But that prospect doesn't faze the All Blacks at all, as Evan Pegden of the Waikato Times reports:
Wales are promising a physical battering at tonight's second rugby test against the All Blacks.
But All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw said they were fully expecting it and ready for it.
Wales' Waikato coach Warren Gatland said yesterday physical commitment had been stressed at a team meeting earlier in the day with assistant coach Robin McBride leading the call for the players to look within themselves.
"The body will go as far as the mind tells it to go in terms of that physical confrontation and there's no tougher place to come and experience that physical confrontation than New Zealand," Gatland said.
"Bring it on." we say. In two and three weeks' time, the All Blacks face South Africa at Auckland and Wellington respectively. They know that they will be physically tested in those matches, from which will almost certainly emerge a Tri-Nations winner. So a hard, physical, confrontational match tonight will be right up their alley.
They've picked a forward pack with that in mind, we reckon. The tight five of Woodcock, Mealamu, Tialata, Thorn and the recalled Tom Donnelly are hard men. It may not be the All Blacks' best tight five in our opinion, but none of them will back away from a physical confrontation. McCaw was in sublime form last weekend, with Kieran Read not far behind. and Jerome Kaino is our most physical loose forward.
We expect the All Blacks to win tonight, and to win with comfort. We'd expect a better start from them; they will be keen to deal to the Welsh forwards early in the game, and not allow them forty minutes of dominance or even parity. We'll be looking more at the manner of the All Blacks play rather than the scoreline.
The Tri-Nations squad is named tomorrow, so all those on the field tonight have plenty to play for. Let's hope that we see a rampant performance by the All Black forwards in particular; one which quickly extinguishes any fire from the Red Dragon.
UPDATE: New Zealand 29: Wales 10
What a poor test match. It was error-ridden, and some pedantic refereering from Jonathan Kaplan (especially around the advantage law) didn't help. The Welsh tried hard and were rewarded with a late try, but they played to and often beyond the limit of the law. The All Blacks lacked and spark, and made a worrying number of handling errors.
The positives: Brad Thorn had a huge game, especially in the last quarter as the Welsh attacked, and Tom Donnelly put himself about for 50 minutes. He was a tackling machine! Dan Carter's goalkicking was good, Zac Guilford looked sharp on attack and strong on defence, and Aaron Cruden will be bouyed by a late first test try.
The negatives: The All Black scrum was average at best throughout the match. Too much ball was turned over, and attacking opportunities were few and far between. Mils Muliaina was well below his best, and looked pedestrian towards the end.
It was a poor dress rehersal for the Tri-Nations after two encouraging performances to start the international season. Major improvements will be needed across the park if the All Blacks are to co mpete against the South Africans in two weeks' time.
4 comments:
I would expect the AB's to still run up a big score. Without Stepehn Jones the Welsh will be rudderless and will struggle for field position.
With Tialata back I expect the scrums to be a shambles with a lot of resets which will slow the game down.
I will also watch the Stanley Kahui combination with interest, this could be our best midfield if Kahui stays fit and uninjured. Good to see Guilford getting a start.
QAs always pdm, I will disagree on Kahui V Smith. Smith is the organiser of the AB defensive screen, and should imho be first pick. Kahui is an excellent attacking player, but I don't know that he has the smarts to run the defence in the same way that Smith does.
Like you, I'm pleased to see Guilford starting tonight, and when the Tri-Nations squad is named tomorrow, I would hope to see both him and Hosea Gear named ahead of Joe Rokocoko. Joe had a good game last week and went looking for work which was commendable, but he has lost his edge in terms of pace, and that was his biggest asset.
It looks to be dry overhead at the moment, but I fear that the fog might come down later.
We have just picked up the coverage - conditions don't look too bad from what I can see.
Just talking to my daughter who lives near Benneydale has told her 3 boys the game has been postponed until tomorrow because of the rain. A bit of a mean trick but it must have been very wet.
A good summary INV2. I thought the scrum improved when Franks came on for Tialata, my pre match prediction was prtty well on the mark there.
Muliaina will be a concern as he was way off the pace and seems to have lost the ability to find support and died with the ball a lot. It seemed a strange call to put Ranger at centre when the could have taken Muliaina off and put Jane to fullback and Ranger on the wing.
Pleased to see Guilford play so well as he did and we will continue to disagree about the midfield.
I fail to see what Weepu adds as a replacement for Cowan and surely Leonard, Mathewson or Ellis must come in for the Tri Nations, perhaps even the other Crusaders guy but as I recall he is a bit of a hot head.
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