All Blacks v England - in review

(also published on Pink Rugby)

The All Blacks have recently wound up their series against England, coming away with a 3-0 winning streak. As one would predict, as one would hope. But it wasn't all smooth sailing, far from it

actually...

Test 1 and test 2 were both down to the wire and in reality, the All Blacks were lucky to secure two wins. I felt that in the first test in particular, the All Blacks were outplayed by the English, and it was pure luck that they somehow got more points than the English. The second game was more evenly contested, but the English were very unlucky to not win after their second half comeback.

Test 3 was the one game that gave All Blacks fans some hope. There was a notable improvement in both their attacking and defensive game, and for the first time in the series, the All Blacks looked like the All Blacks.

The backs were especially impressive:

• 
  Julian Savea was on fire, smashing through the English like they were five year olds (scoring three tries on the way)
• Cory Jane had one of his best games in the last couple of years
• Aaron Smith was good with ball in hand – and scored two tries - but his kicking game leaves a lot to be desired
• Malakai Fekitoa made his starting debut for the All Blacks and he didn't look out of place in the #13 jersey. He made some powerful runs and worked well with Ma'a Nonu. This is one guy that you can say deserved his place in the All Blacks, without a doubt. I bet John Kirwan is kicking himself for dropping Malakai from the Blues! He has been more outstanding for the Highlanders in 2014, than the Blues team in its entirety!
• Ben Smith overtook Israel Dagg as the first choice fullback. How could he not? Smith's game – attacking, defensive and kicking - has been far more comprehensive and complete in 2014, and his performance on Saturday night confirmed that. Steve Hansen needs to stop playing him on the wing, it is a waste of his talents. Here's hoping Hansen and co have given up on the idea of playing him at #13! Easily the player of the series.

After the first test the English media were very quick to pounce, suggesting (proclaiming?) the All Blacks had lost their 'aura', and were no longer the peak of rugby perfection. What they failed to take into account was the fact that prior to the first test, the All Blacks had had a total of FOUR training sessions together. No team can be expected to play cohesively and impressively after four training sessions. After the second test, the English media spoke of a 'much improved' All Blacks team, and after the third test? The English media were extremely quiet.

So where does this leave the All Blacks, in the lead up to the Rugby Championship?

Simply, I think the All Blacks are in a good position for the Rugby Championship. If you compare their performance in the first test, with their performance in the third test, the improvement was vast. It was almost as if they were two completely different teams. That just goes to show how quickly the All Blacks develop as a team when they have a decent amount of time together.

A lot was made of the All Blacks' less than impressive first couple of tests, but I think it was a good

thing for them to have such tough opposition first up. All Blacks supporters tend to expect the All Blacks to win by a convincing margin in every single game they play. The reality is, NO team can win every game, and NO team can make it through the season without being challenged. It is GOOD for the All Blacks to have three tough tests first up, because it better prepares them for games against South Africa and Australia, which are sure to be tough contests!

{25 days of hotness} day seven

{25 days of hotness}

day seven

CORY JANE
*Hurricanes & All Blacks*

ITM Cup hotty of the week

Cory Jane!

age:  30

position:  outside back

teams:  Wellington, Hurricanes & All Blacks

Rugby is BACK! Disappointment. Pride. Hotness.

RUGBY IS BACK FOR 2013!

See.  The fact excites me so much I felt the need to center, capslock, bold, italicise, underline and exclamation point it!

Rugby is officially back for the 2013 season, and suddenly it feels as if all is well with the world again.  For the most part.

... just you keep on being sexy, Zac...

Everyone knows of my love for Mr Zac Guildford, so obviously I need to mention the fact he isn't playing in the Super XV this year... well, not right now.  And this my friends, forms disappointment #1.

