not a lot to say about this game. Umaga looked off song but there have been more spectacular bad days at the office, and he was supported very nicely by Smith and Carter. Carter was in fine form with the boot, both placed and tactical kicks found their marks.

The refereeing was at times sub par but at least the game was usually allowed to flow...the odd knock-on went un-noticed but it was never in a crucial stage of the game....Could do better, none the less.

Very happy with the start to the tour. The All Blacks have always travelled well but they have had troubles with the Northern Hemisphere in the past. None of those demons look to be present with this team.

Now I'm off to watch the league. If the Poms win, I believe we win the Tri-Series...C'mon Great Britain!

Is this where we would say "pwned?"

They should call the Welsh National Team "The Jones's"

Wales: 15. Gareth Thomas (capt), 14. Kevin Morgan, 13. Mark Taylor, 12. Ceri Sweeney, 11. Shane Williams, 10. Stephen Jones, 9. Michael Phillips, 8. Colin Charvis, 7. Jonathan Thomas, 6. Michael Owen, 5. Brent Cockbain, 4. Rob Sidoli, 3. Duncan Jones, 2. Mefin Davies, 1. Adam Jones. Res: 16. Rhys Thomas, 17. Chris Horsman, 18. Luke Charteris, 19. Robin Sowden-Taylor, 20. Gareth Cooper, 21. Nicky Robinson, 22. Lee Byrne.

diary
fixtures, times are GMT so +13hrs

V Ireland...expected result? Closer than the welsh game...40 - 20 or thereabouts to the All Blacks...it should be an interesting experiment...can the All Blacks exist as essentially two squads? This we must know the answer to before the next world cup.

Haha, a little bit more of an ass kicking than that. Pretty crazy that we have two teams that could effectively beat all but 1 or 2 other teams in world rugby.

Has just been Graheme showing how much depth we have, next week comes the top team, just in time to show England how crap they are, and how even worse Australia are.

Well, showing how much depth we have perhaps, but more developing that depth for the future (ie world cup)

nah we always suck come world cup time, we peak between cup years and suck by the time it comes along again. whereas france do the opposite, suck during cup downtime and peak at the world cup games and beat everybody who thought they'd trump them.

Hahaha, that is so true Senor. It's such a bloody weird pattern, yet it happens EVERY TIME!

EDIT: Then again, France did beat Aussie the other day... Australia is such awful form.

France did that once, but it sure was spectacular. I reckon Graham Henry&co have more idea than John Mitchell did.

Bah! This time it will be different, this time, oh ye of little faith

Given the depth of the available selections, and the balance of emphasis that Henry is putting on the field (ie not relying only on the backs, but developing forward play as well) you'd hope that they'd be able to maintain form and develop future players for a couple more years. And if they do that they might actually have the confidence to win it...

If NZ loses the Rugby World Cup bid to the Japs, I'd be ever so pissed! Japan isn't a rugby nation, they just happen to be an Asian country with people playing that sport. given that Japan had hosted the Soccer World Cup with Korean in 2002, I think NZ deserves a fair go.

Im hoping Japan wins it. Why? Why the fuck not? Unlike soccer, which has a huge following all around the world, Rugby is really only big in:
NZ
Australia (after league and ozzie rules)
SA
England
Ireland
France
Wales
And yes yes there are other countries who play, but noone who really makes an impact on the world scene. So, 7(ish) major countries in rugby. Would anyone like a bit of diversity with that? Seeing as they are: British Isles and their colonies +France (which is just across the channel). Sure we can harp on about patriotism and all that bull shit which adolf can no doubt tell us about, but I would much rather see the cup being played in a country which is new and different, where people get ultra-enthusiastic about the sport and are not going to plunge into a nationwide depression when they get knocked out before the finals. Go japan!
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

EDIT// by the way, Japan has way more people playing rugby than in NZ

^^

Um so we won the world cup bid

TIME TO CELEBRATE! How awesome is this!

