French lessons

We've blogged before about the Dom-Post's custom of a tongue-in-cheek Saturday editorial. And whilst there must have been plenty of tongue in the leader writer's cheek as today's piece was penned, there are also some very salient points for the All Blacks to ponder when their Dom-Posts are delivered to their rooms this morning.

For that reason (and because we're about to hit the road!), here it is, in its entireity - under the heading Heeding our French Lessons, it reads:

Sacre Bleu! Les Frogs have done it again.

For the second time in succession an unheralded French rugby team has trampled upon the pride of New Zealand manhood.

Two years ago it was at Cardiff where a French team, written off by its own supporters, knocked the All Blacks out of the World Cup. Last Saturday it was at Carisbrook where another French side, shorn of several big-name players, repeated the feat.

And this time the All Blacks do not have Blind Wayne Barnes to blame. Irish referee George Clancy made mistakes, but the French did not deserve to lose. Their forwards stunned the All Black pack with their ferocity and the novice French backs played like 50-test veterans.

The French "physicality" came as a nasty shock to the All Blacks, a few of whose careers must now be teetering on the brink of extinction, but New Zealand rugby fans should issue a collective thank you.

Not only has the French visit introduced a whole new cast of players to a public weary of an endless diet of Du Plessises, Steyns, Baxters and Waughs, it has also provided New Zealand rugby with a desperately needed reality check.

The gap between the All Blacks and northern hemisphere sides is nowhere near as wide as victories over weakened visitors or end-of-season romps in the British Isles suggest.

The Carisbrook retreat should also serve as a wake-up call to the All Black coaching triumvirate. Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith are talented and experienced, but they are not infal-lible. Just as they reconditioned and rotated the All Blacks to World Cup humiliation two years ago and were out-thought and out-coached by Wallabies coach Robbie Deans in their first competitive encounter last season, so they were caught napping at Carisbrook.

The All Black scrum, Hansen's pride and joy, was tossed about like a ragdoll by the French pack; the backs, Smith's charges, were toothless on attack; and the defence, Henry's responsibility, was porous.

It will be surprising if the All Blacks do not turn things around at Westpac Stadium tonight. Careers and the proud history of All Black rugby are on the line.

But whatever the result, the lessons of Carisbrook and Cardiff should not be forgotten. There is a vast difference between playing the second- and third-tier northern hemisphere sides typically sent to New Zealand and committed first-choice sides of the sort the All Blacks will come up against in the World Cup in two years' time.

With Daniel Carter and Richie McCaw fit and firing, the All Blacks have an edge over most other sides, but without them they are as vulnerable now as they were in Cardiff when Carter left the field injured.

There is a vast gulf in ability between the All Blacks stars and their replacements. Two years on from the last World Cup, the All Blacks are no better equipped to cope without them.

The thought of the All Blacks going into a World Cup knockout match without McCaw and Carter still does not bear thinking about. Quelle horreur.