NZ Press talking themselves up.....great!

Noopti

I think it is great that the NZ press are talking up their chances on Saturday, usually involving phrases like "Ireland should pose no problems", "We should roll them over etc".
I mean they must have very short memories, seeing as we came quite close to beating them, at their home grounds, a number of the times in the past couple of years. Of course, the All Blacks are favourites and rightly so, but I would love it for our boys to go out there and make the NZ press eat their words, especially as they won't be able to use any "2nd string team" excuses.

Take Zinzan Brooke on the BBC today. Yeah, I know he spouts some twoddle so I shouldn't have expected less this morning reading his column:

It's probably a blessing in disguise for them the way the fixtures have fallen, with Scotland first, then Ireland, before the biggest Tests - Wales and England.

So Wales and England are the biggest tests, even though Ireland have come consistently closer to beating them then either of those teams. Yes, Wales are Grandslam champions and England for some unfathomable reason reached the final of the W/C, but I don't see them being any more of a threat to the All Blacks than Ireland, probably less so.

The Irish have some good individuals, but the All Blacks will ask questions of them as a collective unit, and I can't see them giving New Zealand too many problems.

Croke Park will be a new ground for them, and a new challenge, and they will want to wipe Ireland off the park.

I think the All Blacks will roll them over.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/7725697.stm

I mean, maybe he will be proven right but I think he is severly underestimating this Irish side and for his sake I hope the All Blacks aren't doing the same. I doubt it though.
But sure we will see what happens on Saturday, if we get hammered I will gladly come back here and aknowledge that Brooke was right! But if our team play they way they should, with agression, passion and skill then I can't see a hammering or a roll over taking place.

remus808

Have to disagree that England pose a greater threat than us.. that's just ignorant.

New Zealand 21 - 11 Ireland
New Zealand 44 - 12 England
New Zealand 37 - 20 England

thetyreman

Noopti wrote: »

I think it is great that the NZ press are talking up their chances on Saturday, usually involving phrases like "Ireland should pose no problems", "We should roll them over etc".
I mean they must have very short memories, seeing as we came quite close to beating them, at their home grounds, a number of the times in the past couple of years. Of course, the All Blacks are favourites and rightly so, but I would love it for our boys to go out there and make the NZ press eat their words, especially as they won't be able to use any "2nd string team" excuses.

Take Zinzan Brooke on the BBC today. Yeah, I know he spouts some twoddle so I shouldn't have expected less this morning reading his column:



So Wales and England are the biggest tests, even though Ireland have come consistently closer to beating them then either of those teams. Yes, Wales are Grandslam champions and England for some unfathomable reason reached the final of the W/C, but I don't see them being any more of a threat to the All Blacks than Ireland, probably less so.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/7725697.stm

I mean, maybe he will be proven right but I think he is severly underestimating this Irish side and for his sake I hope the All Blacks aren't doing the same. I doubt it though.
But sure we will see what happens on Saturday, if we get hammered I will gladly come back here and aknowledge that Brooke was right! But if our team play they way they should, with agression, passion and skill then I can't see a hammering or a roll over taking place.

I think NZ could be turned over on Sat,it is true individually we are very good at the minute,if we can just click together and play well as a unit we could turn them over this time,we have a savage back line that as individually are in top form.Paddy Power are giveing 4/1 on Ireland,i think its worth a tenner bet.

theKramer

Noopti wrote: »

I think it is great that the NZ press are talking up their chances on Saturday, usually involving phrases like "Ireland should pose no problems", "We should roll them over etc".
I mean they must have very short memories, seeing as we came quite close to beating them, at their home grounds, a number of the times in the past couple of years. Of course, the All Blacks are favourites and rightly so, but I would love it for our boys to go out there and make the NZ press eat their words, especially as they won't be able to use any "2nd string team" excuses.

Take Zinzan Brooke on the BBC today. Yeah, I know he spouts some twoddle so I shouldn't have expected less this morning reading his column:



So Wales and England are the biggest tests, even though Ireland have come consistently closer to beating them then either of those teams. Yes, Wales are Grandslam champions and England for some unfathomable reason reached the final of the W/C, but I don't see them being any more of a threat to the All Blacks than Ireland, probably less so.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/7725697.stm

I mean, maybe he will be proven right but I think he is severly underestimating this Irish side and for his sake I hope the All Blacks aren't doing the same. I doubt it though.
But sure we will see what happens on Saturday, if we get hammered I will gladly come back here and aknowledge that Brooke was right! But if our team play they way they should, with agression, passion and skill then I can't see a hammering or a roll over taking place.

