From: cctr123@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Alan Murray, CSC Operations, Uni of Canty)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.rugby
Subject: Re: All Ye of Little Faith
Date: 30 Jul 92 11:28:13 +1200
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

In article <danielbt.712202124@marsh>, danielbt@marsh.cs.curtin.edu.au (Brett Daniel) writes:
> The many plusses to come out of the tour were: Olo Brown's magnificent 
> scrummaging, the pairing of Robin Brooke and Ian Jones at lock, Zinzan Brookes
> return to form, the magnificent Little & Bunce combination in the centres and
> the revelation of Timu at fullback, could he be the next John Gallagher?

Well I would say Zinzan Brooke's first real show of form for the All Blacks
which came about when his position in the squad was under real threat. I think
Zinny, like some other All Blacks, really started to put it together when the
danger of becoming yet another ex-All Black became very real. Little and Bunce
were great but under-utilised. The All Blacks over the last year or two and the
early part of this Australian tour have had this obsession with getting the
ball out to the wings quickly which really narrows the options. With strong
runners like Little and Bunce they should be looking to make breaks in
midfield. Timu came up trumps but I still think it was unfair on him to throw
him into that position for the first test without playing a couple of games
there first. He clearly showed two would have been enough. :-).

> 
> I thought Grant Fox had an excellent series and it confirmed his status as the
> world's best goal-kicking flyhalf.  I don't give a monkey's what anyone says,
> he is a match winner.  Most of his goals on saturday were from far more 
> difficult positions than Lynagh's and that drop goal was a piece of brilliance.
> What could he do with a halfback, half of Nick Farr-Jones quality. There must
> be someone better than Strachan in NZ.  He needs at least another couple of
> years of provincial rugby before he comes up to scratch. Bring back Buck??
> God bring back Dave Loveridge!!

Fox is another who has lifted his play once the threat of the axe was made
real. I've never been a Fox fan but I'm the first to admit that if he keeps up
the current level of play he deserves to stay as All Black first five. As for
Strachan - there are a number of better halfbacks in New Zealand. There's
Graeme Bachop, who was our best back at last year's World Cup, Jason Hewett,
Simon Crabb, from Waikato (played against England B), and even Stu Forster from
Otago. Preston has the ability to be better than Strachan though the game
against Sydney didn't show evidence of it.

> 
> A comment on the new rule changes: The major tactic now seems to be to boot the
> ball up field, catching the opposing player outside his twentytwo, pinning him
> down and therefore winning the scrum feed.  I think this is a negative tactic
> which has done nothing to open up the flow of the game.  They should revert to
> the old rule of possession in an indeterminate maul => scrum feed.  Any coments?

That doesn't have to be the case if you have condidence in your own ability.
Remember the kicker now has to put the rest of his team onside so there is more
time to be able to run the ball back at the opposition and if your backs are
strong enough, and Bunce and Little certainly are, then there's no reason why
you shouldn't clear the ball from the ensuing ruck or maul. The biggest problem
seems to be that forwards just can't seem to stop themselves diving over the
top and conceeding three easy points. I think it was a real shame it took the
All Blacks two tests to realise their best counter to the Australian kick and
chase tactic was to run the ball back at them rather than kick it back to them.

> 
> The sooner Rugby Union tosses aside the staid, snobby, wanky, upperclass notion
> of the purity of amateurism in sport and becomes fully professional, the better.

Rugby players in NZ don't do too badly these days. About the only thing they
don't get is paid for actually playing - even senior club players these days
are "employed" but committee members of the club and rep players and All Blacks
are looked after to a greater degree (if they want to be). I think this is a
fair enough system. It's all very well to look at test matches with crowds of
50,000 and say the Union is raking it in and the players should get their share
but the average club natch in NZ probably draws less than 1,000 spectators
(hell some of the Nat Championship games draw less than that - I mean who wants
to pay to watch West Coast play East Coast on a wet day in Greymouth - or even
Canterbury play Queensland on a bitterly cold day in Christchurch). Why is it
most of the rugby talent in NZ is in or around Auckland - not because everybody
wants to live in Auckland but rather talented players are enticed there. At
least with the setup as it is now smaller unions like West Coast, North Otago,
East Coast etc do get a small slice of the pie.

Alan