Let's not get too hard on Reuben Thorne for his post-match television interviews. He never says anything - but it probably isn't his fault. TVNZ's Bernadine Oliver-Kerby is breaking every interviewer's first rule and failing to ask open-ended and specific questions. She talks in vague generalisations and says it all
for him - leaving poor old Reuben to say "definitely" and that he's looking forward to the game the following week. No one is enlightened in the slightest. Other countries' interviewers (and therefore captains) raise real views on the games' real incidents, moments or strategies.
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And while on the subject of TVNZ interviews: What a broadcasting crime that the un-named bloke asking questions of All Blacks in the tunnel after the big test got Aaron Mauger on air but never mentioned the one subject every viewer in the land wanted to know about - how bad was the injury that forced him from the field? You know, the injury TVNZ's commentators had told us about during the match. Who is directing these people?
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Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph observes: The New Zealand and South African coaches met in the lift leading from the press conference area after Saturday night's game. Two big men, both former back row forwards, John Mitchell and Rudi Straeuli exchanged handshakes. "Take yourselves off for a few beers tonight, John. You've deserved it," Straeuli growled. Mitchell nodded, sipped from his water bottle, and headed off into the night. All Black coaches don't celebrate quarter-final wins.
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