Simply the best
rugby365 columnist Steve Farrell dissects the Tri-Nations tournament and tells us who the big winners and losers are. Yes, New Zealand are the champions, but are they truly the best?
The curtain has been drawn on a long-winded Tri-Nations campaign with Richie McCaw lifting the Tri-Nations trophy and the Bledisloe Cup after a nail-biting win in Brisbane at the weekend.
It was New Zealand's fourth successive triumph in the Tri-Nations, and in the words of Graham Henry, it was "the sweetest victory". It wasn't their most convincing by any means - back-to-back defeats in Dunedin and Sydney had them playing catch up - but they finished strongly to bury some of the ghosts of 2007.
Dissecting the tournament as a whole, it was a strange one.
The Boks travelled to New Zealand with real hope of winning there for the first time in a decade. They had two bites at the cherry - Wellington and Dunedin - and thanks to a moment of brilliance from Ricky Januarie six minutes from time, they managed to pull off a rare victory in the All Black's backyard. This sparked scenes of euphoria within the Bok camp, but within a week, those memories were soon forgotten as they were dominated at the breakdown by Australia in Perth.
Apart from the action on the field, newly appointed Bok coach Peter de Villiers's approach to the game was coming under increased scrutiny. The way the Boks were outplayed in Perth had some pundits suggesting that De Villiers 'think on your feet' approach was not fit for Test-match rugby, despite the Boks bagging five points from their three away games. Springbok fans were optimistic that the Boks could win all three of their home games and achieve Tri-Nations glory for only the third time. De Villiers had no idea what lay ahead of him in the coming weeks...
Meanwhile, the Aussies looked in the pound-seats when they beat the All Blacks convincingly in Sydney to stretch their lead on the table. Graham Henry, somewhat controversially retained after the World Cup, was under immense pressure once again, but his players responded a week later by smashing the self-same Wallabies at Eden Park. At the halfway point of the campaign, it was anyone's game, with many fancying the Boks with three home games on the cards.
August 16, 2008. A day the Boks would love to forget as soon as possible. Percy Montgomery was playing his 100th Test for the Boks and the build up to the match was far from ideal. Everything was 'Percy this' and 'Percy that', and even though Boks denied it, the preparation for a Test of that magnitude was far from ideal. 0-19 tells the story. In fact, if the normally dead-eyed Dan Carter hadn't had a shocking day with the boot, the scoreline could have been far worse. The pressure was mounting on De Villiers and his team. That day the Boks' strategy was abysmal to say the least. They ran it from their 22-metre area and their tactical kicking was a shambles - more ammunition for the growing number of De Villiers naysayers.
Despite the disappointing defeat, the Boks promised to turn it around in Durban against Aussies. The Australians do not enjoy playing in South Africa. They hadn't won in SA since 2000 and were quite rightly the underdogs, despite the Springboks' poor showing at Newlands. From a South African perspective nothing changed in Durban - they were terrible.
Again. The pressure was beginning to show as 'Peter de Villiers book of quotes' grew steadily by the day. They put 50 points past the Wallabies the following week, but that wasn't enough as they stayed rooted to the foot of the table.
The Springboks underachieved dismally, there is no escaping the fact. The current crop of players are something special, but under De Villiers they have lacked structure and direction to date. The huge win at Coca-Cola Park showed what the Boks are capable of, but by adopting an expansive game, they are going to lose more close games than they win. that is the nature of Test match rugby.
Would you prefer to watch a Herschelle Gibbs or a Jacques Kallis at the crease? Most people would say a Gibbs, but how often does he pull it off? Very rarely is the answer. Kallis is more conservative, but his record is speaks for itself.
Yes, people want to see attractive rugby, but supporters want a winning team above all else. That is the bottom line... what happens in between is immaterial. That is the beauty of Test match rugby. It is not like Super 14 or any domestic competition around the world. Winning is everything - there are no prizes for coming second and the Bok management need to realise this, especially as they are heading to the heavy fields of the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the year.
Well done to the All Blacks. They bounced back superbly from their mid-campaign wobble and showed that they are the most consistent team in the world.
Dan Carter and Richie McCaw are the glue that holds them together and that was no more apparent when McCaw had to sit out during the early part of the tournament where they lost twice. Once he returned the All Blacks were unstoppable, outlining his value to his team. The two All black superstars were the players of the tournament, in my eyes anyway.
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