Okay quick thought popped in my head the old add age goes NZ are the masters of peaking at world cups. However is it that or are just they continually consistent and it's just the other top nations that gear themselves to peaking at the World Cup period making it appear NZ have peaked early again?
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Do NZ peak between World Cups? Or...
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Since the beginning of the 2011RWC, the All Blacks have lost 3 matches out of 54 matches played, so in a sense, they peaked in 2011 and have maintained that peak ever since. If they lose a match and exit the RWC, they won't have failed off their peak because I expect business as usual next year.
BTW I am still not happy about the Half-a-Rugby Championship travesty we had this year. First up, they should not have arranged the Samoa match this year. Those sorts of matches need to be reserved for non RWC years.
There was no reason why a full championship could not have been played, complete with a break week in the middle.
ROUND 1: 11-12 July
NZL v ARG in Christchurch
AUS v SAF in Brisbane
ROUND 2: 18-19 July
ARG v AUS in Mendoza
SAF v NZL in Johannesburg
ROUND 3: 25-26 July
AUS v NZL in Sydney
SAF v ARG in Durban
***** BREAK *****
ROUND 4: 08-09 August
NZL v AUS in Auckland
ARG v SAF in Buenos Aries
ROUND 5: 16-15 August
NZL v SAF in Dunedin
AUS v ARG in Melbourne
ROUND 6: 22-23 August
ARG v NZL in Buenos Aires
SAF v AUS in Cape Town
Note that NH teams were already playing RWC warm up matches in the first week of the RC, and they were still paying them this weekend just gone; the weekend after my proposed last round of the RC.
I've had enough of our SH test programmes being short changed in RWC year.
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I agree. Especially since most of the players were rested/given sabbaticals during the Super Rugby Tournament. I think it's a travesty that New Zealand only had one home game in a calendar year. Especially in such a significant year where 2 of their stalwarts are also retiring/ending their All Black career.
Which is kind of the point in equal measure other top teams have been looking at making their teams the absolute best they can be now as opposed to intervening years. Stuart Lancaster for instance rather than some continuity completely ripped England to shreds post 2011 and have been working at being ready for now....still would of liked a 6N ***le though.
As for your other point who enforced that World Rugby or the SH nations? It's bloody silly but I guess warm up matches have a different intensity (thus less likely to have player injured) and the summer international were also cancelled.
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Well South Africa had no choice but to go into a rebuilding phase after 2011 and the mess PDV left us in. HM basically had to build a team from scratch. Some of the players have worked while others weren't so successful. If there was just some consistency in quality coaching of our national team we wouldn't have done as much experimentation as we had to do to focus on the RWC.
Blackadder
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On the OP, I think 2009 wasn't the best year for NZ and that's slap bang in the middle of the 2007 and 2011 RWCs, so I think, no, NZ don't specifically peak in between RWCs. I mean, they go into most RWCs ranked no.1 so its hard to argue that they dip going into these tournaments. I think a bigger fator is just the knock-out, one-off nature of the tournament where literally the bounce of the ball or a few calls or non-calls can send you packing no matter who you are. IE the playing field is more level as I do feel most other teams specifically do target RWCs but lets be honest, if the tournament was in an extended league format no-one would be betting against NZ.
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Blackadder
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I agreeTRF
The RWC is a knockout tourny, one slip-up, bad call etc and its over. Attributing failure to peeking too early would be nigh on impossible to quantify, indeed, dare I mention it, choking might be easier to qualify.
The RWC is a knockout tourny, one slip-up, bad call etc and its over. Attributing failure to peeking too early would be nigh on impossible to quantify, indeed, dare I mention it, choking might be easier to qualify.
I've had a similar conversation with a few mates and we always come to the conclusion no, like smartcooky said we have been pretty consistent for almost 4 years now.
One of the biggest challenges the AB's face is that most teams we play treat us as the pinnacle of there season, the benchmark to beat, for the AB's it is just another test in the year, btw not trying to sound arrogant.
In the sense that everyone wants the scalp of the AB's the most, ask most countries who they would like to beat and it would be the AB's, so we when they play us they are playing at an intense standard, on the flip side, the AB's every week play a team that is wanting this one the most. 10 -12 tests each year like that is hard going.
So when you look at the consistency over the last 4 years it has been pretty good, I always felt this might be the year we struggle the most, mainly because I feel we waited to long to blood new players, get a bit more experience and build depth in a couple of positions, while we might win a few games it certainly hasn't been as fluent as the last few years yet.
It's going to be interesting, as when you look at our squad it is one of the most well balanced we have had in a few years though, the big question is can we do it for 3 back to back knock out games.
I believe so but we are going to have to play a lot better than we have this year so far, we need to play more like we did in 12/13 (except the England EOYT game)
One of the biggest challenges the AB's face is that most teams we play treat us as the pinnacle of there season, the benchmark to beat, for the AB's it is just another test in the year, btw not trying to sound arrogant.
In the sense that everyone wants the scalp of the AB's the most, ask most countries who they would like to beat and it would be the AB's, so we when they play us they are playing at an intense standard, on the flip side, the AB's every week play a team that is wanting this one the most. 10 -12 tests each year like that is hard going.
So when you look at the consistency over the last 4 years it has been pretty good, I always felt this might be the year we struggle the most, mainly because I feel we waited to long to blood new players, get a bit more experience and build depth in a couple of positions, while we might win a few games it certainly hasn't been as fluent as the last few years yet.
It's going to be interesting, as when you look at our squad it is one of the most well balanced we have had in a few years though, the big question is can we do it for 3 back to back knock out games.
I believe so but we are going to have to play a lot better than we have this year so far, we need to play more like we did in 12/13 (except the England EOYT game)
