It has been forever since I have p­o­sted, but I’m back. In the last six months I finished a Master’s degree and my wife and I had our first child, so I’ve been a bit busy. None the less, here are some quick thoughts about the current world of r­ugby. Hopefully this will be the first of a series of more regular posts.

-I have written about Joe Rocokoco before and don’t need to
repeat that here. None the less, I am still amazed how quickly people get angry at his presence in the team. He has had a solid year and deserves a
spot. Does that mean that I wouldn’t select Guildford or Gear? No. The biggest mistake in this squad is taking a spot that should go to Hosea Gear (who for the first time in his career is significantly impressing me) and giving that spot to Rene Ranger. Ranger is a loose canon and cannot be trusted. In his debut test he butchered an obvious try by selfishly hanging on to the ball. Ranger still plays for Ranger, and until he can start putting team first he should play ITM Cup rugby.

-Its funny how quick international sport changes. One year ago, after a sweep of Italy
and defeat of France, many media members were talking up Matt Giteau as the best flyhalf in the world with Dan Carter down. Now, he can’t get past either Berrick Barnes or Quade Cooper for the 10 shirt. The whole left and right kicking duties the other night seems to suggest that Robbie Deans has lost a lot of faith in Giteau. After that miss against England it will be interesting to see if Giteau can recover some confidence before the Tri-Nations.

-Argentina and France are two fickle teams. Argentina gets beat two weeks in a row by a Scottish side whose score is always divisible by three, then romps over France. France, meanwhile, seems to be annoyed they were asked to play games in June again. The French attitude toward certain competitions (Heineken Cup in years past, June internationals) just stinks. How the fan base tolerates such lows after the high of the Six Nations is not hard to understand.

-Graham Henry was featured in a video on allblacks.com in which he interviewed Victor Vito. I realize many in the media dislike Henry for being condescending and having a headmaster persona, but I like the way he deals with players. I have never seen a professional coaching team that seems as holistic and didactic as the All Blacks. You get the sense that Henry wants first and foremost to develop young men. That may sound quaint, but the “better men make better All Blacks” concept is refreshing. Plenty of pro sports teams are full of full-grown adolescents and eventually that shows on the field. Caring for the whole person is part of what makes Henry so successful.

-Here in the US, the big news is the contract the IRB has signed with NBC. Basically, NBC
will show the next two RWC finals, and some other important games, on network TV in the States.  Before this, access to the RWC was largely limited to a satellite network no one had or online subscriptions. Either way, it was expensive and no one had access unless they really wanted it. Now, almost every TV in the country will get to watch the RWC. That has to pay dividends for the future of the game here. It's also one of the first tangebile ways that the Olympics has made a dent in USA rugby. NBC doesn't make this deal without the increased interest in sevens. They show the Olympics in the states, and the sister network now showing rugby is for olympic sports.

-The soccer World Cup has shown one important thing to rugby: refereeing needs to be high caliber on the international stage. The downright ludicrous mistakes some
FIFA refs have made have risked making the game a mockery, particularly for new fans. One of the greatest threats to the NBA has always been the charge that refs decide the winners, and many Americans feel that way about soccer now. The weight of history and stardom leads to bad decisions. Both New Zealand and the USA have suffered from those decisions. If rugby will make in roads with new audiences, the officiating has to be better than what FIFA has offered. Then again, it would be hard to be worse.

-I've included a little photo of our new baby. As you can see she is being raised well.

By now you've seen the All Blacks' win over France, or at least heard about it from someone who saw it. You know the scoreline, 39-12. You've watched the All Blacks' attack absolutely dismantle the French defense. You've had described to you the scrums, which started off horribly and turned into an even contest. You heard about the rucks and the brilliance of Richie McCaw and Kieran Read in that area. But you've paid most attention to Sivivatu, Mils and Jane, who were in blazing form.

That was the difference between this test and all the others I think. The forwards were not as dominant as they have been in past tests, particularly against Australia, Cowan was his usual exceptional self, Carter ran as well as always [when he did], Nonu was his normal rhinoceros persona charging at the line.

But when a deep kick was fielded, it was returned by that player. It wasn't kicked back with a midfield bomb, nor was it spread across the field [a tactic which doesn't work anymore].