To be honest, Id say some of it is just pandering to his target audience. He is writing for and English website, so is probably talking up England up a bit. I definitely see Ireland giving the All-Blacks a good run, definitely more so than England or Wales.

That is of course if they can just fire together and not "fear" the All-Blacks.

I am quietly confident of an Irish victory. Would love to be able to send an e-mail to ZZB tellin him to "go f** himself". In a nice way of course

dub_skav

To be fair to zinzan the Irish had a shocking World Cup, an average enough 6 nations, didn't win on tour in the summer and have since beaten the mighty Canada.

To an outsider looking in, the Welsh grand slam, England reaching the WC final and beating us in the 6 nations puts us behind them both as tough tests for the All Blacks.

I do agree that we should be a great challenge and I think we have a great chance to win. But, we should put our dented pride aside and realise that on results that matter (WC and 6 nations) we are behind England and Wales in other people's view.

Edit: Oh and is it any surprise NZers are talking themselves up, they are the most arrogant rugby nation there is

slugger145

Jesus lads relax. They are 13 point favourites and rightly so. Their seconds destroyed a scottish team on saturday that we really struggled against in the 6 nations.

I know we put in a good performance down there in the summer and we have a new management team now which can make all the difference to to what is effectively the same group of players (just ask spurs and Harry Redknapp). But the NZ media have the right to expect a comfortable win.

I personally hope it wont be the case and I do think there is an outside chance of a first victory if we get every bounce of the ball, and more crucially if the ref blows richie mccaw and their back row off the park for their de rigeur outrageous tactics at the breakdown. If you tried some of those tricks in the Guinness Premiership or the Magners you would be laughed off the field. Unfortunately we've got a South African ref, so I find it hard to visualise an irish win. If someone like Wayne Barnes or Chris White was reffing I think we would have a far better chance.

Thoughts anyone?

Climate Expert

Last seasons world cup and 6 nations are meaningless at this stage.
The fact is we have are stronger than we have been over the last year, domestic teams flying high and have a coach. Playing away from home we gave took two of the worlds best teams close and that was without a manager. NZ are still favourites but definitely not to the extent that the press are making it.

bamboozle

i think it all boils down to which teams utilises their bench! on the plus side we have a moungrel in quinlan who will thrive in a game like this.

lg123

bit off topic but did anyone see the one o'clock news? was that borat or B O'D talking about 50th captain cap?

dub_skav

lg123 wrote: »

bit off topic but did anyone see the one o'clock news? was that borat or B O'D talking about 50th captain cap?

I presume you're talking about this:

http://ie.movember.com/

Crash

Hehehe could see B'OD and it looked like Kearney and one or two others were starting into movember during the last game alright

lg123

na, try get the six one sports news and you will see.

Climate Expert

lg123 wrote: »

na, try get the six one sports news and you will see.

BOD turns up at press conference in lime green mankini shocker!!

Amazotheamazing

To be fair, New Zealand probably respect us as much as we respect Romania or Georgia. They've never lost to any of our national teams, at any level. If we were playing Romania or Georgia next week we'd probably be equally dismissive.

Noopti

Maybe we would if Romania or Georgia had come with 10 points of us in the last 3 games we played against each other (WC doesn't count, 1 massive blip of a game)!

Climate Expert

Noopti wrote: »

Maybe we would if Romania or Georgia had come with 10 points of us in the last 3 games we played against each other (WC doesn't count, 1 massive blip of a game)!

The comparison is a bit off. We've drawn against them, come relatively close recently and one of our provincial sides have beaten them. We've recenntly also beaten all the sides that have beat them.

Goodluck2me

OMG can we forget about Munster beating them bloody 40 years ago, it has absolutely no relevance to this weeks game, or this era.
New Zealand are rightly favourites over Ireland, and Ireland shouldnt but might pose some threats to them.
We may have come close but we have NEVER beaten them, coming close doesnt count guys, that's the harsh reality.
We are still unfortuntely "plucky" Ireland, to use a phrase EOS hated so much, until we ACTUALLY beat them.

