Were you convinced by the All Blacks win over Ireland?

Question

Can they do the same to England or during the Tri-Nations? Or was the weather too great a factor to judge them just yet?

Answer 1

In the conditions, and with a new team, they played pretty well, and have heaps of improvement in them.

What about that nancy-boy O'Driscoll crying about the weather in the post-match interview. Harden up softc..k, you're supposedly the leader of your team!

Answer 2

No I wasn"t convinced at this stage make or break is the tri nations, Aussie and Boks are a different deal totally

Answer 3

yes I was very convinced regaradless the weather, if the weather was fine it would been a difrenent story

Answer 4

They shows great ball handling skills in conditions where one would expect many errors. I think it was only 6 handling errors all game? When the front hit Queenstown yesterday morning I could hardly feel my hands!

I look forward to what they will do in the future

Answer 5

i think the abs played well especially in terrible conditions

but credit to the Irish they came to play and wernt use to the weather

the allblacks will beat england nxt week

probably by15+ if weather is good

Answer 6

Hard to judge - the weather was horrendous!  Pack went well and was dominant all match.  Back line was stifled by the weather except Conrad Smith's great play in the 1st half and D Carter's break in the 2nd half.

Answer 7

It was as good as a disply as could be expected in the conditions. Very hard to judge them just yet though but I'm looking forward to seeing them in the dry.

Answer 8

The weather was horrendous! which would have made the ball slippery and the players wouldnt have been able to have correct footing etc, its just too hard to play a good game in that weather!!

But you can only go up i guess!!! they did good for what they had weather wise!

Answer 9

yia they played to the conditions yo not much you can do in weather like that, and both tries were started and scored by backs,and it was the first game and at the end of the day they won in terrible conditions  and one more thing to all the Haters that hate on this guy hard to all you haters i got one name just one and he won the game  this is for all the Haters!!!!

Ma'aa Nonu

Answer 10

I thought the All Blacks did a very professional job. They adapted their game to the conditions better than Ireland did. Obviously Im disappointed Ireland didn't get their first win over New Zealand, but you cant expect to win when you cant even secure your own line out.

Hopefully we'll do better against the Aussies next week :)

Answer 11

No.  If the AB's are that good as they use to be the winning margin would have been 15+ or even more.  What I saw and learned from this test is "Nobody fears the AB's anymore" Granted, a win is a win no matter how but that break from Carter was the only shinning light and the ultimately the victory to the test.  What more is there to say?  I won't jump for joy.  I have no doubts if the opposition was the Boks or Wallabies, AB supporters would have all kinds of excuses as usual this morning.

Answer 12

Yes they can do the same against England. Our kicking game was average to say the least but our defense was great and our set pieces were fantastic...especially the lineout...I mean, when was the last time we won so many against a decent locking combination? Ireland's defense was the best I've seen from them since...well...ever! Shocking conditions will always make the contest a bit closer than we would like and I think the AB's played with intelligence and we saw glimpses of flair in those conditions, something I'm not 100% you'd see from many other teams. The Tri-Nations is a completely different contest. The AB's will have a winning formula and will no doubt have a plan B if plan A doesn't work. Aussie and SAF will be much tougher than England and Ireland though...bring it!

Answer 13

when you look at the conditions yes, no complaints

Answer 14

Ireland forward pack have 7 munster players in their starting eight which have played together in the hieneken cup all year and are well drilled,The AllBlacks had 5 days to put together a pack which had consisted of 4 new comers from 3 different unions.The A.Bs punished them and the forward momentum going strong,it was very immpressive

Answer 15

Hey of course the weather was factor!  Couldn't you see 30 men freezing! Plus it was the squads first run for the season, do we always expect the AB's to win by 100 points each game the play? Come on Bro!

Answer 16

the weather was the biggest factor, especially in the second half, when it became sooo chilly that BOD was too cold and shivered too much that the post match interview only lasted like 10 seconds... but it was only the first game and half of the last year's world cup squad was gone and new faces came in, so despite the fact that the squad was new, i think they did pretty well...

Answer 17

i think the wales/ south africa and ireland/ blacks and argentina/ scotland games demonstrated that the southern hemisphere teams are a notch above the northern hemisphere.

i saw it mostly as the pace at the breakdown, and the speed of the recycle. the all blacks were not only getting to thier breakdown faster but recycling the ball quicker at that breakdown, and attacking more decisively and with more numbers from that breakdown. on ireland ball they spoiled quite a few of those rucks and mauls simply by getting the numbers there much quicker than ireland.

that same dynamic was also reflected in the south africa/ wales game. i didnt see the argentina game.

can they do the same to england. depends how england play. england traditionally play a 10 man game; scrum and five eighths. in those situations and circumstances, they are up there with the best of them. id certainly say the england pack is on par with the best of any in the world.

in the backs is where the blacks will have the advantage.

in the tri nations, im not so sure. while south africa wasnt as domineering as they should have been, they won quite handily. against a pretty strong wales squad. with a squad that had a lot of new faces in it.

but the blacks also had a lot of new faces and people who had less than ten games for the all blacks under thier belt. playing against an ireland squad that had more caps than the all blacks squad. so the comparison is not exactly fair.

the tri nations are always going to be more competitive than any south/ north game. unless you pair the england pack with the flamboyant french backline from the 80s

weather is not a factor as both teams have to play in that weather.

Answer 18

Yes. The conditions were some of the worst ever, particularly the cold. The opposition weren't great, but the ABs are notorious 'slow starters' to the international season and despite the score they dominated the play (in my opinion). The squad has changed a lot, they had to revert to laws they haven't been playing and a strong swirling wind never helps. It was a good start in horrible conditions - but it was just a start. It will get harder.