Sivi, Mils and Jane backed themselves. And it paid off. You could see their confidence lift [not that it was lacking] as each return reaped more and more reward. Look at Mils try where Sivi faked a kick to draw the defender! The three of them all scored tries in the game, the first time this has happened against a tier-one side since 2003's Rugby World Cup match against France [Mils, Rokocoko and Howlett got a try apiece. For the historians among us, the back three have scored against tier-two nations twice between now and then - Rokocoko, Evans and Sivi against Romania at the 2007 RWC and in 2005, Sivi, Mils and Howlett each grabbed a 5-pointer against Fiji.]

The thing which got to me though was in the final 10 minutes. France would receive a full-arm penalty within our half and take the kick at goal. Why? You'd broken our line throughout the game, only to have stoic defense hold you out from. You'd kept the ball in hand and barely played the territory game.

The answer is obvious, of course. They gave up. Conrad Smith put the final nail in the coffin and the French knew they didn't have a chance. But still - would it not have been good to be the team that does what no team has done for two years [not just under Wayne Smith] and score a try against the ABs? If you don't ask questions of them, you'll never make them crack.

As for Smith, he and Donnelly were my MVP picks for this match. Sure, you had everyone I've already mentioned but Smith's distribution and option-taking were perfect and as Tracey Nelson's stats show, he was a beast on defense. Donnelly I pick because he was consistent. If he wasn't in the first three to the breakdown, he was with the next couple. He had a few useful touches of the ball and was great at protecting it.

Highlights thanks to RugbyDump:

Before the Cricket kicked off [tipped off? Bowled off? Hit off?] this week, the fellows over at Sportsfreak were focused on the All Blacks' end of year tour, and the lack of tries in their games. The print media also seem to have chosen this as their lead angle ahead of this weekend's match (exhibit a, b, c, d... need I go on?) against France.

You can see my original response over there, where I gave some stats about the tries the All Blacks have scored and conceded in the NH over the past 11 years, but it sparked something in me. At school, I didn't really pay much attention in Maths. If it was something that captured my attention (like graphs and shit) I'd do it, but as soon as I got to sixth form I dropped it. It's never been a problem in day to day life, but this week I've felt completely incompetent. I've been trying to come up with all kinds of mathmatical stats and graphs for this post, and I'm extremely lucky to have Hadyn's patient tutelage to help me. If it hadn't been for him, you'd have all kinds of data here, and it would be presented on an unreadable line graph.

Something I didn't need help for was gathering the data for this. And it's actually a new feature of the Dropkicks. You can see it here. Currently it features all international test matches from 2006-today, but I may backdate it eventually if I see the need, and I may use it for a post about the Rugby World Cup and whether the 'minnow' teams are becoming more competitive.

The first table to have a look at, because I know you want to see the stuff revolving around the All Blacks, is the 6 Nations. [if this was TV that would be a hook - You would have no choice but to stick with me to find out. But this is a blog, so it doesn't work as well... Fuck.]

Good luck to both the All Blacks and France [and go Wales! Fuck yeah!] this weekend. Since the All Blacks have been reviewing the tape from the loss, so can you.

There is a real feeling, rightly or wrongly, that it defines us, this game.

Wayne Smith could not have said it better. For himself, Steve Hansen and Graham Henry, this weekend's match against France will be the way this international season is remembered. Forget all that has come before it - Sivivatu's tackle in Tokyo, the switching 'round of the coaching panel, the brothers travelling the country with a spraypainted rooster, the new sponsorship deal with Telecom, the 'are they rushing him back?' return of Dan Carter, the failure to tell the team the amount of points they needed to beat France by in Wellington, the criticisms of Luke McAlister after his first test back in black, the Mathieu Bastareaud saga which forced the country to look at the social machinations of rugby union and its fans [and whether they've changed over the past two decades], the decision to leave Isaac Ross behind and the withdrawal of players from the Air New Zealand Cup - this season boils down to a mirror image of the first game of the season.

This time, we will be playing on their turf. We will be the ones in white. We will be the ones coming off a successful campaign. We are the ones who are prepared.