in all obviousness, we have a case here. Two things are possible:
- My intentions don't transpire in the posts
- People, esp. the English here, are overreacting to it.
I think it's definitely a bit of both, but clearly there is misunderstanding, and I'm a patient person so here I am again.
* Yeah at the time I thought poisoning. The whole team looked weird and it seemed like a possibility, something perhaps likely even if it sounded really far fetched the second I heard it, I deemed it possible afterwards.
* Then I thought just fatigue for a long time thinking about their performance, reading up, and checking some of it out again. Still think so today, and this thread hasn't enriched me in any way because as Patchey said "Just don't be surprised when everyone shrugs their shoulders in response". So nothing new today in December 2013 for me about this fateful afternoon in Twickers.
* If you think it's disrespectful to England, then you're clearly too proud and can't let go and take it down a notch and try to really look at how the AB's played. In my initial OP, I pay close attention to some particularly strange movements in the game to illustrate the point. I spoke to an English friend here about this many times, and he immediately goes my way when I start with "well...I mean, seriously, they looked terribly strange, didn't they ?" because he has no complex at all. He was happy England played strong, but he's totally down to Earth and immediately concedes it was peculiar to say the least.
So if you think this is me not admitting England beat the AB legitimately, let me stop you there. That's not it. It's closer to detective work if anything, I wish I knew the real reason...and obviously if you've watched every single AB match since around 2011 when their crazy streak started, as I have, multiple times for certain matches, you would find something strange beyond just strange. Something unsettling, almost like they're playing bad on purpose, or they're not really interested, or, most plausible for me, they're exhausted both mentally and physically and on the surface we, the fans, don't know what they've gone through.
I'd say the exact same thing if it were France New Zealand, but if you watch our famous matches when we beat them, all of both 1994's, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2009...they're there and well, it's just France happen to play better and win after 80min.
They don't miss easy tackles throughout the match, miss sitters in front of the post, give away the ball in rucks with little resistance, show major gaping holes in the defense....
And if I come across as "polemical", perhaps it isn't what I'm saying per se, but how YOU read it that's the problem ?
Anyways, I won't get any answers...I'll have to just wish I'll find an unbiased kiwi one day who can give me some interesting info. But forums aren't the place for this, I'll just get very insulting replies or just mild sarcasm in return.
