Ouch, that was pretty horrid. Not only did England lose to the South African second XV (they left 12 of their best players at home on this tour), the Welsh were demolished by New Zealand even though they hardly made any mistakes all afternoon - maybe they should have let them perform the haka on the pitch.
The Irish aren't playing New Zealand on this tour, so they can carry on believing that they have a chance of beating the All Blacks in next year's world cup (that seems to be the consensus in my local Irish pub). In all honesty, though, the Kiwis are currently playing at a standard that is on another level to any other team. In the past I felt they relied too heavily on one or two stars, albeit supported by a better than average team. This time round, they're fielding fifteen stars and, by all accounts, have thirty or more who are equally good in reserve.
History shows that New Zealand have a habit of peaking too early, whereas other teams like England the current world champions have managed to find form in time for the big occasion. We've all got a lot of catching up to do this time round though.
Posted by Dom Pannell at November 26, 2006 10:40 AM