<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (C A Iversen @ Nov 20 2009, 12:52 PM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gingergenius @ Nov 20 2009, 12:23 PM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (C A Iversen @ Nov 19 2009, 10:15 PM)
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Well if the odd english supporter is telling themselves that it'll be a 30-40 point blow-out to make a really feel-good situation when they only lose by 8 points or something, then I can understand that. If they really believe 30-40 points, then I'll be stunned if they are on the money.
As said above by jawmalawm24, England ALWAYS step it up for us and often have had mediocre performances going into the match. I'm not trying to say they have a huge chance, but there is one there. They are a rollercoaster of a team form-wise and thats sometimes a big weapon when they suddenly turn it on.[/b]
I agree. However, in the professional era we've managed 2 wins and one draw against the All Blacks. The draw came in 1997 from the generation that was gearing up to be one of the greatest teams ever by 2002/3. The two wins came in 2002 and 2003 when that team was at its peak.
What does this prove? Nothing on the day. But it does show that in order to beat New Zealand, England need to be a bloody good team. At the moment we are not. The England that played towards the end of this year's 6 Nations looked like it might become a good team once more. But in reality, since 2005 England have been a shockingly awful side with a few blips of success coming in RWC 07 and 6N 09. Once more, we have returned to this phase... if you exclude the odd performance here and there, England 2005-9 has been the worst period of English rugby in my lifetime. And unlike the Celtic teams, we do not have a history of staging major upsets when up against hated opposition.
My prediction is that England will compete hard, but the best the fans can hope for is to be within 10 points.
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Well, thats hard to argue, with.
One point though, is the All Blacks are not as good as they have been. They have 2/3rds of an extremely good team, but over the last 2 years they haven't been able to deliver crisp ball to their backs and the passing skills have been periodically shocking. The other 1/3 (it can vary from game to game who these fools are) are prone to brain explosions that have cost us dearly.
Our forwards are as strong as ever, but our backs are so controlled by the aerial ping-pong tactics which todays rules seem to require that they haven't really learned to run a backline.
I thought seeing the League guys play over there recently that backline on backline, the AB's would get killed by the kiwis in the running/passing aspect that used to be an All Black strength.
If we play well, England will have an huge uphill battle, thats true. Still, I've a feeling that England have it in them to keep us under pressure (within 10 pts) for the middle 40 minutes. Anything besides that will take some good fortune, but England are long overdue to step up.
The biggest thing stopping that is the England personnel as you alluded to.
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Does it seem to anyone else, that we are still recovering player losses that should have been well and truley finalised by now?
Since 2007 we lost some important players.
Doug Howlett: He isn't missed too much as NZ has alot of depth in wingers, and Rokocoko's inclusion 2 the Barbarian's side will be interesting. We have Jane, Guildford, Sivivatu, Rokocoko all likley for spots in the RWC 2011, and Ben Smith, Lelia Masaga and Hosea Gear are also in contention.
Byron Kelleher: Perhaps one of the bigger losses, as we still haven't worked out the half back pecking order. It seems Cowan is the prefered option, with Weepu, Ellis and Leonerd all fighting for that spot on the bench.
Anton Oliver: Well backed up with Hore and Mealamu. It seems Hore has got a head start, but who knows by 2011.
Jerry Collins: Most missed player in my opinion. We are now getting desperate to decide who we want to be the staring #6, with Thompson seeming to lack a bit of the phyisicality, however good with rucks. Good combination with McCaw. The other option, Jerome Kaino, seems to me to be a less talented Jerry Collins, big hits, but less work rate then Collins, and perhaps not as phyisical as Collins either.
Carl Hayman: Another huge loss, we seem to have a few new props in Crockett and Franks, however if Hayman came back, our side would be bulstered hugely.
These questions need to be anwsered fairly quickly, as the RWC gets closer, and it seems our forwards still have quite a bit of indecision. I believe when these positional errors are fixed, NZ will return to form, but untill then, every position apart from 1st 5/8t and Openside Flanker, are up for grabs.
