We won something..... at last!

On the 18th of March this year I wrote an entry titled "I just want to win something". I had just watched Brisbane win the A-League and I was left to lament the complete lack of success on the part of any of the three thousand odd sports teams I support.

Well, at last, on the 23rd of October my thirst for success, glory and the ability to belt out a Queen song in the pub was finally quenched. We were Rugby World Cup champions. At last we had won the crunch game in the big tournament and there was Richie lifting up that little golden cup we had lusted after for so long.

Thanks to some work contacts I had managed to secure a ticket, originally I had only planned on going to the 3rd/4th playoff and the semi the week before but as the tournament progressed and the hype grew I knew that any opportunity to get my hands on a ticket to the showpiece should not be passed up. So it was thanks to a RWC 2011 staff member that I ended sitting at Eden Park with four sheilas from work witnessing one of the greatest nights in our sporting history.

Everyone knows the story of the game, the fairytale that was the Beaver, the drama that was the French actually showing up to play. I can guarantee it was as horrible to watch live as it was to watch on Television.

So how did it feel at the end? Honestly, I can't really remember. The last 10 minutes were all such a blur; I think I spent a good deal of time with my head in my hands, some laughing nervously with my mate sitting next to me and presumably some of it shouting at the field (I should probably ask the girls if any of the language I was using would have been offensive to the 8-year old sitting next to me) The feeling at full time though wasn't esctasy, I dont even think it was the unbridled joy I remember feeling watching BOP win the Shield or watching Pasty save the penalty against Bahrain. It was relief, just relief. We had done it! After all the years of hurt and what should have beens we had done it. They didn't matter anymore because for the next four years there would be no elephant in the room, no hollowness in our yearly dominance of everyone else. We had won the William Webb Ellis trophy.

My only letdown of the night was how long it took for anyone to play "We are the Champions" Some may think it is naff and cheesy but for me that would be the moment I had waited for for so long. Unfortunately though, no-body played it at the ground and for at least two hours at the pub I was in post-game no one played it. It wasn't until perhaps 2am, at about the same time as I was having a rant to a NZ Television star and his father that no one had played it yet, that The Clare Inn came to my rescue and allowed me to warble Freddy's lines.

We are and will be the Champions for the next four years. I won something and life is good.

Too much of a good thing? The All Black midfield question.

Can you have too much of a good thing? Too many Double Cheeseburgers – probably. Too many brews at the pub – most certainly. In the case of quality midfielders? Well, I think we are getting to a position, in NZ rugby, where we may do.

At the last three World Cups we have struggled the most when it comes to midfielders. That should come as no surprise to anyone. So surely the fact that we have a great pool of quality midfielders can only be a blessing this time around. I am beginning to think it may become a real headache going into the cup for us.

First of all, which players make up this pool of quality. In Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith we have the best midfield combination in International Rugby for the past two seasons. Sonny Bill Williams and Robbie Fruean scream quality and bring a completely new dimension to any attacking game-plan. Throw in Richard Kahui as a specialist centre as well as utility backs like Luke McAllister, Isaia Toeava, Jarred Payne and Rene Ranger and you have depth that any international side in any sport anywhere would kill for.

In Nonu and Smith we have a wonderful combination who probably could play every test this year and win us a World Cup. Dont worry about it, lock away the trophy, who cares. Best midfield combination we have ever had. Its all in front of them. Now though, do we have better players? Is Fruean a better option than Smith? Williams better than Nonu? Possibly, possibly not. But the complicating factor in all of this is Nonu and Smith are wonderful as a combination, Nonu without Smith in a test match and I would watch peeking out from behind a cushion. But Williams and Fruean don't scream composed in a tight test match. Surely, the answer is easy. Give everyone a run this year and then decide come World Cup time who our best combination is. You probably dont even need to give Nonu and Smith a run together in a black jersey until we kick off the tournament.

Not that easy unfortunately. Everyone agrees everywhere that we need to give our team some time together in the run into the tournament to make sure the combinations are sorted and everyone is singing from the same sheet. So we aren't exactly in a position to experiment at the World Cup and we only have four tests prior to the World Cup.

