Sunday, 14 October 2007
Former Welsh and British Lions star Jonathan Davies says the All Blacks paid the price for their arrogance with an early exit from the rugby World Cup and that Wales do not need New Zealand coaches.
In his column in the Independent on Sunday, the former first five-eighths is highly critical of the All Blacks' and the team officials' attitude.
"There are two good jokes in circulation. Firstly, what do you call the seventh and eighth place in the 2007 World Cup? The answer: the Bledisloe Cup," he said.
"Joke No 2 -- where are the world's most under-achieving coaches? Answer: New Zealand. Where have the Welsh Rugby Union's top three officials gone looking for a new coach? Answer: New Zealand.
"... I suggest that now is hardly the best time to go worshipping at that particular shrine.
"What happened to New Zealand and Australia last weekend is still difficult to grasp, as was the arrogance they brought with them into the tournament. This applies to the All Blacks especially. They never used to be like that. Supremely confident, yes, but never arrogant.
"It applied to the coaching staff as well. They had the best 30 players in the world under their control and carefully regulated their preparations over the past year, at the expense of all other considerations. It is beyond belief that they got it so wrong."
Davies said coach Graham Henry's rotation policy didn't work and the reduced game time for players was a "big minus".
When it came to the crunch, they didn't have the game awareness or the mental toughness to impose their superiority and there were no excuses, he said.
"They had far more possession and territory than France but couldn't cope with the pressure. Much of what went wrong with both New Zealand and Australia can be traced back to their Super 14 competition, which has been held up over the past few years as the epitome of what rugby should be."
Davies said while the Super 14 was exciting to watch, it was far removed from the vital realities of what successful rugby was about.
He said "winning ugly" was a newish phrase in the game but every World Cup, bar the first one in 1987, was won ugly.
"The inaugural 1987 tournament was won pretty, and that was by New Zealand.
"That was, I believe, the finest rugby side ever to step on to a pitch. A team with Buck Shelford, Sean Fitzpatrick and Grant Fox, and they could win any way they liked. I was there with Wales and they stuck 50 points on us playing fancy stuff. But they were just as capable of playing tight and fierce. Whichever style they played, it was awesome.
"If you had said then that 20 years later they would still be in search of their second win, no one would have believed you. If you had forecast that in 2007 they would not make the semifinal, you would probably have been locked up." – NZPA
No comments:
Post a Comment