just to show off. haha. and to show appreciation to our juniors. lol i read toffa's email before i saw this collage. haha. i replied toffa and said 'what collage?!'. heh.
thank you j1s!
Oliver is one of those players bowing out at the World Cup, along with Luke
McAlister, Carl Hayman, Byron Kelleher, Doug Howlett, Chris Jack and Aaron
Mauger.What?! apparently this mean that those people are not playing ever again for the Allblacks? need some help here. I understand they'll be playing for overseas clubs (like Oliver is joining a french club) but why does that mean they retire from national duties? especially luke mcalister, he has to repay his debts by playing better for the national team in the next world cup. (like how sab still owes the team, how many more tries? haha.) oh man those 7 people are like HOW IMPORTANT!!
to prove my point about the du.mb ref:
But the French certainly appeared to have help on their side in the form of English referee Wayne Barnes who gave a questionable performance with the whistle.
His yellow carding of McAlister appeared a particularly harsh call and ultimately cost New Zealand a try.
He also missed a blatant forward pass in the leadup work to the Jauzion try. When that try was converted the French had their two-point lead and they clung on to it for another famous victory....
France managed to turn the ball over on their line with what appeared to be hands in the ruck. But there was no complaint from Barnes or his touch judge and the French survived to live another day.but the above might be biased cos it's from a newzealand website which i particularly enjoyed reading- http://rugbyheaven.co.nz/
haha. this commentary was particularly .. interesting. (and yes it's still about the ref. and yes of course we get bad reffing sometimes, but with computer technology and all those reconfirmations with the television ref or whatever.. still unbelievably bad refeereeing, coming from someone admittedly biased. =P)
http://rugbyheaven.co.nz/4230249a22459.html
"But you also got the general feeling that Barnes was on a bit of a mission to keep an eagle eye on Richie McCaw, possibly at the expense of a few French misdemeanours."
and YES! i'm not the only one who thought he was picking at McCaw.
"As a former lawyer Barnes is obviously reasonably bright. As a referee that may be a bit more debatable.
By all accounts, Barnes is a rising star on the English, European and international refereeing scene. I'd suggest his rise may have been a bit too quick to be appointed to a match of this significance. "but of course the match was lost entirely on just bad refeereeing. still.. it could have been much better. this is the same guy who wrote "Forget the appalling refereeing of England's Wayne Barnes, ultimately the pampered All Blacks only have themselves to blame for giving New Zealand our earliest exit in the history of the World Cup." http://rugbyheaven.co.nz/4229105a22459.html
Our Gods fall to Earth - http://rugbyheaven.co.nz/4229128a22459.html
the Great Jersey Hijack (written before the match) - http://rugbyheaven.co.nz/4229056a22459.html
"I have no doubt that France's Nike backers were behind the plan to darken up their team's playing strip to ensure if the home team ever faced New Zealand in the tournament the Kiwis would have to leave their black strip in the dressing room.
The motivation behind this seemed to be a bizarre belief that not wearing black would suddenly emasculate our players and that they would be reduced from supermen to mere mortals. All because of the dye colour in their jerseys.
This underlines the obsession the French have with the All Blacks but I'll come back to that.
Nike and France hatched a plan that the IRB should have seen coming...I'm bemused there was even a toss of the coin to decide it in the first place. The All Blacks won their pool group, France came second in theirs. That alone should be enough reason for the All Blacks to have first choice.
...Bernard Laporte instructs his players to refer to the team as "New Zealand" and not the "All Blacks".
But the more they try to demystify the Blacks, the more they seem to be trapping themselves in a psychological mire. "Well.. it worked. kinda.
4 more years. and the All Blacks will bring home to cup to New Zealand.