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We've been coming to St Tropez for over 30 years now and it has changed remarkably little during this period. This little fishing port was made famous when Roger Vadim and Brigitte Bardot filmed "And God Created Woman" here in the early '60's. Madame Bardot still lives in town although the aging effects of the brilliant sunshine have not been too kind to her. The 'hip and cool' quotient has ebbed and flowed over the years with varying cultural phenomena. It started with French bohemians, was discovered by English pop-stars in the swinging '60's, was then taken over by Euro trash in the '70's, with the Middle East making a run in the '80's/'90's and now Abramovich, the Russians and the supermodels are here in force on their mega yachts. We bought a house here five years ago and spend as much of the summer as we can enjoying the beautiful fragrant evenings, the cloudless skies and 80 degree plus temperatures. We're five kilometres outside St Tropez on the Golf de Gassin so we have the best of both worlds; the hustle and bustle of St Tropez and the tranquility and privacy of a villa in the vineyards. Most importantly of all we're connected to Sky Sports in the UK with a non-stop weekend feast of Tri-Nations rugby, English premier league and the best French games. To get a flavour of life in St Tropez pick up Daniel Silva's new novel "Moscow Rules". It stars one of my two fictional heroes Gabriel Allon (my other is Lee Childs' Jack Reacher, who would have been Murray Mexted if he'd have played rugby). Gabriel Allon is Daniel Carter. The middle section of the book takes place in our village of Gassin with lots of action in two of the restaurants we're visiting this week, Chateau de la Messadiere and Joseph's. The other advantage of St Tropez is that it is only 40 minutes away from one of the new ex-pat homes of All Black rugby, Toulon. Tomorrow night we're all going to the Stade Mayol to watch Tana Umaga's star-studded side. We're then hosting Tana, Mehrts and the Kiwi contingent back at our place on Thursday. It'll be great to catch up with Mehrts who I've known for 17 years. He's one of the game's great quirky individuals with a truly offbeat way of looking at rugby and life. We arrived in St Tropez on the morning of the All Blacks, Springboks game in Cape Town. The mistral had just blown through knocking out power, transmission signal and connectivity to the outside world. Crisis time. Something you really don't want to face in France. This time however a local technician provided a miracle and reconnected us to Cape Town just as the New Zealand national anthem was being belted out. The Haka told you everything you wanted to know. The All Blacks were up for what would have always been the greatest challenge in world rugby. Taking on the Springboks in their lair. While rugby is the epitome of a team game with interdependence on all players paramount to victory, there are still moments when brilliant individuals single-handedly make the difference. Prior to this epic the two best individual performances I've seen first hand were Jonah Lomu single-handedly destroying England in South Africa in 1995 and David Campese ghosting past JK in Dublin in 1991 ending our World Cup dream yet again. But Richie McCaw's performance against Burger, Smith and Spies surpassed even these two match-winning wingers. McCaw ran the game brilliantly (even helping out the referee on an important ruling) and executed superbly. He won every collision, every loose ball, and never missed a tackle. As Wayne Gretzky said "it was never about being where the puck had been or was, it was all about going where the puck was going to be". McCaw was always one step ahead of what was probably the most effective competitive back row in world rugby. As well as bossing the game strategically, his execution was flawless. He demonstrated the classic All Black values of body position, destructive tackling and complete ball control in a manner rarely seen in today's hurly-burly, harem scarem game. And what about the left foot grubber kick for Conrad Smith's try? Can you imagine Butch James even thinking about this move, let alone executing it? He would have tripped up over his big clumsy feet. When I was growing up I had two All Black heroes - Earle Kirton and the Black Panther, Waka Nathan. Along with Michael Jones, Waka was the most dynamic, exciting, destructive and constructive No 7 to have ever played the game. McCaw has joined this gladiatorial pantheon at its head. His last three performances against England, the Wallabies and the Springboks have been unparalleled in terms of leadership, foresight, execution and results. Eight of the All Blacks had never played Test rugby in South Africa before Cape Town. To nil the World Cup holders is a formidable achievement that ranks right up there with Fitzpatrick's team winning the Series in 1996. And when you think of the criticism the All Blacks have suffered since Cardiff, it's an even greater tribute to the on-field leadership of McCaw, So'oialo, Williams, Muliaina, Carter, Smith and co and to single-minded, constructive coaching from Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith. I said in last month's magazine that we could win this Tri Series. Australia will have the benefit of two hard games under their belt when we see them in Brisbane; we'll have a run out against Samoa to help us back into the groove. Can Captain Marvel and the coaches get the mental desperation back into the Team for what I think will be the decider? |
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