Noopti

goodluck2me wrote: »

OMG can we forget about Munster beating them bloody 40 years ago, it has absolutely no relevance to this weeks game, or this era.
New Zealand are rightly favourites over Ireland, and Ireland shouldnt but might pose some threats to them.
We may have come close but we have NEVER beaten them, coming close doesnt count guys, that's the harsh reality.
We are still unfortuntely "plucky" Ireland, to use a phrase EOS hated so much, until we ACTUALLY beat them.

No-one is saying that we should be favourites. But saying it will be a walkover is ridiculous based on the previous results.

anonymous_joe

I must say, the whole Munster thing's being turned into a joke at our expense.

Saw an article from some New Zealand's and you could almost hear the snickering about us still harping on about a province winning a game the country couldn't.

I really hope we can beat them on our own merits on Saturday and shut them up.

Climate Expert

goodluck2me wrote: »

OMG can we forget about Munster beating them bloody 40 years ago, it has absolutely no relevance to this weeks game, or this era.
New Zealand are rightly favourites over Ireland, and Ireland shouldnt but might pose some threats to them.
We may have come close but we have NEVER beaten them, coming .

What relevance does our past history from the last 100 years have?

Quint

Doesn't matter what phrases the NZ media uses and how easy they think it'll be.
Fact is, Graham Henry picked the strongest team he could. The team obviously don't think it'll be as easy

Sangre

If I was NZ I'd have no fear of losing coming into the Irish game, especially with the team NZ have fielded. Probably they're strongest possible.

Noopti

Tbh I don't think the All Blacks face any team with fear, they have an inate feeling they are going to win. It is kind of similar to Munster I think.

The point is that the press/supporters for the most part seem to be expecting a whitewash. I'm sure the All Blacks themselves aren't expecting anything, apart from a win.

Sparky14

Climate Expert wrote: »

What relevance does our past history from the last 100 years have?

Not as if hes pointing out we had a bad spell against them during the 70's, I think the fact that we have never beaten them is very significant.

Traumadoc

Hope the ref knows the Heimlich manouver , both teams seem to have a predisposition for choking.:p

D.S.

NZ have every right to talk themselves up. They are the best team (non-World cup team that is )in the world...

That being said...

*in best Kev Keegan voice* "I'd LOVE it if we beat them, LOVE IT!"

It bugs me when teams (even when it's true) talk themselves up to this extent. Lack of sportsmanship and respect.

Whether we win or not, hopefully we can give them a game they won't forget.

Quint

I wonder what the reaction in new zealand would be if say for example Heaslip and O'Connell spear tackled Carter? Would be interesting to say the least!

twinytwo

slugger145 wrote: »

Jesus lads relax. They are 13 point favourites and rightly so. Their seconds destroyed a scottish team on saturday that we really struggled against in the 6 nations.

I know we put in a good performance down there in the summer and we have a new management team now which can make all the difference to to what is effectively the same group of players (just ask spurs and Harry Redknapp). But the NZ media have the right to expect a comfortable win.

I personally hope it wont be the case and I do think there is an outside chance of a first victory if we get every bounce of the ball, and more crucially if the ref blows richie mccaw and their back row off the park for their de rigeur outrageous tactics at the breakdown. If you tried some of those tricks in the Guinness Premiership or the Magners you would be laughed off the field. Unfortunately we've got a South African ref, so I find it hard to visualise an irish win. If someone like Wayne Barnes or Chris White was reffing I think we would have a far better chance.

Thoughts anyone?

Correct me if im wrong... but didnt we hammer scotland in the last 6n's?

Anyway let them talk... Ireland is the one team everyone has to be carefull off.. Remeber our game with the aussies in the 91 wc ..scared the bollacks of them when they were expected to walk over us.. Everytime the AB's talk themselves up they crash and burn... And the fact they are playing their full team says they are being cautious even though they like to talk big

dub_skav

Just a point of clarification here. People are saying the All Blacks are talking themselves up. I don't believe that is true, the NZ media and general NZ pundits are doing the talking, not the team themselves

zenmonk

Lads NZ could beat us by 20 points. Our captain looked really slow against Canada and was poor. Our outhalf will be used as a door mat.