So Jaco Peyper to referee this match and whose interpretations of the breakdown will determine this match. Good or bad referee from people's experience of watching him?
Peyper is a pretty good referee in my opinion (I rate most of the top South African referees). He is pretty young for an international referee (34) but seems to control the players pretty well.
Not necessarily. All sorts of things can go wrong when a player transitions from age grade to senior, and you can have poor teams and still produce 4-5 stars a year.
For me, the biggest hope in dealing with the All Blacks is that I respect their pack less and less. It's obviously still a fine unit... but Retallick, as fine an athlete as he is, isn't Brad Thorn, not yet, and the likes of Messam and Vito (when played) are no better than what we can put out. They've got a problem at hooker and Woodcock should be eased out. McCaw is beginning to resemble BOD's final years - still a touch of greatness, but the average performances are beginning to pile up.
The number of countries that can go toe to toe with their pack seems to be increasing. Once you can go toe to toe with the pack, you're in with a chance. If you can actually beat their pack... I've said it before, I really want to see how SA go against them.
I think that is fair - it is an area that has been concerning me for some time. Up front Woodcock is well past his best, but is still the best we have, Coles is developing but is not a top class international hooker yet (and there is a big step down to our next young hookers), while Owen Franks seems to have gone backwards these last few seasons (he's still solid, but there a much better TH's in world rugby at the moment). I do think both of our locks are world class. Retallick may not Brad Thorn, but he does many things better than Thorn ever did, and I think is probably as valuable now to the AB's as Brad Thorn was in his prime. Kaino and Read (when fit) are the best in their positions in the world in my opinion, so we don't have any issues at 6 and 8 (as long as Read's head issues don't linger). McCaw at 7 is a worry however. He is another who is past his best - he's still playing good rugby, but there are better's 7's playing. He is still able to compete with the more athletic loose-forwards out there using his vast experience (and bloody minded determination), but how long he can keep this up is the big question.....
Important to notice what's happening at the Junior World Cups year on year; The Baby Blacks are no longer completed dominant and I would expect this to reflect itself a number of years down the line at senior level.
it all comes down to how talent identification is managed and players brought through, and other countries, notably England and SA are getting better at it.
There are a couple of reasons we aren't as dominant at this level as previously. Goodnumber10 has identified one (the fact other side have gotten better), but a major reason from a NZ perspective is that we not longer have Dave Rennie coaching (the guy who coached the Chiefs to the last Super Rugby titles for those who are unfamiliar with the name). NZ sides often struggle size wise at these tournaments. At the lower levels in NZ there is far more of a focus on developing basic skills / rugby nous than bulking up (that comes later) hence we often end up getting destroyed by the bigger forward packs in this tournament. Even when we were dominating the early tournaments our forward packs were often getting hammered by the likes of England and South Africa - the difference was that Rennie had developed a fast-paced style of play that maximised our strengths and minimized our weaknesses. We had highly mobile packs and basically ran other sides off the park. Since Rennie left we have looked a bit lost at this level to be honest. We did win (just) in 2011 (with Anscombe at coach), but we probably our most talented side ever.....
In terms of player production we are still producing just as talented players at U20 level in my opinion. Personally I don't think NZ's decline in fortunes at U20 level will directly lead to a decline in fortunes at the top level....
He can, it's well within his remit to tell them to hurry up and penalise them for wasting time.
My point in all of this (and i in no way am aiming this at you Darwin) is it's laughable to aim criticism at an England side for being negative when New Zealand enforce their own negative tactics designed solely for disrupting the England quick game.
As a coach if i teach my players to play negative tactics i cannot then criticise another team for employng negative tactics either int he same area or at a different one.
If New Zealand were so intent on giving the people a nice flowing cohesive game they would have not enfringed on quick ball and just got back int eh defensive line... I'm not saying england are saints, they disrupted ball as well - Robshaw in at the side for example and Yarde's Yellow, but you play the game how it suits you, and to focus on one element and not the over all negative tactics employed by both teams does - in my opinion make the article just trashy garbage.
Yep, I know. Unfortunately the ref didn't do this, so we missed out on seeing quite a bit of rugby in this match as the time was eaten up watching players talking to each other in huddles.
I don't really see the connection between slowing down opposition ball
in play (which all sides aim to do, whether legally or illegally) and wasting time. There is probably no point in debating this further (as it is far less interesting than the actual match), I just hope Peyper doesn't allow England to waste so much time again this weekend, as I wouldn't mind actually watching the sides play some rugby
