Now Campo says ABs have lost their magic

By DUNCAN JOHNSTONE in Sydney - RugbyHeaven | Friday, 25 July 2008

The All Blacks certainly knew they were in Australia when they woke up in Sydney on Friday - the barbs keep coming at them thick and fast from Wallabies greats with David Campese the latest to fire a shot across their bows ahead of the Bledisloe Cup test.

Under a headline "That old Blacks magic ain't what it used to be" Campese let fly in his column in The Daily Telegraph newspaper

The celebrated Campese, undoubtedly one of the finest attacking players to wear a rugby jersey and Australia's best try-scorer against the All Blacks, joined a long queue of Wallabies talking down Graham Henry's side.

In what could be conceived as an orchestrated campaign to unsettle the All Blacks who have held the Bledisloe Cup since 2003, Campese's thoughts coming on top of stinging comments from Tim Horan, Nick Farr-Jones and John Eales over the past week.

All seem to agree that the All Blacks are struggling to live up to the reputation created by previous teams. Campese said they had certainly lost their "fear factor".

"The aura for me for the All Blacks died many years ago," wrote Campese.

"Professionalism and the push to stamp out the intimidation factor in rugby meant the Kiwis lost the fear factor a while back.

"When they got rid of rucking the Kiwis lost a big weapon. When I played, if you got caught on the bottom of a ruck, you knew you were caught and never did it again.

"A lot of their sting came through that. It was a fear factor and that's how they I intimidated you. The haka was one way and their brutality was their other. It was all part of their makeup."

But Campese also felt there was a lessening of talent in New Zealand as well.

"Depth is now a problem across the ditch too. With good money on offer overseas now, too many big names keep disappearing from All Blacks teams.

"You have the feeling they are weaker in their depth. Their talent pool is far shallower.

"They are not invincible. Unless you are a Super 14 aficionado you often need to reach fro the programme and look up where a bloke is from. That's a strange situation when you think about the famous All Blacks."

He did save a compliment for the All Blacks at the end of his piece which probably brought more perspective to his column than his previous rants.

"Having said that I played against them 29 times and there's one certainty - they never turn up with a bad team," he wrote.

"You know the All Blacks are going to be hard. You never turn up and think you are going to win by 40 points. Just doesn't happen."

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