Who will win the tri-nations?

[ainwood]

My prediction is:
Aus 1st (damn!)
NZ 2nd
SA 3rd

Whilst I obviously want NZ to win, I think that the player rotation ploicy employed in the warm-up games hasn't allowed the players to settle into combinations, nor sort-out the defensive patterns. This will be critical to the outcome of this series.

Hopefully the forwards will start to be a bit more dominant than in the last year or two though, although I don't think that backs are playing well enough to take advantage of the ball.

For Australia, I think that their weakness is in the forwards, where they will really miss John Eales, especially at line-out time. However, I think the general all-round class of the backs, and their strong defence will win them the title. For the first time in a few years though, I think they look fragile at times (eg. end-of-season tour last year, vs NZ Maoris, and at times against france).

South Africa just hasn't impressed me.

 

[andycapp]

Originally posted by ainwood
My prediction is:
Aus 1st (damn!)
NZ 2nd
SA 3rd

Sounds like an intelligent and rational prediction.

 

[ainwood]

Well, I hope I'm wrong


Care to discuss strengths, weaknesses or the fact the George Gregan will get continuously penalised for pi$$ising off the south african refs?

 

[ainwood]

EEK!

As good as the Canterbury Crusaders are, are they really all good enough to command starting positions in the test team? We have 13 Crusaders, plus Doug Howlett and Christian Cullen in the starting line-up -> cullen only because another crusader is injured.

Maybe this will remove my concerns about lack of combinations, but then again, this is virtually the same team that played ireland.

 

[andycapp]

Originally posted by ainwood
Well, I hope I'm wrong

I'm sure you're right.

Care to discuss strengths, weaknesses or the fact the George Gregan will get continuously penalised for pi$$ising off the south african refs?

Hopefully our George will direct his unque talents towards pi$$ing-off the opposition. Despite playing a bit of Rugby many years ago I haven't been following it that closely except when Australia wins the World, Tri-nations and Bledisloe Cups.

I'm a Victorian, which means my attention is usually devoted to Aussie Rules in Winter, however I would welcome your informed and considered prognostications as to what will transpire.

 

[watto]

I'll assume you are talking about rugby here

Australia 1st
NZ 2nd
South Africa 3rd

 

[ainwood]

:sigh: Lots of 'informed' opinion from our Australian counterparts.

And George is not a patch on Sean Fitzpatrick in the "pi$$ off the opposition" stakes.

 

[andycapp]

.........when the allblacks are beaten by Rugby heathens like Aussies! Queensland, NSW and ACT are the only parts of Australia where the game attracts any great interest - although we all enjoy winning world cups.

Originally posted by ainwood
:sigh: Lots of 'informed' opinion from our Australian counterparts.

We were just agreeing with you.

 

[watto]

yeah, noone cares about rugby here in south australia (including me)

 

[ainwood]

Silly me! I was thinking that people who didn't care about rugby wouldn't bother to post here, and wouldn't be offended that I'd wasted their time, posting a thread that they didn't care about.


My sincere apologies.

 

[andycapp]

Originally posted by ainwood
Silly me! I was thinking that people who didn't care about rugby wouldn't bother to post here, and wouldn't be offended that I'd wasted their time, posting a thread that they didn't care about.


My sincere apologies.

Some of us ignorant Aussies were encouraging you to elaborate on the forthcoming Tri-nations series.

I for one would welcome greater enlightenment about the strengths, weaknesses and prospects of the three teams.

PS. ignore Wattos blatant spamming

 

[watto]

i just posted to raise my post count not cause i like rugby

 

[Noitazilivic NZ]

YAH THE ALL BLACKS WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Bledisloe Cup Will be New Zealands again.

 

[ainwood]

 

[Noitazilivic NZ]

YAH THE ALL BLACKS WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Tri-nations will be newzealands again

 

[ainwood]

Yes, and quite a convincing win as well. A few areas to tidy up on - the lineouts in particular, a bit on the backline defensive patterns and also getting faster 2nd / 3rd phase ball. Generally though, they looked good. The Aussie / Springbok game will be very interesting though!

 

[mabz]

Good to see a couple of people discussing rugby here. Here's one more. Lineouts are a problem but the AB's have a bad repuatation with them so other teams are always more agressive contesting lineouts against us. Once that bad reputation has been put to rest (hopefully that will be in Sydney) you will find teams will contest less on the NZ throw and worry more about the drives and set moves that come from the lineout. (NZ hardly ever contests on the Aussie throw).

 

[mabz]

God I hope New Zealand wins on Saturday. It will give us a good come back as to why we are so crap at the Commonmwealth Games. We only care about rugby.

 

[Noitazilivic NZ]

WHY? ............. 30 seconds left......... why? ............. no more world cup.......... if only jonah was there.......

 

[andycapp]

Originally posted by mabz
God I hope New Zealand wins on Saturday. It will give us a good come back as to why we are so crap at the Commonmwealth Games. We only care about rugby.

Guess there must be another reason why you're so "crap at the Commonwealth Games".

That's the Bledisloe Cup - again - now for the Tri-nations.

Looks like your prediction for the Tri-nations might be right ainwood.