There’s something very personal in the way Dan Carter plays against Wales. It’s like he has this special resolve to always win against the Welsh. Afterall, it was against Wales that Carter made his brilliant debut in 2003. He scored 20 points in that test and he has scored in double digits each time he has played them since. On five of those six occasions Carter has scored more than the entire Welsh team. We raved about this last year.
Today the Welsh are complaining bitterly that Carter’s try saving tackle on Martin Roberts was high and that the AB’s should’ve finished the game with 14 men. The perceived injustice of this no-call diminishes the fact that Carter’s defense was brilliant all night long.
(For all you one-eyed Welsh fans out there, Roberts slipped and fell into the tackle. Besides, this is test rugby. Get over it. And what about the 3 All Black tries that went unawarded by the TMO?)
Last night Carter scored 14 points. Three more and he will become the All Blacks leading points scorer surpassing Andrew Mehrtens. Carter is scoring points faster than any player in the game and there is every chance that by the end of this tour Carter will be the third leading point scorer in history.
Angry Welshmen I applaud the pluck of your team, but give credit where credit’s due. Otherwise you just might miss something special happening right before your eyes.
It must be sickening to support some team other than Canterbury – I wouldn’t know. For us Cantabrians we’re used to winning all the big games. Even when Wellington mounted a late charge in last night’s Air New Zealand final I didn’t doubt for a second that George Whitelock’s men would be able to re-take their strangehold on the game.
What is it about Wellington and big game implosions? Read more »
Pity poor old Piri Weepu. He’s made seven finals appearances in New Zealand’s provincial tournament and recorded seven losses.
Yep, that’s 0 from 7.
A fair number of those losses have been to Canterbury including the last 2 Air NZ Cups. In addition to provincial matches Wellington has been consistently beaten by Canterbury in the Super 14 mostly infamously in the fog final of 2006.
Now I don’t think Piri Weepu is a bad player and neither do the All Black selectors (35 tests!). He’s Mr Reliable, he’s unflappable under pressure, and let’s face it, every year there are 12 teams that aren’t good enough to make the finals.
It’s just Piri’s bad luck that he happens to play in the age of Dan Carter.
In an earlier post we speculated that the recent demise of the Wallabies was all part of a master plan worked out between Robbie Deans and the NZRU back in 2007. The plan is to sabotage the Wallabies in order to improve New Zealand’s chances at the next Rugby World Cup. In return for risking his reputation in bringing down the Aussies, Deans will be offered the role of head coach of the All Blacks after 2011.
This is unashamedly a conspiracy theory. Most conspiracy theories are developed after the fact and most are rubbish. To be genuine a good conspiracy theory must make predictions, as in, if A were true then B would happen.
So let us assume that Robbie Deans is working to some master plan to undermine the Wallabies prior to 2011. What might we expect to see happen? Look for four tell-tale signs in the coming weeks: Read more »
The Wallabies folded early in their Tokyo test with the All Blacks on Saturday giving them their seventh straight loss against New Zealand. In the past 2 years Australia has won just 3 out of 14 games against Tri-Nations opponents. Only 1 of those wins came in the current season and their performance has gone from bad to worse. Last year they crossed the line 16 times, this year only 9 times.
As a dyed-in-the-wool All Black supporter, I find myself strangely unsettled by this turn of events. I would like to think Australia’s demise has been the consequence of an All Black ascendency, but it hasn’t. The ABs are playing their worst rugby in the Graham Henry era.
No, the Wallabies have been responsible for their own plummeting performance. To find what is rotten in Australia one must look within the camp.
I have invested several minutes of thoughtful analysis on this issue and have identified the root cause behind this decline. In two words: Robbie Deans. Read more »
Too often in this game we hear losing captains blame their defeats on their own inability to perform instead of acknowledging the manifestly superior performance of the opposition. Well here at Rugby Asteroid we aspire to give credit where credit’s due so we wholeheartedly congratulate the Purple Princess for besting our panel of experts in our 2009 Tri-Nations tipping panel.