Here are the two options as far as I see it:

1. Bank on Nonu and Smith. They are world class performers with a world class track record and are good enough to win us the World Cup. The downside of that is that we may have better players who don't get a chance. We don't want to be sitting around in October bemoaning what could have been.
2. Experiment through the Tri-Nations and opening games of the World Cup, decide who our best combination are come the quarter finals. The downside to that is we get to the position we got to last time, we don't know who our best team is and we play like a team who haven't played enough together.

Its a decision I don't fancy making and I would suggest that sometimes the best decisions are the ones you don't have to make but are essentially made for you.

The Saturday Review: The Good, The Great and The Phoenix

Well what a Saturday night!

Lets start with the good. The All Blacks hammering of Scotland was perhaps their best performance since those victories over South Africa at home in July. It was 60 minutes of Rugby that we haven't been able to put together since then. The naysayers will say it was just Scotland but you still have to be able to put the performance on the field. This All Black team has no peer, they should not have to worry about what other teams do because if they play as they can then no body will get close.

The big talking point will obviously be Sonny Bill, the potential this guy has is absolutely mindblowing. Whether it was the move to 2nd 5 or more confidence he got himself in the game this week much more than last. From memory he threw three passes that led directly to tries and was involved earlier on in the chain for others. Its a bit scary how good he could be in honesty. In the past I was never a Nonu fan but have changed my mind on him in the last 36 months, he is world class and in the Tri-Nations was the best 2nd 5 on show anywhere in the world. But he should be looking over his shoulder.

The other two guys I was looking for big performances from also stood up. Hosea again showed how damaging he can be, he has a combination of speed, strength and deception that we haven't seen in a while and used it to great effect. Liam Messam was great also, he showed that he could mix it up physically but showed at a couple of points the completely unique skill set that he has.

All in all a great performance, even Beaver looked alright when he came on late!

There are few better sights for a Kiwi than watching an Australian team lose, especially when losing in the big games is becoming  bit of a habit for the Kangaroos at the moment. The Kiwis last night were special, they showed the kind of spirit and character that only the Kiwis can show and played as a 'brotherhood'. They were poor at Eden Park the week before and they knew it but to bounce back the way they did was outstanding.

Benji Marshall is a freak, people have known that for some time but outside the 05 Grand Final you could almost argue he has never massively stood up in a big game. He did last night. That kick for Nightingale was perfection, the fact that is exactly what he was trying to do might be lost on some people but the ability to do that comes from years of messing around in a backyard or at training trying to figure out what you can make an oval ball do.

Smarter scribes than I will provide better analysis but the Kiwis in victory are  joy. Without wanting to sound racist there is something so primal about the way they win and celebrate it. If Richie is lifting a gold trophy at Eden Park next year can you imagine him asking his team to channel an American Reality TV show character in celebration (I am reliably informed the fist pump thing is a reference to the Jersey Shore) or can you imagine Ryan Nelsen punctuating a post match interviews with a big yuss and saying youze. Just great stuff.

Now to the Phoenix. Ive been supporting the Phoenix since day 1 and can categorically state I have never been as frustrated as I am right now. Sure in Season 1 and 2 we had some dark days but back then we probably didn't have the squad that should be challenging round the top of the table like this one should.

On defence god only knows what is going on. Jade North slipped over last night to give Rose time for his first, somehow Pasty tripped over himself to let the second go in and I had switched off mentally to know what was going on for the third.

Perhaps more worryingly though is the attack. We have scored two goals in our past 3 games, both of them being wonder strikes from outside the box. We have plain not looked like creating anything. We'e never had a creative midfielder, we buy people to fill the slot and they turn out to be garbage. Last season we got away with it because nobody could stop Paul Iffil. This year they can, where last year he would beat 3 men then shoot this year he crosses first time to a non-existent target man. Leo Bertos is playing quite well and Chris Greenacre continues to try but the goals aren't coming and its just painful.

I guess the only thing keeping us diehards going and giving us hope (perhaps false hope) is that we could quite comfortably do what we did last year and go on a run. But at the moment you just can't see where the spark is going to come from.



And last but not least a big thanks to Rich, Fletch, Rach and Jose for plying me with cocktails after the Phoenix game which eased my pain!