His battle with alcohol is something that has been highly publicised, and at the end of the day, only he knows the extent of the problem, and I hope that this time around he is given the support he needs to work through whatever he needs to, and come out the other side... put on his jet shoes & get back on the rugby field!  I hate all the publicity his latest 'incident' has been given by the media, because by all accounts it was a minor 'incident' - but the media blew it well out of proportion.  Thank goodness he had an awesome girlfriend who is willing to speak out & stand up for her (sexy) man, along with some great friends who have done the same.

Seeing how much the media can fuck someone over, makes me almost ashamed that I want to BE a journalist...

I buy tickets to see CJ playing...
NEK MINNIT....

Disappointment #2 comes in the shape of one Mr Cory Jane.  Who sustained a season ending knee injury, just two days after I had purchased tickets to FINALLY see the man playing live.  If you remember, last year I was unable to see him playing live because he was injured.  I am officially a jinx on CJ.  Whenever I am going to be seeing him playing in person, he gets injured.  Last year it was the ankle, and now the knee - I could look on the positive side & say 'at least I can see TJ Perenara playing', but last time I was going to see HIM playing, he too got injured.  If TJ makes it onto the field, I will be a happy girl - if TJ DOESN'T make it on the field (due to injury), then I am never going to go to another Hurricanes rugby game... EVER.  It's for their own good.  On a positive note (for him), I guess - is the fact that he's going to be able to spend lots of time with the 4th little Jane, whom I believe is due on March 13th.

Okay, as far as disappointment goes, I think that is it.  Ironic that the two disappointments relate to Zac and CJ, really...

Go laddy!

Pride.  You need look no further than one Mr Sean Maitland.  In 2012 it was announced he had been let go by the NZRU and that he was heading over to Scotland, having signed with the Glasgow Warriors.  There was an element of 'oh my god, you traitor!!!', but we soon got over that, and began to follow his blossoming European rugby career.  Needless to say, when he was announced in the Scotland squad for the Six Nations, we were very proud of the ex-Crusader/Canterbury player!  In a dream debut, he went on to score a try in his first game for his adopted country, and then set up a try the following weekend, vs Italy.  BECAUSE of Mr Maitland playing for Scotland, we have begun following the Six Nations competition, and are looking very forward to being able to watch the next game, which is at the not-so-convenient-time of 3am next Monday morning!  Okay, so we MAY record it so we can watch it at a more awake-friendly time of the day, but you never know...  Perhaps a 3am wake up (followed by a 7.15am alarm...) will be all worth it, to watch our favourite European team, and favourite Kiwi-in-Scotland playing!  Besides, they are playing IRELAND.  Ireland have the best (rugby) National Anthem in the world.

In a move we felt was needed, Lauriel and I got Sky last week.  In September we are going to NEED digital TV anyway, so it kind of WAS needed in a way... but it was also NEEEEEDED so we could watch rugby on TV, and not have to put up with just having one game a week to watch on free-TV.  Hence on Friday night when the Rebels vs Force game kicked off, we both breathed an enormous sigh of relief.  The Super XV was officially underway, and we could watch it AS IT HAPPENED, and not have to rely on the delayed-coverage-of-one-game on Prime, and watching highlights on YouTube.  

David Pocock...
Sometimes one just can't deny the hotness factor

Neither of us are fans of Australian teams, nor of any Australian players (except David Pocock.  For some reason we like him), but rugby is rugby & beggars can't be choosers... but what we soon realised is that like most other rugby teams, the Australian teams have the occasional hotty playing for them!  Our 'observation' (this sounds more classy than 'perving') began and as could be predicted, we soon found players that made us hit 'live pause' so we could take a better look and say "Oooo!  Who is that?"  "Number 14!"  "I'll google him!".  That process was repeated four times - three times for the Rebels and once for the Force.  By the end of the game we had four names to add to our list of rugby hotness (I kid you not, it exists) - Hugh Pyle, Mitch Inman, Lachlan Mitchell and my personal favourite, Patrick Dellit.  The following night when the Brumbies played the Reds, our search wasn't as successful, with us only adding one name to our list - that of Pat McCabe.  So when you add in David Pocock, that is 6 Aussie players on our list... something that is hard to accept (being die hard All Blacks fans!), but it seems it is hard to ignore eye candy, even when it could potentially be dressed in Green & Gold, playing against the Men in Black, come Rugby Championship time.