If you haven’t been following the drama on our other page, the Purple Princess is just 4 years old. Her exposure to test rugby can be defined as ducking under the screen each weekend so as not to obscure her father’s view of the game. She can’t tell a ruck from a maul. She has no idea how to gauge the benefits of matching a left- with a right-footed kicker. During the match between NZ and South Africa two weeks ago she even asked why there were black All Blacks and green All Blacks. Yet despite her limited knowledge of the game she has consistently predicted the outcome of each 3N game better than die-hard fans with decades of experience. She even scored twice as many points as the lone SAFFA on the panel!
One thing in her favour though, she has met Richie McCaw (see picture above). Read more »
The All Blacks ended their Tri-Nations season with the biggest winning margin of the series defeating the Wallabies 33-6 tonight in Wellington. It was a comprehensive victory with the ABs dominating both halves of the test match. The Australians looked good for about 8 minutes then faded as the game wore on. In sharp contrast with their brilliant performance against the Boks a fortnight ago, tonight they had little discipline and no clue.
Matt Giteau, where were you?
Several players stood tall for NZ tonight. Dan Carter turned in another near-perfect kicking performance (6 from 7). Jimmy Cowan had a solid night behind messy scrums. Nonu’s try was magnificent. Tialata and Rokocoko both played better than they have all season. Read more »
Contrary to our expert predictions the Springboks secured their first 3N victory in years with a 3-0 sweep of the All Blacks tonight in Hamilton.The final score was 32-29.
The Springboks were deserving winners. Blessed with two freakishly good kickers called Steyn the Boks put the knife in early with 3 long range bombs from Frans and a drop-goal from Morne. John Smit looked fallable in the scrum but was utterly heroic everywhere else. Fourie du Preez scored a gutsy try and the otherwise stand-offish Jean de Villiers scored with an easy intercept.
The All Blacks fought uphill for most of the game and very nearly pulled off an upset. Read more »
We may be led by a 4 year old, but Rugby Asteroid’s panel of experts is unanimous in picking a big win for the All Blacks this weekend in Hamilton. Take a look at our picks here. This is the only the second time this season the panel has been unanimous and it is first time the panel has predicted a double-digit margin of victory. While other rugby sites wait til Thursday to see the rosters, for us the jury is in. We’re predicting the ABs will win by more than two converted tries.
You read it here first.
If we’re on the money, and collectively we usually are, we can expect the 3N to last a week longer than the Boks want it to.
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, Saturday’s game will also determine who is the world’s number one ranked team. If you can’t wait to find out who is the world’s best team, go here to learn the collective views of our readers.
Never in my life have I cheered so loudly for the despised Wallabies! On Saturday night they ended the Bok run in emphatic style. They crossed the try-line five times (but only two counted) while the Boks looked clueless everywhere except in the line-outs.
What changed since the Perth mess?
Well the man above had a bit of an impact. Will Genia replaced the non-firing Luke Burgess at scrum-half and he had a first-rate game. Getting the ball to Giteau and Barnes a split-second faster than what they’ve been used to led to all sorts of attacking options. Pocock did better than Brown. Ben Alexander’s way better than Al Baxter. Even Drew Mitchell had an above average game. The Wallabies played with a discipline not seen in this tournament conceding only 3 points to penalties.
The turning point of the game was AAC’s flying try… Read more »
Here’s a guest post written by Uno in response to the debacle that was the Perth test…
Soccer fanatic: “So, what’s so good about rugby?”
Rugby devotee: “Well it’s a more complicated game than soccer; for starters, we don’t play with a simple spherical ball, we have to have the skill to cope with unpredictable bounces.”
SF: “I know, I know; but what makes it such a challenging contest.”
RD: “One of the big differences, and a challenge, is that we have a full-field, full-time off-side rule. Players must be ‘behind the ball’ at all times. This means you can pass to a player behind you only; you can’t pass forwards. Consequently, it is more difficult to move the ball towards the goal line than it is in soccer, hockey, AFL and similar sports. It also means retaining possession of the ball is more important than in those other sports.”
