one<\/a>, by Jamie Pandaram, a senior sports writer at The Daily Telegraph, gives an insight into the type of shallow understanding that sports writers on this side of the Tasman have when it comes to rugby union, and the nationalistic fervour that surrounds sport (as it does everything else).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe headline gave an indication of the bombast that was to follow, reading: “Why All Blacks are finally vulnerable.” It started off saying that while facing a beaten All Blacks team was a dangerous exercise, “there’s a different feel about 2020”.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
And he cited concerns about the coaching, selection, tactics and loss of seniority in All Black ranks as factors that had contributed to what he called a decline in their ranks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
He cited the absence of four players – Kieran Read, Brodie Retallick, Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty – as making the team unable to produce those moments of inspiration for which they have become famous. And he claimed that Ian Foster, who took over as coach from Steve Hansen after the 2019 World Cup, was not the best coach among those who could be chosen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
As evidence that stress was allegedly mounting on New Zealand, Pandaram cited the complaints made by the assistant coach John Plumtree about illegal tactics employed by Australia in taking out players.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The first game was unusual in that it was not refereed by a neutral referee \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the first time this has happened in a long time and mainly due to the travel issues cause by the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The referee, New Zealand’s Paul Williams, had to tread a difficult path; he had to ensure that his rulings could not be criticised as being partial to his own country and at the same time he had to police Australia’s thuggery properly without accusations of bias. Having watched the match twice, I can say with confidence that Williams only erred once, in not calling Rieko Ioane for stepping on the sideline boundary when he began what ended up as a try. This was the fault of Australian Angus Gardner who was the linesman on the side concerned.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
“It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a common Kiwi play; turn the referees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention to perceived cheating by their opposition \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen them previously call out the Wallabies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 scrumming and breakdown play \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to take the spotlight away from their own,” wrote Pandaram, completely forgetting that this was exactly what former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika did after every game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
He opined that Foster would be under “intense scrutiny” during the second game as many people in New Zealand felt that the job of chief coach should have gone to Scott Robertson instead, the latter being one who has taken the Crusaders to four Super Rugby titles in his first four years as their coach.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
And Pandaram went on and on, outlining what he perceived to be issues with the team, about playing this player and that in this position or that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
I haven’t seen anything he wrote after the second game when Australia was competitive for just one half, and unable to score in the second half. All those perceived “problems” he pointed out were gone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
One crucial factor that he forgot was that this was the first game for both teams this year. Normally, both Australia and New Zealand play two or three Tests before the games against each other, South Africa and Argentina, which make up the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship each year, begin. Both teams were quite rusty.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In 2015, New Zealand lost more talent after the World Cup than they did in 2019; that time Daniel Carter, Richie McCaw, Ma’a Nonu, Conrad Smith, Tony Woodcock and Keven Mealamu all retired from international rugby. But the side picked up and carried on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
A lot of Pandaram’s moaning comes out of nationalism; Australians are the most one-sided sports writers I have seen. When one is shown up like this, they tend to lie quiet until the public forgets. As Pandaram is doing now.<\/p>\r\n\r\n