I woke up on Thursday last week and felt something weird. A disturbance, if you like. I guess you could say a disturbance in the force. The reason for this became clear when I saw a tweet from Hadyn sending me to this piece on the Wallabies website [you'll want to throw pepper over your right shoulder after clicking that link] about KooGa's release of their first iteration of the Wallabies uniform.

I don't like it. You'll know I have pretty strong feelings about uniform design if you've been here before, and not just found this post on a random google search of 'Australia is shit' - and as such, I formed a strong opinion about the uniform in less time that it took for google to search for those three words.

My first thought was when I noticed the wording of Qantas. The lighting makes it look like it's inset, right? [though on futher inspection I don't think it is.] Which I thought was cool. Then, looking at the enlarged image [click it to get a pop-out view] I saw that there's no more wallabra. Both of these were positives. Then I went on the hunt for better pictures, turning to my tried and trusted source. Instantly all the good feelings I had were gone.

Let's look at the jerseys for a start. The colour used has changed quite significantly - from gold to yellow. Almost like the canary shirts Wales are currently using. Which is all well and good, but this isn't Detroit. I may be mistaken, but I don't remember the Aussie's veering away from the gold uni for as long as I've been alive [and this pic from 1984 shows them in gold, as does this from 1979 - both well before I was born...]. I wonder how the yellow will show up on HD TV, where the Hurricanes strip which looks tamer positively glows under floodlights.

The green piping is a step in the right direction, as it is not overused, and is placed pretty well. I'd be keen for a look at the back though. It does look a bit weird without a collar, but that's just following the evolution of the modern rugby jersey. My final note in relation to the jersey is the star insignia. It's awesome. But can you see it? Look really closely at the belly of Benn Robinson and Berrick Barnes in the pics I've thrown up and you may just spot them. Are they embossed or in white? If they're white, I reckon that's a fail. Make them green, so they stand out. It'd still look better than the wallabra.

On to the shorts. One comment: Ditch the curved piping. Stripes look much better. Finally, the socks, which look absolutely terrible. Ok, the piping kinda looks like it lines up with the shorts, but it's still awful. And what's going on below the ankle? Why do they suddenly change to black?

Verdict: B-

After the weekend's loss to the Barbarians all the talk about the All Blacks has turned to 'depth' and whether they have any. Coach Graham Henry has said that rotation is necessary, like it or not - I actually think people have a problem with the 6 month rest side of the rest and rotation policy, not rotation itself, but I could be wrong.

I don't think there's much to say about the loss because it was not a team we've seen play before, barring the stop-start affair against the Italians and even then the changing of the halfback and first-five is significant enough to alter the backline to the point where moves ebb and flow. I would like to know what happened to Stephen Donald to have people put his intercepted pass down to wooziness, because I've seen that move twice before this season - once against Wales, where Jimmy Cowan was the culprit and once against France where Luke McAlister threw it - and it's not come off. It's a simple M2, where the passer will follow up and offer a wrap option, but it doesn't often work across vast distances. When it does it's fantastic because the defence have to cover another attacker with one fewer player, but is risk > reward?

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.]

Warning: This post is a not-to-subtle call to attention directed at Robbie Deans. Yesterday I tweeted this:

Can anyone guess what these numbers mean? 76, .842 24, .708 27, .519

Graham Henry has been the coach of the All Blacks for 76 matches and has a .842 win percentage. Peter de Viliers, the coach of the Springboks who copped a fair bashing last year, has been in charge for 24 matches and has a .708 win record. I think you know who the third coach is: Robbie Deans. 27 games, .519 win record. He's only just won more than half the internationals he's been the boss for.

We all know that the All Blacks beat the Wallabies on Saturday, 33-6. This meant the All Blacks' had pulled off a clean sweep of Australia this season, a week after being swept themselves by the Springboks. This was the biggest winning margin by the Blacks over Australia since last year's Eden Park test on August 02, where they won 39-10.

The biggest similarities between those two matches were the resurgence of the forward pack in protecting the ruck. This enabled Jimmy Cowan to quickly get the ball and spread it to Dan Carter. This in turn allowed Carter the time to get the ball out wide or tuck it in and run it.

We won by 27 fucking points! After what happened when we lost by 3 last week, imagine the outcry if we'd lost by 27! And yet there have been no celebrations other than along the lines of 'oh yes, good show, but there's still many problems what what'. Well screw that. Great job All Blacks, and Graham Henry.

Because the team looked confident, organised and happy on Saturday. Whether Henry was in charge or the players, we won. By 27 points. And we swept the Wallabies. And we kept the Bledisloe. And the score in Henry-Deansgate is now Henry: 6, Deans: 1. Great work.

The All Blacks named their team to play the Wallabies yesterday, bringing in uncapped Tom Donnelly. Donnelly is one of a raft of players brought in by the coaching panel of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith over the past year, including the likes of Adam Thomson who has also been named as a starter.

Meanwhile Robbie Deans has named an unchanged Australian side, with the most capped player being the highly experienced and valuable George Smith, who will make his 105th start.

Read the article

Three people sent me this on Twitter around the same time. Good on you lot.

We may have lost the match on Saturday, but I guess the NZRU will be happy to know they've gone viral! Meanwhile, the Wallabies are happy to confirm what we already knew. They're desperate for fans.

That's right, we won, you Aussie fucks!

This message was brought to you by copious amounts of alcohol.