SF: “Rugby is one of the ‘football’ sports so you must be able to kick the ball forwards.”
RD: “Oh yes, but when you do that you usually give away possession of the ball.” Read more »
In 90 seconds last night the ABs retained the Bledisloe Cup and did something that no other team has yet managed to do in this year’s 3N – win away from home.
It was the most exciting game of rugby played in the southern hemisphere in a long time. The ABs dominated offensively yet had great difficulty putting points on the board thanks to the tireless Wallaby defense. The breakthrough came in the dying minutes (see above). Even then the Wallabies had not one but two more chances had victory. Thanks to Ben Alexander’s fumble a few metres from the line, it wasn’t to be.
This is the Wallabies third loss on the trot. In the last 12 months they have lost 7 of 14. Lose next week in Perth and Robbie Deans (currently enjoying a 60% success rate) will be the least successful Wallaby coach in recent memory.
By the same token, in what has been the worst year of his coaching tenure, Graham Henry is only at 57%, well below his career average of 84%.
One thing both coaches and teams can be happy about is at least the Springboks didn’t win!
The 2009 Tri-Nations is halfway over and to listen to some commentators you would think the Boks had already won the cup. Certainly it has been an odd set of fixtures that has gifted the Boks with the advantages of home. But I suspect the second half of the series will be a different kettle of fish. The team that wins an away match will win the tournament. Here are some observations on the teams’ performance so far: Read more »
With a headline like that you probably think I’m going to rant about the All Blacks. No, but tied to their decline has been my own as the reigning expert picker on our weekly Tri-Nations picks. I’m 0 for 3 this season, the only panelist yet to score a single point.
You might be interested to know that our weekly picks attract a fair amount of traffic – about 100 hits per day with more towards the weekend. Most of these visitors are punters looking for tips I guess. They’re getting no value from me but if they go for the panel average then they’ll be doing better than even.
But the great joke is that the best-performing expert on the panel at this time is a 4 year old known as the Purple Princess! What a world we live in where sportsfans from all over are getting betting tips from a 4 year old in Hong Kong on a game to be played in Cape Town!
This week the PP has made her boldest prediction yet, backing the Boks to the tune of 20 points. It’s a big call but certainly consistent with history. The Wallabies have lost 9 of their last 10 matches in South Africa and in their last game they were whipped by 45 points. Will history repeat this weekend? One little – and impartial – girl certainly thinks so.
It will be a long flight home for Graham Henry and the All Blacks. They went to the Republic hoping to get at least one win and instead they got comprehensively beaten two different ways. There was clear evidence of a change in tactics in the second game played last night in Durban, but the result was the same.
For the first time in Henry’s five years as coach, the ABs have lost three test matches in a single year – and the season has only just started. The Wallabies will smell blood and the next match in Sydney will be hard to win. Lose that and we will have a bona fide losing streak of three on the trot. The last time the All Blacks lost three or more in a row was 1998.
Will the ABs rebound or is this just the beginning of the end?
To answer this question we need to understand the three reasons behind the AB’s rapid demise. Read more »
M. Steyn 31 All Blacks 19. What a stellar start to this young man’s test career! (What is it with rookies named Steyn in the Republic?) In only his second start as a Springbok Morne Steyn kicked 8 penalties, one conversion, and scored South Africa’s only try of the game. His near-perfect kicking (9 from 10) saw him first break the Bok record for points against the All Blacks, then break Andrew Mehrten’s 10 year individual points-scoring record for a 3N test. All told, he broke four world records. Congratulations Mr Steyn!
I keep speculating that sooner or later some Achille’s Heel might show up. Last week I thought it might be his defense but tonight that was okay. I thought he might be a poor public speaker but he accepted his MVP award with grace and modesty. Maybe he doesn’t floss. Maybe he returns his library books late.
Watching him put points on the board I was reminded of a certain Dan Carter’s 2nd game against the British Lions back in 2005. If memory serves, Carter kicked 33 points that night. Imagine the game we will have on our hands when both Number 10s face off – the upstart rookie versus the broken king. Now that will be a classic.
