The All Blacks - the aura is gone...

The All Blacks have become a beatable team, and no longer assured of 1st spot in the IRB rankings.
For about 14 years, they had an aura that most teams just did not believe they could win against the All Blacks

I wish the Boks had their record. No team can dominate forever no matter the sport, clearly they're in a rebuilding phase and it's anyone's guess as to when they'll return to their former best, the question is...can the Boks fill the void? They'll be back, it's just a matter of time, they'll be buoyed by pride of jumper and a winning and healthy rugby culture.

Same thing happened with OZ cricket after the great Waugh era...and their fans responded similarly.

I remember an Ozzie friend commenting after a loss while the OZ team was declining and saying "No worries, a few things to sort out but soon it will be business as usual."

We're still waiting for business as usual to resume and its been well over a decade.

Why Oz never took the drop goal is completely astounding.

Why they never got a penalty in overtime when the AB player, near his own try line, scooped the ball backward while lying on the floor, is a mystery.

Cheating to win has become cheating to draw. 

Quite sad.

Rooinek 

Maybe you misunderstood what I tried to say.   I think towards the end of his coaching career Hansen startyed top select players based on reputation rather than performance, especially when he had to start replacing players.   That is where he kept players not performing on a level  that he earlier in his coaching career would have shown the door.    However, nobody  could be as bad as Meyer was in that regard,   His selection was purely based on reputation without any regard to performance - Hansen showed signs of falling into the same trap since 2015.        

Rooinek 

Maybe you misunderstood what I tried to say.   I think towards the end of his coaching career Hansen started to select players based on reputation rather than performance, especially when he had to start replacing players.   That is where he kept players not performing on a level  that he earlier in his coaching career would have shown the door.    However, nobody  could be as bad as Meyer was in that regard,   His selection was purely based on reputation without any regard to performance - Hansen showed signs of falling into the same trap since 2015.       

Can you talk about any topic without talking about Meyer, our second-best coach, behind White? However, there is some truth to what you say; Meyer did indeed let himself down by turning to reputation players. Lambie, Reinach, Steph, Coetzee, Lood, Goosen, JJ, Serfontein et al. 

To die Schwarzwelle: Structurally, NZ do not have an advantage anymore. Micro-details in preparation and skills are no longer an advantage. The leap forward the NH sides have taken during the past five years is astounding. Add in other troubles as diminished participation amongst youth. There are lots of factors to consider. The rugby landscape is changing. 

As for Australia? It sounds like their attack was on point. One doesn't require a dominant pack to generate momentum; if the backs are getting over the gainline, it keeps the pack moving forward. It mitigates the weakness. Australia are very good at working away from that weakness. How many times have their "rubble" of a scrum dominated ours? Too many times. Never take forward dominance for granted. They will always have enough ammunition to hurt us. The only occasions in recent times where Australia have looked toothless and weak against the Boks is when Esterhuizen comprehensively shut down their backline. No other test nation has that ammunition available. Once that happens, carrying the ball forward becomes a real chore for the Wallabies, and they start crabbing and going through many ineffective phases and penalties pile up. 

AO

Meyer was one of the worst coaches ever in the history of SA Rugby - he shares the dud cup with Coetzee - both were fired  due to gro ss incompetence by the clubs where they subsequently coached,   Neither would get another coaching job ever other than perhaps a school side and on that level they would also fail. 

The reputation players Meyer selected did not include any players you mentioned - but definitely 10 of the elderly in the WC squad in 2015.    How could he select players that had not played any rugby before the WC for up to 18 months and empty the hospital wards without players as being selected on reputation/   The Japan debacle resulted from his preference for Duds.

As to the increase in improvement in NH Rugby - the standard improved with all the imports of SH players - but in the end  New Zealand in the third team play-offs gave the Welsh a rugby lesson they would try and forget and SA in the final did the same to England, 

In the end  Rugby power are still in the SH - whether you like it or not.     

#2 for most of his tenure, two seasons in which only the All Blacks - much stronger than the past four years - could beat the Boks. He accomplished two consecutive clean sweeps up north. He did this having to lead a Bok side that had lost Smit, Juan, Schalk (life-threatening illness after horrific injury), Fourie, Du Preez, Butch, Victor, Bakkies, Dani. The spine of the team. He had one coaching session with the Boks ahead of their three-game series against England. Nyet. He accomplished more sustained success than Coetzee, Rassie et al. His Boks, in years where attack numbers were not as inflated as post-2015 rugby across the board, were superior to that of Rassie's Boks. Only 2017 Coetzee compares. H is model was vastly more sophisticated, modern rugby. Rassie gave up trying to be an ideas man after the disaster in Brisbane in 2018. Skop 'N Pop, bolstered by his timid mate Nienaber. It eats you up inside that you cannot refute any of this. Each and every time you post your nonsense, I'll drag the truth up, as I know it'll leave you frothing at the mouth. 

Have a nice day boet 

I don't think it was a problem with the old players, if anything but more arrogance in not selecting them. 

Why shift Barrit to full back when Ben Smith was still in great form. 

Richi muaga is great for the crusaders but haven't really settled for the all black yet. 

It started with the lions when they had 3 or 4 young players that hardly played test rugby starting for them during the lions tour and that trend continued into the world Cup 

But I don't there ora is gone yet, still a very hard team to beat. 

