Congratulations Kiwis

Another trophy in the bag and another memorable campaign. Though I felt the better team lost, I give the All Blacks credit for sticking in there and ultimately making key stops which allowed them to stay within range. It was a gutsy effort to stage the comeback irrespective of circumstances. In this case, the players overcame what I believed were a questionable set of decisions by Hansen. You've all been great sports and I've thoroughly enjoyed the exchanges. 

Thanks Augue, I am glad to see Bok fans with their mojo back. 

Wow Pumas just scored in the second minute. Slashed through the Ozzie defense.

Cheers Mr Auggie!

Thanks AO. You are a Gentleman.

We give that Glory to GOD.

Amen to that, all glory to Elohim. 

I haven't enjoyed a RC like this, ever. The last SH tournament I really enjoyed anything like this was the 2005 Tri Nations. It's great to see so much good rugby, the Wallaby vs Pumas were the most entertaining tests for me. Great stuff all around. 

The wobblies came back with a vengeance , what a second half.

Indeed.

Grats to the ABs.

Of course quite a lot to glean from this RC as far as NZ go. 

On the positive side, they've had some of their weaknesses showed to them and have ample time to rectify things. They no doubt will do exactly that.

By the same token, England, Ireland and France will have been taking notes. In particular, I think they'll have been watching closely how NZ respond to big ball carriers hitting them at pace. 

There were long phases in both the last two matches where the Boks seemed to make ground at will. As  much to the Boks surprise as everyone else's. In fact, it's hard to remember an instance where a Bok was hit backward.

Regardless they snatched a win, as is the norm when you're in a habit of winning. 

One thing is for sure. Next year's WC just got a whole lot more interesting. I'll be watching the ABs end of year tour with great interest as it's gonna be a nice little precursor to the big show next year.

Plum here's what I wrote on the subject on another thread:

The upcoming NH tour will tell us a lot about the AB readiness for the RWC but I bet Hansen is still testing to see which players to take (there are still some undecided selections or question marks). He will want to win but he will be prioritizing being ready for the RWC itself so if the price is a loss he won't cry about it. I doubt we will hear "peaked too soon" bleating as ABs won't show all their cards either.

In the first test they got hit on the counter. In the second the centre pair experiment backfired calamitously. Aaron Smith got exposed, their aerial game was exposed as well as their kicking game. Being pinned like that, we haven't seen it since 2009. This is the 2003 All Black side to me in a lot of ways. Very dangerous, but can be hit back, hard. I don't think we've gone into a World Cup year as open as this. 

Apparently @JW, Cheika became Cheika of old in the sheds on half time to the Wallabies - rumours has it he was worse than the fan spill we saw a couple of weeks ago.