I now leave you with my personal highlight from the first week of the 2013 SuperXV competition...

Welcome to the list of hotness, Mr Patrick Dellit!

!!! you sneaky photo, how did you end up on here????

25 Days of Rugby Man Hotness (Dec 10)

Todays hotty is...

Cory Jane
... the rugby man of my dreams for such a long time...

Movember Mo-Men (week 2)

Week two of the fabulous (??????????) Movember Mo-Men

Movember 8th - Cory Jane
WTF-Mo

Movember 9th - Zac and Izzy (they are a single entity, after all)
IzzyMo/CreepyMo and the sexy El Zaco

Movember 10th - Jarrad Hoeata (and Kendrick Lynn)
... Hottyata does the mo well, affording him no mo nickname...
except perhaps Sexy-Mo-Fo

Movember 11th - Andre Taylor
The dude does any scruff well.

Movember 12th - Tom Marshall
just continuing with the Crusader theme, really

Movember 13th - Tom Donnelly
...

Movember 14th - Beauden Barrett
aka FrodoMo (cos he looks like Frodo)

Bring Back Zac! & Quade (??!)

Don't worry Zac - I'm sad that you aren't
in the All Blacks squad as well...

Gone are the calls of 'Bring back Buck' - and here are the calls of 'Bring back Zac!'... because quite frankly, Hosea Gear is craptastic at what he does in the #11 jersey.  I can't count how many times he dropped the ball on Saturday night, how many times he was in the wrong place at the right time, how many wrong angles he ran, or the fact that he missed a try that he would have got had he been more awesome.  Y'know.  More like Zac.  Had Hosea actually been Zac on that night, he would have sidestepped and ran more infield, rather than allowing himself to be splattered by a Wallaby defender.

Bring.  Back.  Zac.

NOW.

SUTFM
- Squashed Up Toad Face Man

The inaugural Rugby Championship is underway - the All Blacks (as one would expect) beat the Wallabies on Saturday night.  It wasn't exactly an exciting game, there weren't exactly thousands of points scored - but you could see that although the All Blacks weren't playing at their peak, they were still miles ahead of the Wallabies as far as class, talent and ability goes.  It was almost embarrassing seeing how badly some of the Wallabies played - naturally one thinks of Kurtley Beale.. that squashed up toad face of a man had a horrendous game, and I would like to think that the Australian coaches will acknowledge that and kick his ass out of the team for this weekends match in Auckland.  He was the reason the All Blacks scored their two tries - and generally ran circles around their so called 'tough' opponents.

Squashed up toad face's shockingly poor effort obviously leads us to expect that New Zealand's favourite son will be called into the team.  That's right.  Quade Cooper.  We all know that the Kiwi crowds LOVE him... OH WAIT, that's right - they actually hate him.  I still remember very clearly all the booing throughout the All Blacks v Wallabies semi final match at the RWC last year...  Quade had a shocking performance that night - and literally from the kick off, where he kicked the ball out on the full.  It really set the tone for the evening.  Australia sucking.  Crowd hating on Quade.  All Blacks kicking some major ass.  One of my fondest moments of that game - and quite possibly every New Zealander's favourite part of that game was the infamous QUADE SMASH........

Lets...

See...

That...

AGAIN!!!!!

Best.  Game.  Ever.

Try celebrations, AB's style!

Izzy is very proud of his buddy, CJ!

Back on the subject of this past weekends game though... While most players had a pretty average game, Izzy Dagg had a great game and ran in his 9th try as an All Black (in, I believe, 15 tests)... He also made the quick, snappy, brilliant pass that allowed CJ to slot in for a 'very CJ' try.  Izzy was an obvious choice for man of the match - and he certainly deserved the honour...  In an article (one of many) about the game, he said "I just had to back myself. It's something I haven't been doing much [lately]."  He might not be backing himself, but I can guarantee that the whole of New Zealand is backing him - I have a feeling it's going to be an awesome series for Mr Dagg... he was certainly at his explosive best on Saturday, and surely that'll only get better the longer they're in camp & the more games they play!

