Reconditioning a waste of time?

Question

Joe Rokocoko seems to be sparking on all cylinders now that he has been involved in pre-season training sessions and hit the S14 running. Was the reconditioning idea just a big waste of space?

And if so, when will Siti start to spark up ?

Answer 1

The problem with asking this questions was it had never been tried before so the outcome was always going to be an unsure result.  I think the stragedy behind this decision was in the best interest of the players.  A small point to remember with this is players such as Richie, Jerry, Siti, Dan Carter and pretty much the other 20 A.Bs who had been consistantly in the A.B Playing team for the past few years have never had a proper rest from Rugby.  Richie for example had played the last 4 seasons or so without a decent rest from Rugby.  This was in the best interest of the players even if fans (like me) never liked it.  The outcome never worked but never did the British lions Squad bringing over a support team of 30 members when they toured NZ a few seasons ago.  Again Clive would've been praised a hero if that worked and so would've Graham, but it didn't so a least we have knowledge of that now.  I believe if you truely analytically look at everything around this decision you to may have given it a try.

Answer 2

Think the all backs failure was massively to do with the make up of the group providing them no real stiff challenges untill they faced france..

And when france kicked possession away constantly.... instead of running it back (straight to turn over time) like they did against new zealand in the two tests before this match - the All Blacks were simply not prepared for it......

The all blacks seemed to implement  the only idea they did have of pick and drive..inch by inch for most of the second half very energetically...so you cannot really blame it on fitness or conditioning.