The economic and tourism benefits are so going to eclipse the Lions Tour! I'm hoping that this time, we win the World Cup on our beloved home soil!!!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=100...vSE&refer=japan

WAY more? are you sure? I think they do have more, but they also have a huge population compared to NZ. Plus how many of Japans rugby playing population are actually Japanese?

Japan wouldnt have appreciated the world cup, its as simple as that. Sure they may have been enthusiastic, but how long would that have lasted if their team was getting nailed by 80 points every game? Hosting the world cup is a huge deal to a large portion of NZ, and it will be a great thing for the country, despite what the cynics have you believe.

OK, so it appears that I should eat my shoe. Yes it is a good thing that we won. yay. I still believe it would have been better in Japan, for reasons already stated. Unfortunately I do not have the details on the number of people playing in Japan and NZ, Boywonder, you may be right, but I still believe that It would be good for spreading the game around the world. Its difficult to judge how enthusiastic japan would be if they were getting nailed all the time. In the soccer world cup they played awesome and pretty much came from nowhere to beat a lot of established nations. Who knows what would happen if they had the cup. Maybe it would give them more incentive to develop their talent seeing as they are only young, rugby-wise. The added benefit of support might have helped to get them possible past the first round. Just wishful thinking on my part.
Luckily my shoes are made of chocolate

^^ ass chocolate

NZ is more deserving of the World Cup than Japan for a number of reasons:

- NZ is the world's most enthusiastic country when it comes to rugby, it is more than a sport to us- it is an inseparable part of our culture!

- NZ's rugby history is one of glory and pride. Being a leading rugby nation for so long, it would be a shame that the country that's home to the world's most powerful rugby team happens to have never hosted a world cup.

- A joint hosting bid with Australia was lost and there's a feeling that NZ deserves the World Cup because of that.

- NZ has demonstrated with the Lions Tour that its infrastructure and businesses are capable of handling such an enormous sporting event.

- Given that Japan's economy ranks 2nd in the world, the economic and tourism incentives generated by the world cup would be more deserving for a small country like NZ, it will also be useful stimulus for infrastructural and sporting facilities improvements.

Or it's just going to:

1) Perpetuate the mentality in NZ which says that we need some kind of massive international event or happening to kick off our economy. Instead of looking for sustainable ways to generate wealth, we're forever waiting for the next America's Cup/Lord of the Rings/Rugby World Cup that will somehow magically turn us into a South Pacific Singapore. It's the "cargo cult" mentality where we suddenly get a gift from on high, but we never actually build on it. Case in point: the pathetic waste of land left at the Viaduct after the big money just up and left.

2) Leave us with "white elephant" sporting facilities and infrastructure of dubious usefulness, which will cost shitloads to build and maintain but which won't ever make enough money to be worth it in the long run.

Hopefully proper planning will make it all work out properly.

The viaduct was the stupidest outlay of capital in the history of New Zealand. A whole area of land updated for an event with no sure return. Where as the V8 Supercar race had a five year secured contract...you can guess which one we did.

As for white elephants, I hereby start the campaign for Carlaw Park to be redeveloped.

And I submit the new stadium at the bottom of town to be demolished and a new one three times the size built on its foundations. The current arena looks like a scale model of a proper facility. It's a great site. Let's have rugby there in a proper stadium.

Here here. Problem is with the way resource consents get scaled here, we'd have to design a 600,000 seat stadium in order to finally end up with a 70,000 seat one.

Comments on the recent English v Allblacks game

Sorry Hannah:

The english were giving the ref so much verbal oral sex it would have made Paris Hilton proud

OH FUCK I MISSED THE FUCKING GAME I WANTED TO FUCKING WATCH I SUCK SOOOOO BADLY.

^^ I taped it for my dad

Is Umaga actually considering possible retirement?

Yes he is. God knows who will replace him.

I know it really belongs in another thread, but our league guys are doing well too - 24-0 win against Australia!

Looking forward to the next ABs test more, of course.

6 years will mean plenty of time for change to any major sports team. I just hope that the All Blacks will be as talented today when the 2011 World Cup comes our way.

Hopefully they will be pretty good for the 2007 world cup too.