The Kiwis are rigging the World Cup so they can win.

[Hugh Jarse]

Bollocks? Ask Dan Carter. He's being diplomatic here, but this is clearly a fuck up. But it might be a fuck up which favours the Wallabies, which is the best result you can get out of the iRB.

"But it's just a matter of getting out and working hard on the practice pitch." QUOTE]

And who was it - a Golfer IIRC- who responded to an observation from a Reporter that he was lucky to win a particular tournament with "The harder I practice, the luckier I get".

In the good old days when the Soap Dodgers could be relied upon to have a score divisible by 3, it was said that Wilkenson would spend an extra hour before and after training each day practicing his goal kicking. Perhaps as old age is catching up with him (and others) they are not putting the required time in to guarantee success.

If (and a big if) all teams were been provided with the same number of the new balls at the same time, then the kicking problem belongs with the kickers and not with kiwis trying to rort the RWC.

If you can believe what is written in the paper (and this RWC, observation of pure objective journalistic principles has been rather rare), it would appear that Carter has not had any extra time with the new balls.

 

[light]

What difference does it make? If the ball was amazing people would still be criticising the players kicking at 100% and say it's a boring world cup which doesn't have any tries. The ball is the same in every game, the players who practice with it most on the training pitch, will be, and should be, the most successful with it. You can't expect reward for not doing something, or sit back and blame other things for your actions. The very few kickers who are doing well with this ball are obviously training harder, and as they say, it takes a while to get used to, so even more reason to spend more time practicing.

This world cup shouldn't be marred by allegations of a dodgy ball, everyone is on an even playing field, those who adapt quickest deserve their success. I would hope that no nation comes out post-world cup and blames their loss on their inability to kick the ball straight, it's no excuse.

 

[exISA]

[/B]QUOTE]

then the kicking problem belongs with the kickers and not with kiwis trying to rort the RWC.

.

gah double facepalm RTT!

 

[Hugh Jarse]

If the original title of this thread had any grain of truth in it when it was started, it has none now after the most precious groin in NZ failed.

NZRT will be playing the rest of the tournament with one hand tied behind their back, looking over their shoulder for the Men in Gold.