As expected, the All Blacks were a rusty bunch on Saturday’s test match at Mt Eden. As expected, the Wallabies took advantage of this to dominate the game – for all of 20 minutes. Then the ABs remembered who they were and took the game by the throat to grind out a win.
The world’s most successful rugby captain delivered another victory speech while a frustrated Stirling Mortlock found himself in front of the camera ruing the Wallabies lack of discipline and another lost opportunity.
If you are a regular reader you will be familiar with our panel of experts and wannabes that forms this time each year to predict the outcome of each Tri-Nation’s game.
The 2009 panel is bigger and better than ever with representatives from all three SANZAR nations, both sexes, and all age groups.
Just to make things interesting, and to gauge our so-called expertise, this year we’ve included a few “control” fans, such as my four-year old daughter. (She’s gone for the Wallabies to win big in Auckland.)
We’re also going to post the panel’s average pick. This week the collective wisdom of the panel suggests it will be a very tight game indeed with the AB’s sneaking home by the finest of margins. See all our picks here.
Chris Jack is back in the southern hemisphere where he belongs and where his friends are. Of course he’s presently playing for the wrong team but sources say that won’t last long. How long did it take him to score his first try? Watch the short clip above to find out. (Thanks to Gum for sending us the clip.)
There’s something very personal in the way Dan Carter plays against Wales. It’s like he has this special resolve to always win against the Welsh. Afterall, it was against Wales that Carter made his brilliant debut in 2003. He scored 20 points in that test and he has scored in double digits each time he has played them since. On five of those six occasions Carter has scored more than the entire Welsh team. We raved about this last year.
Pity poor old Piri Weepu. He’s made seven finals appearances in New Zealand’s provincial tournament and recorded seven losses.
In an 
The Wallabies folded early in their Tokyo test with the All Blacks on Saturday giving them their seventh straight loss against New Zealand. In the past 2 years Australia has won just 3 out of 14 games against Tri-Nations opponents. Only 1 of those wins came in the current season and their performance has gone from bad to worse. Last year they crossed the line 16 times, this year only 9 times.
Too often in this game we hear losing captains blame their defeats on their own inability to perform instead of acknowledging the manifestly superior performance of the opposition. Well here at Rugby Asteroid we aspire to give credit where credit’s due so we wholeheartedly congratulate the Purple Princess for besting our panel of experts in our 
Contrary to our expert predictions the Springboks secured their first 3N victory in years with a 3-0 sweep of the All Blacks tonight in Hamilton.The final score was 32-29.
We may be led by a 4 year old, but Rugby Asteroid’s panel of experts is unanimous in picking a big win for the All Blacks this weekend in Hamilton. Take a look at our picks 
Never in my life have I cheered so loudly for the despised Wallabies! On Saturday night they ended the Bok run in emphatic style. They crossed the try-line five times (but only two counted) while the Boks looked clueless everywhere except in the line-outs.
In 90 seconds last night the ABs retained the Bledisloe Cup and did something that no other team has yet managed to do in this year’s 3N – win away from home.
The 2009 Tri-Nations is halfway over and to listen to some commentators you would think the Boks had already won the cup. Certainly it has been an odd set of fixtures that has gifted the Boks with the advantages of home. But I suspect the second half of the series will be a different kettle of fish. The team that wins an away match will win the tournament. Here are some observations on the teams’ performance so far: 
With a headline like that you probably think I’m going to rant about the All Blacks. No, but tied to their decline has been my own as the reigning expert picker on our weekly 
It will be a long flight home for Graham Henry and the All Blacks. They went to the Republic hoping to get at least one win and instead they got comprehensively beaten two different ways. There was clear evidence of a change in tactics in the second game played last night in Durban, but the result was the same.
As expected, the All Blacks were a rusty bunch on Saturday’s test match at Mt Eden. As expected, the Wallabies took advantage of this to dominate the game – for all of 20 minutes. Then the ABs remembered who they were and took the game by the throat to grind out a win.