As is always a nice thing to do, lets go out on a happy man lovey note

Yes Dan, we too are proud of Izzy!

Them Rugga Boys & Their Ink... and Proof the World Isn't Perfect.

The All Blacks are awesome - purely because they ARE the All Blacks, who by nature are the kings of the world... but a lot of them also have tattoos - which is just another way in which they are awesome and really should rule the world.

Except Sonny Bill.
He can rule Australia.
Piss off, SBW.

I now present, 'Them Rugga Boys & Their Ink'...

Victor Vito

Piri Weepu

Liam Messam

Jerome Kaino

Hosea Gear

Aaron Smith

Ma'a Nonu - who also has an impressive
tat on his back, but I couldn't find a good
enough photo of it!!!!!

Keven Mealamu

Keven Mealamu and Owen Franks in the background

Israel Dagg

And naturally... my favourite tattoo clad arms.... belonging to one Zachary Guildford...

Left arm...

Right arm...

And now in a little more detail... courtesy of whoever it was who posted these photos on another blog...

In a perfect world, there would also be a photo of CJ showing off his tattoos... but the man has none......

Proof the world is NOT perfect.

Trio Triple Twitter Threat

(how the hell is that for awesome alliteration??)

Someone in the Twitterverse must have done something very right, because this evening the Twitter gods were sure smiling down on.. well, Twitter, and all our Twitter prayers were answered...

CJ is known as the Twitter-king, amongst All Blacks fans and the general NZ public - using Twitter as a way to connect with his fans, make announcements, give his opinion, get in trouble with his wife for missing her birthday dinner #dogboxmuch.  Mr Guildford also started using Twitter - and whilst he is nowhere near the Twitter king that CJ is, he has lifted his game as of late - and is certainly the Twitter-prince to CJ's Twitter-king.

Forever now (well..... for about 8 months) there has been a very public campaign to get Izzy Dagg on Twitter.. but he refused.. and refused.. and refused.... UNTIL TONIGHT!  Mister Israel Dagg is now on Twitter, and already he is tweeting up a storm - and is developing quite the following.

According to Twitter, his first tweet was at 6.26pm - it is now 8.18pm, so in that 1 hour and 52 minutes he has gained 1612 followers, which works out to be an average of 14.3 followers per minute.  Compare that to Zaccy who has 6555 followers and CJ who has 57,597 followers.  Still a way to go on both of them - but I have a feeling he'll take Zaccy's Twitter-prince title in the coming days.

The proof is in the pudding... well, in the Twitter profile...

By the way.  It's now 8.24pm and Izzy is up to 1657 followers.

One Hoody, 3 (or 4) Ways: The Great Hoody-Off

One hoody - 3 (or 4) ways.
Who wears it better?

Mister McCaw, rocking the scruff - and the hoody

In the case of Zaccy, it's one hoody, two ways

Zaccy getting his pout on

CJ. Hoody. AND beany porn.

Dem CJ arms

Those nommy tats

I think they all look nom in THE hoody (this is not to be mistaken with THE sweater) (another post, another day), but if I'm being absolutely honest, I think Mr CJ looks a lot better sans hoody....  And while Zaccy looks adorable in the hoody - it 100% hides all the nommy tattooage on his nommy tattooaged arms..  So perhaps Mr McCaw is the one who wears it the best? He admittedly DOES have a nice body, sans top/shirt/sweater/jumper/polo - but he doesn't quite have the spectacular arms that Mr Jane has, nor does he (or CJ, for that matter) have the full and half arm tattoos of Mr Guildford

He's perfect in every other aspect of his life - so why WOULDN'T he win the great hoody-off of 2012?
Right, Lauriel?