If it ain't broke.....don't fix it. Sensational Barre t is a game breaker......Mo'unga is not.

Best sidesteps of the day came from a Barrett.....Amy Coney Barrett. What a class act!  

Better man for man? Our wings are more capable, but they receive a dearth of quality ball, if anything under the limited and backward gameplan of Josè Erasmus. Our attacking movement doesn't create space, so we are left with wings having to cut back inside, kick, or go for broke (something which has a low success rate). Centre? Am is very good, so too Esterhuizen. But Rassie likes the mindless basher Damian, and still likes Kriel. So man for man, for Rassie, no we are not better . Factor in the poor use of the centres, and matters are made worse. At half back, I'd only select White as a quality 9, but he is Aussie. Faf is a disruptor, which amplifies our pressure game, but his basic skills are mediocre. The other choices under Rassie have even worse skills. Rassie doesn't like Schreuder. Barrett versus Pollard? Barrett beats Pollard hands down, but Pollard mops the floor with Mo. Fullback? Willie wins, but he struggles under Rassie as he is too deep and the connector of too many slow moving, clunky units. His numbers under Rassie have regressed alarmingly. In the loose forwards: Kolisi isn't even Super rugby quality, Steph was the 17th best flank in Super rugby, whose test production matched his poor Super rugby production. Thor and Louw were our best loose forwards. Who do we have now? Thor? Of the locks: we are much better here than NZ. Eben and RG, as well as Mostert are class acts. Lomping Lood is a no show who wasn't even a flat track bully in the the last WC. Forward thinking Josè had a clear choice here: select the dynamic RG who combined power and skills like no other SA lock I have ever seen, the best distributor aside Esterhuizen of all our players, or go for the 1950s style plodder who exerts weight as opposed to power, with low stamina and exceedingly poor skills. Josè went for the latter. Our front row has the edge.

Our WC winning coaching team preparing for their next endeavour:

Incorrect. Ende. 

Aussie prepared well...something happening in world rugby where just wearing that AB jersey is not working anymore.Their backs can still run like dynamite though.

NZ is still the team to beat...less fierce than 5 years ago, but still tbe best...the gap with other top tier teams narrowed a bit, but I'll be surprised if they keep on slipping...they will be no.1 again soon. Hopefully we can alternate the top spot with them during the next cycle, but they won't be completely displaced...much too resilient for that.

Saffex, just treat Omlett as comedy relief. 

He takes himself so seriously but anyone who knows anything about rugby knows that he's probably the least knowledgable rugby poster here  . . . and that's saying something if you look at the "contributions" of rugby noobs like Baboon-ou, Moffie and DumbAss.

Just have a laugh at the clown and don't dignify his stupidity with a response. That's what I do.

AO

Please explain to me how two coaches fired for gross incompetence by their Clubs be coaches on test level,   Meyer had no real game plan and the Japanese showed that up in 2015.  

The backline in the final of the WC was used more than Meyer did in the whole WC,   In fact the backline players scored more tries in 2019  that the whole Meyer team scored in 2015.  So Erasmus backline usage is twice as effective than Meyers was.   

Willie was the real disappointment  in the Springbok backline  - his passing was atrocious and knocking on the ball with an open tryline in front of him is inexcusable,  He was good under the  high balls - and he did make a crucial tackle on  Watson in the final - but that was definitely not enough;

Just a question - do you ever watch rugby or do you just make up the BS by thumbsucking?     

"........as well as Mostert are class acts."

Really???

Definition of a class act:

"a person or thing displaying impressive and stylish excellence"

Can't say I've seen the Stringbean being impressive or displaying stylish excellence.

By the way AO - still waiting for your explanation about how club coaches fired by their clubs did better when caching the Springboks?

One of  Meyer's main problems was his inability to select players based on performance as is exemplified by his selection of 8 unplayable  players in the 2015 WC squad,   After the Japan disaster caused by players like Bismarck, Pienaar, Burger, Matfield, et al - Meyer had to play the same players in every match in the series and the fat is that he caused the real disaster in 2015.   

Andre Esterhuizen is supposed to play for Harlequins - can somebody in England lease give us any info on matches he played in or is to play in in future, please.   According to  our local village idiot he is a class act - just like Mostert.   In his contributions  failures are class acts - so we mneed to know whether he is mistaken  in this case too.   

That Kiwi 11 is a monster.

Very impressive.

"We’ve had some pathetic quota coaches in PDV and Coetzee...."

Yes and no, thing is we've had non quota coaches who were equally pathetic.......Rudolph Straueli, Andre Markgraaf to name a couple.....you can probably add Harry Viljoen to the list.

Player wise we've had white players who should never have been Boks, Jorrie Miller, Braam van Straten and Louis Koen to name a few.

Just watched the second game between NZ and OZ and must say the NZ team is not the same team that took to the field in the first game.

They were fast to the breakdown and were more confident in their general play as well.

The wing (#11) is a brute of a player with the speed that is not normally associated with a player of his physical appearance.

In general, I was impressed with the AB's and it is obvious that the new recruits to the squad are becoming more comfortable with their teammates on the field and will once more become a formidable squad.

I do agree with Barret being wasted at #15 as he is without the best #10 around and they have more than one quality #15 in the present squad.

These players are committed, proud of their All Blacks selection, and last but not least selected on merit.

  The goats will get hammered when they do meet.