Re: Did the All blacks Miss Lomu ?

"John Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 16:28:40 +1300, "Mr Scebe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >"MasteroftheRevels" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >> England are the World Champions and all of them play in the English ZP.
> >NZ
> >> finished a wretched 3rd and all of them play NPC/S12 with a bunch of
> >Samoans and
> >> hapless SAs who are even worse.  Can anybody seriously now doubt that
the
> >> English ZP is the premier rugby competition in the world?  Or did RWC03
> >that
> >> finished a week ago not happen?
> >
> >Absolutely. The NPC has produced the S12 winner on more occasions than
not.
> >If it wasn't for all the NZ players in your ZP you'd still be shit. In
fact,
> >the reason that the AB's are declining is that they are playing *less* in
> >the NPC than ever - when they were a regular feature they were
unbeatable.
>
> What do you think the consequences of the coming changes to the NZ
> set-up will be? It seems from here there will be a bigger divide
> between the NPC and S12 competitions. I guess players popped into S12
> from the NPC fairly easily before, but there may be even more pressure
> for players to go abroad to earn a crust? Maybe there's a case to send
> all the younger NZ forwards over to join the AB retirees and form
> (boost?) London NZ, who could get some forward practice.
>
> --
>
> Regards,
> John Williams

I would prefer it if NZ put a greater focus on forward play in its own
competitions.
The writing has been on the wall now for over five years.
This said little if any emphasis has been placed on improving in this area.
IMO that is because the focus has been money.
Those who have been paying large sums to the NZRFU it would seem to me have
dictated the style of rugby played.This has been done largely (IMO) through
the way the game is refereed.
In a way it has been unfortunate for New Zealand that a combination of our
backs and  number 7's have managed to get us out of jail free on to many
occasions.
There are a large number of New Zealanders that desire tight hard forward
packs that can dominate games both at test and domestic level.
Needless to say these past years have been very dry for us.The result of the
world cup might finally prove a turning point.This  would have provided me
with hope but for the fact that the same mistakes were repeated in each of
the last two world cups.
It must also be admitted that the effort the English have put into rugby and
the results gained over the last few years can only be desirable to the game
of rugby.
You have gone from being deplorable to the best in the world and such change
can only be respected.

Jake