Forgive me, I've sinned

I have a terrible confession to make.

Despite moaning and groaning for the last four years, I have never actually watched the 2007 All Blacks v France quarter-final.

I was in Hong Kong heading to the United Kingdom at the time, and slept through my alarm after a few too many tsingtaos the night before.

Waking up with just 10 minutes to go I was stunned to see the All Blacks trailing, and Brendan Leonard and Luke McAllister trying to organise a drop goal from halfway.

Obviously the result was a shocker, made worse for me by French commentary and the thought of a 12-hour flight to catch on a hangover.

Since then I've seen the highlights, but just can't bring myself to watch the rest of it.

If there's one positive to emerge from the raft of injuries the All Black are suffering it's this: there is no chance of complacency.

The injuries to Dan Carter, Mils Muliaina and Colin Slade have come at the perfect time in this campaign, and shaken up the squad just before our biggest game to date.

If they had come early on in the tournament there would have been too much to think about.

If they had happened next week it would have thrown the squad into a panic.

As it is, there is no chance of the complacency we had in 2003 and 2007.

Still not happy about Stephen Donald though.

I like a beer as much as the next bloke but what's with the ABs and their inability to stay off the drink?

The World Cup is six weeks long - not a huge amount of time to stay off the amber liquid. And I couldn't care less about what any old-school former All Blacks have to say on the matter.

It's a professional era.

The players need to start acting like professionals and stay off the booze.