Eyes Above The Waves

Robert O'Callahan. Christian. Repatriate Kiwi. Hacker.

Monday 24 September 2007

My World Cup Predictions

Based on the All Blacks' games so far:


  1. All Blacks lose to France in the quarter-final; a high error rate snuffs out promising attacks and France score intercept tries.
  2. The international press, who have been praising the All Blacks to the skies, explain how over-rated they always were.
  3. The rest of the rugby world learns that the way to ensure the ABs do not win the World Cup is to never, ever play your A team against them except in the knockout stages of the WC.
  4. The press gloats about how the ABs never win the WC, which is the only contest that matters. At the same time, the press complains that no-one takes non-WC games seriously anymore.
  5. The press complains that conservative, keep-it-tight rugby is boring. At the same time, the press ridicules the ABs for playing a wide game, which everyone knows is not the way to win the World Cup (the only contest that matters, see above).



Comments

_FrnchFrgg_
I don't agree with you. I think that the only way France can win against the All Blacks is to play an extremely non-boring game.
They can't afford not to have solid bases, of course, but "keep-it-tight" "down-to-earth" "aim-low-reach-low" rugby is only sufficient to win against Ireland or England (although Wilkinson tends to make his team play wider and more supercool).
Any of Springboxes, Wallabies or All Blacks is far more difficult a team to chew.
_FrnchFrgg_
But of course we have a player that sends chills down the spinal column of opposite players, and makes our supporters go "whoouuahh" anytime he touches the ball (even if he doesn't do anything fancy), so we should win (except if the AB recall Jonah Lomu ;)
[I personally think Chabal is only part of the team, a good player, but Michalak or Ellisalde impress me far more]
Robert O'Callahan
Even the NZ crowd gave Chabal a standing ovation when he left the field this year. And that was after he'd broken the jaw of one of our best players!