Yeah everbody here wishes their teams are not good enongh to qualify, but individually the reverse

connachta wrote: ITM started last night, Tom Mc Cartney Auckland team crashed 34-9, Aki made a 9-9 draw

Auckland were terrible defensively. McCartney made a few throwing errors - 1 of which lead to a try. Anscombe had a shocker. Interestingly Munster bound Tyler Beyendaal was outstanding at OH.
In other match boring 9-9 draw in the rain. Aki did nothing spectacular.
Early days yet but neither of our players look like they are playoff bound.

ITM started last night, Tom Mc Cartney Auckland team crashed 34-9, Aki made a 9-9 draw

NZ fail to make it record 18 victories on the trot. 12 - 12 draw in Sydney. Good game. Wallabies turned down 3 pts before halftime from in front of posts and beale hit post with a sitter also. Having said that it was a fairly even game.

While i can agree with the point that NZ have done very little to help their near neighbours, i personally believe that the French and English clubs have done more damage to Samoan rugby in recent years and have a bigger debt to pay. Which Samoan team would you rather play one that has all its overseas players or the one that the French and English clubs have refused to release their Samoan players (although the English clubs aren't as culpable as the French in this regard). The NZ game will do very little to develop the game in Samoa it is already the no.1 sport all money made from this game will go into the debts that Samoan rugby has accrued over the years in a vain attempt to become a first tier test side. On the development side of things our own IRFU done very little to develop rugby west of the Shannon for a hundred years so putting the boot into NZ for not helping to develop rugby in another state seems unwarranted.

Given half a chance connacht would!
Reality is that all blacks have never officially helped the development of the game in the pacific islands and have been heavily critisized for not doing so over the years.This is a first in spite of being near neighbours and having close cultural links and emigration.they have played in the usa, canada and pretty much everywhere else but not samoa!

Does this mean Ireland Ireland have to play a game against Waikato Chiefs for taking Bundee Aki, the Stormers for Quinn Roux or the Auckland Blues for Jared Payne.

The all blacks will play their first ever international game in the pacific islands on 8/7/15 when they line out in Apia v Samoa. Being described as a watershed moment for island rugby after years of taking players without ever officially giving back.

good finish, cheers for the heads up

NZ steal it with conversion after time was up. Great game.

The other all blacks are playing England in rugby league world cup semi final in s few minutes on BBC1. A stark insight into potential future of international rugby union if prl/lnr and rrw get their way. This should be a great game though and first meaningful one of this tournament.

Sonny bill Williams Is playing for NZ.

Matt Williams has often made that point and it makes sense imo (he calls them bloody new zealand). Schmidt calling the opposition 'all blacks' in the press conference today was a bit mixed, he's obviously from there so gets to use the term but its a bit cringey when you hear players/former players using the term the whole time. It does suggest a level of respect that wouldn't normally be given to other teams (it also helps that the nickname is a bit more mysterious/threatening/ominous than 'the wallabies/springboks/daffies')

I'd heard that before about Woodward and I can well believe it.

When England won the world cup Woodward made a speech at a team talk that made his stance on using the correct terms well known, saying he didn't want to hear anyone refer to the trophy they'd just won as "Webb Ellis", or "William" or "Bill" etc.

I read something recently, and was wondering on other people's opinion on the matter.

Before an England game vs New Zealand back in the earlies 00's, supposedly, Clive Woodward banned the players from calling New Zealand, the All Blacks, as he felt it had a psychological impact on his players.
Does anyone think that might be true? Should more teams be doing this. I think that there is something to Woodwards thinking.

The name "The All Blacks" does strike fear in teams.

I would think that, the name the All Blacks as a name is more globally known than the New Zealand rugby team.

Non rugby fans would have heard of The All Blacks, but might not know what country they represent.

Just a thought piece for a Friday afternoon