All Blacks happy with World Cup build up
Posted by Hamish McBrearty on August 24th, 2007
The All Blacks played their last game before heading to France for the World Cup against an Auckland club invitational XV on Thursday. While other Cup bound teams are playing warm up test matches, New Zealand have the unique luxury of taking some time off.
Of all the contenders at the World Cup, only New Zealand and Australia can be considered certainties to win their pools. In Pool A it is possible, though unlikely, that England could beat South Africa, while Pool D could be won by up to three different teams.
Pool B features the powerhouse Australians, an under-performing Welsh side and rugby minnows Fiji, Canada and Japan which gives the Wallabies an easy road to the semi finals. Pool B may be easy, but Pool C is a doddle with the favourite All Blacks up against the poorly performed Scots and Italians as well as cannon fodder Romania and Portugal.
Given the All Blacks’ draw for their first four games is such a simple one, it is hardly surprising that the team has decided to forego any warm up tests. New Zealand mid fielder Aaron Mauger observed that a number of teams playing warm up tests now have injury problems, most notably Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll, and that there are pros and cons for both approaches.
Aside from the great disparity in the class of the teams, the All Blacks looked good in their final hit out on home soil, running in 24 tries and came away with no additional injury concerns. Lock Keith Robinson ran freely before the game but did not take part, while prop Greg Sommerville turned in his first performance in a black jersey for over a year.
Team management will likely use the first two pool games against Italy and Portugal as their warm up tests for the World Cup before fielding their top team against Scotland in Edinburgh. As star players such as Dan Carter and McCaw have not seen any game time since the Tri Nations finale on the 21st July, they are unlikely to be rested until the final pool game against Romania, while others such as Chris Jack and Nemia Tialata have played some Air New Zealand Cup games and will be rotated.
It remains to be whether playing warm up tests before the Cup or resting players is the best approach but the All Black’s approach seems to suit their players well. Perhaps Jerry Collins summed up the team’s feeling best when he said: “We’d rather be under-done than over-cooked.”
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The All Blacks happy with World Cup build up by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
