RUGBY
Grant Shimmin in Wellington
It sounded for all the world like the DJ on a Wellington radio station was clutching at straws. “I like to think of it as both Australia and South Africa losing,” he said of the Tri-Nations draw in Perth last weekend.
All a little desperate, but for New Zealanders the result was a glimmer of light after a week of darkness that followed a first loss to the Wallabies in Dunedin that left the Bledisloe Cup in residence across the Tasman for at least another year.
There’s no doubt that in the past couple of years the aura of invincibility once exuded by the All Blacks has all but evaporated. The process started in the 1998 Tri-Nations, won by South Africa whose victories included a stunning come-from- behind effort against the All Blacks in Durban and gained real momentum with the World Cup semifinal defeat to France in 1999.
Crucial losses to the Boks and the Wallabies last year cost the All Blacks a fourth Tri-Nations title, and an abject Super 12 this year had New Zealand’s national game in disarray. At least that’s how the media saw it.
On the back of all that, even the victory over the Boks in Cape Town has done nothing to soften the killer blow of defeat to the Aussies.
In the wake of that Dunedin defeat, sections of the Kiwi media have been nothing short of panic-stricken, with fingers pointed at new skipper Anton Oliver, despite his obvious passion for the All Black jersey and the fact that his strange decision to run a last-gasp penalty showed a healthy unwillingness to accept defeat until the final whistle had blown.
Justin Marshall is another player to have spent plenty of time in the media spotlight and right up until the announcement of this weekend’s team, debate raged over whether he or Byron Kelleher should start.
As calm as coach Wayne Smith whose contract runs until the end of this year might appear in interviews, it seems panic is bubbling just under the surface.
More than one luminary suggested Christian Cullen, whose National Provincial Championship appearance for Wellington against Taranaki a week ago was his first game in three months, should be rushed back this week, though what Jeff Wilson did in Dunedin to warrant being dropped is beyond me.
You won’t find a Kiwi who would put money on an All Black win “across the ditch” in their final game next weekend, so victory over the Boks is vital if the whole year isn’t to go down as a disaster for the men in black.
This week an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale shook the North Island, though it was centred 420km north-east of the country and did no real damage. The same won’t be true of the shockwaves if the All Blacks lose at Eden Park.