Dan Carter and Kieran Read of the All Blacks perform the Haka during The Rugby Championship match between the Australia Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.
Dan Carter and Kieran Read of the All Blacks perform the Haka during The Rugby Championship match between the Australia Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.
This is how I remember 1991 (and there may be inaccuracies because in the intervening years I have declared war on my brain cells on more than one occasion).
All Black coach Alex Wyllie took a brilliant 1987 team and tried to stretch it to 1991.
He failed to heedthe warnings of a patchy 1990 campaign where they almost lost at home to Scotland. SCOTLAND! He got lumbered with a co-coach, John Hart, and they mixed together like oil and water.
The All Blacks got pumped by the Wallabies in Sydney and then kidded themselves that order had been restored by beating that same team 6-3 - with wonky, over-inflated balls - at Eden Park a week later to retain the Bledisloe Cup.
They went to the World Cup and played their best game in the opener against England, before flubbing their way past terrible opposition en route to a semifinal showdown with Australia. At Lansdowne Rd a deeply unpopular All Blacks team and their masterful deep-in-the-pocket first-five Grant Fox were totally outclassed by an exciting Wallabies backline orchestrated wonderfully well by Michael Lynagh.
I've been thinking a lot about 1991 since Saturday's Sydney shocker. To me and my unreliable recollection, the parallels are frightening (although this coaching panel still outwardly love each other, at least).
It is just starting to feel like there are too many ageing gladiators in this squad whose armour has buckled under the remorseless pressures of the professional game.
There was a vitality about the Wallabies on Saturday that was missing from the All Blacks.
The visitors were predictable, too. In this respect you can only hope Ian Jones is right when he says he believes the ABs are holding plenty back for the Big Tournament.
Brodie Retallick and Sonny Bill Williams were caught making poor decisions against the Wallabies' rush defence, but it must be hard playing when you have a neon sign above your head flashing "I'm getting the ball now". We're perhaps only really seeing now how pivotal Aaron Cruden was to SBW's initial success in rugby.
Unless Dan Carter starts running and holding inside defenders he is, for the first time in an otherworldly career, part of the problem, not the solution. At the moment he is nothing more than a competent first-five and a decent goalkicker. You could argue he's actually been that for a while, but like Christians waiting for The Rapture, we seem to be putting a lot of faith in the second coming of DC.
So Eden Park shapes as important, but not necessarily instructive as far as the World Cup goes. The All Blacks will still get to England and sleepwalk their way into the knockout rounds. If the toxic atmosphere the All Blacks encountered at Twickenham last year is anything to go by, they'll be the team the home crowd most wants to see fail.
Nothing much has changed in that respect from 24 years ago, but what would be nice to see is something different on Saturday night; something that reassures old pessimists like myself that this team and this coaching panel still have the tricks up their sleeves to keep them ahead of a fast-chasing pack.
GIVE 'EM A TASTE OF KIWI...
An Australian Rugby Union production, this is nevertheless a nice little entrée for the weekend's crunch match. What isn't mentioned is that the hoodoo-breaking Wallaby team of 1949 were actually playing a second-string squad, with the All Blacks also touring South Africa at the same time. In fact, September 3, 1949, will potentially go down as the worst day in All Black history, losing two tests 3-9 to South Africa in Durban, and 6-11 to Australia at Wellington.
There's this woman just around the corner from me who is a Mystics' season-ticket holder and she's been banging on for the past two years about what a great talent Mes is and if only more people would listen, blah, blah, blah... (yawn).
Turns out she was probably right. Mes might not be the most reliable shot in the country (or the second-, third- or fourth-most), but sometimes you can't beat flat-out athleticism and sheer hard work.
I'm selling...
... Shane Warne
Hands down the worst commentator of this Ashes series. The former legspinner has been totally outshone by former England players with half his playing talent, but most notably by Ricky Ponting, whose lack of hyperbole and ability to read the game's rhythms and forecast subtle shifts in momentum make him wholly unsuitable for Channel Nine.
By contrast, Warne's commentary (which was once pretty good actually), seems obsessively agenda-driven and full of schoolboy double-entendres.
Every week I will make one $10 bet. The goal is to get to December 31 with more money than I would have had if I had put it in the bank.
Last week: What a shocker. I spent my last $10 on the Warriors. The Warriors! The only person stupider, if there's such a word, than the 17 Warriors who took the field in Wellington, is me.
This week: I'm right where I don't want to be, which is $6.10 down on current spend (with this week pending) and forced to take slightly more risky bets to get back to par. So, despit my head telling me this is a desperately ordinary Liverpool team, I'm going to go for a halftime/fulltime double against newly promoted Bournemouth at $2.15.
OVER TO YOU This is your chance to rant, relive some memories, highlight a terrific grassroots sports performance, promote an upcoming sports reunion, or just send me crazy ideas. It's also not a bad spot for giveaways, if you're that way inclined. Email me at dylan.cleaver@nzherald.co.nz.
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Writes "Bunter", on the subject of the constant cat-calling of AFL superstar Adam Goodes: "The difficulty with seeing racists under every bed is that the supposed examples also support other interpretations. After all, the Aussies used to boo Richard Hadlee remorselessly as well - was that racism?"
This is an argument that has been leapt on by many commentators in Australia. It is also, IMHO, a disingenuous one.
The Hadlee chant - "Had-lee's a wan-ker" ad infinitum - was the result of Hadlee being the only obstacle in the way of complete Australian domination in cricket versus New Zealand.
New Zealand's booing of Tokoroa-born Quade Cooper is also childish but not racist. His is the result of what we perceive to be cheap shots administered by him on beloved/untouchable All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.
Goodes is a veteran AFL player who has only been subject to widespread booing since he made a stand against racism from the crowd and more so since he's refused to back down from that stance and, instead, has worn his pride in his Aboriginal heritage on his sleeve.
To repeat: my belief is that most of those booing Goodes wouldn't consider themselves dyed-in-the-wool racists but they are, like it or not, engaging in an inherently racist act.
