All Blacks start afresh

“New Zealand is revolutionising rugby,” according to The Independent’s Peter Bills. “For those with a brain to think, a mind to rationalise, what the All Blacks are doing right now in world rugby terms is what Guevara proposed all those years ago. Sweep away the old rubbish and start afresh. A strange, alien sighting was glimpsed in the skies above Wellington’s Westpac stadium [during the second Tri-Nations match between New Zealand and South Africa]. Or rather, it was something that wasn’t there that was so bewildering, so baffling. A rugby Test match was played without any aerial ping-pong, the great kicking plague of the modern game. Well, that isn’t strictly true. One side did still try it. But they lost by 31 points to 17, four tries to two. As the former World Cup winning Australian coach Bob Dwyer wrote recently ‘Their [New Zealand’s] performances in the recent Junior World Cup final and [the second Tri-Nations match in Wellington], surely have shown the world — hopefully, once and for all — that we have all been going down a false path and we need to urgently change course.’ Here’s to the revolution, comrade …”