@ whatever!!!!! you keep your posts consistantly as "whatever!!!!" and ill keep all my posts as "willis". NOW then! keeping this in mind, i will be waiting with anticipation to see what kind of reply you have after the ABs spank the Boks in Africa? It will be haalarious to see what kind excuse you can come up with! or even better, you probally wont even post uh?? Im not even going to respond to your garbage about "english" something or another?? "smoke screen alert" sirens! sirens! "smoke screen alert" yet again we are talking about rugby mate! HERE & NOW.

There's no opinion piece on here after last Saturday's game! Anyway I'll use this one!

Another great performance by the All Blacks, the game was certainly hampered by Drew Mitchell's stupidity and we can't blame Craig Joubert for taking action. He certainly warned them about deliberately holding up play and a man on a yellow didn't listen to that advice. It's funny how there's a perception that despite scoring seven tries and 49 points, that wasn't our best performance of the Tri Nations, which I do agree with. The opening game in Auckland was indeed a more clinical performance in the face of a few of the sceptical public who believed that Graham Henry's side would be beaten by the over-hyped Springboks.

I remember back in June when the first squad of the year was announced. The amount of people who were squealing and complaining that "they'd got it all wrong and we'll have another rubbish year" are now probably saying "we've peaked too early and will not win RWC 2011". It's a shame how the ABs coaches have been put in this position where they cannot please every fan out there. It's probably born out of the ashes of RWC 2007. I think the NZRU made the correct choice in keeping Ted & co. to allow them a chance of WC redemption in 2011. Simply just firing coaches after a WC loss hasn't worked. Just look at England. The world's most annoying coach Clive Woodward's side lost in the Quarter-Finals in 1999 but the English RFU decided to keep Clive on. Clive repaid that faith by taking England to victory in RWC 2003. I hope that Graham Henry can repeat that feat in a years time for the sake of NZ rugby. There's no telling what will happen if we fail to win the World Cup in our own backyard next year.

I am writing this opinion piece on an older article due to a lack of an opinion piece open to public comments on this website in the aftermath of the first Bledisloe Cup Test of the 2010 season. I guess my prediction of a 10 pts or less ABs victory was a bit off! I really did think the Aussies would be a difficult customer for the All Blacks and I'm stoked that we were able to score seven tries. The Aussies showed that even when they were reduced to 14 men they were still competitive and I doubt this result will completely annihilate their resolve. The All Blacks can't afford to rest on their laurels after this performance and now must give the Aussies a repeat dose so that we can safely lock away both of the trophies available in this tournament to us. I wonder what sort of welcome the Dingo will get on his first visit to AMI Stadium since taking over the reigns of the Wallabies? Should be another cracker this weekend and I can't wait!

Rugby Nut #65, good comment and like most fair minded supporters (me being a Wallaby in your fine land)I am looking forward to a cracking open style game. May the best team win.

@ #61. I presume the person who calls them self Ex All Black Fan has got nothing to base an argument on so therefore isn't posting comments at the moment. Kinda like a closet hater, only comes out to play when the All Blacks aren't winning, although this person's been known to be hopelessly critical even when we're winning games.

Man I'm looking forward to Saturday night's game. I'm not reading into the patchy form shown by Australia so far this year and I think that the game will be a potential classic regardless of the state of the pitch or for whatever other reason. I'll be conservative and say that the All Blacks will most likely beat the Wallabies by less than 10 pts, I hope. Should be an exciting game though!

@Willis#62

Or maybe we are just waiting for them to come down to SA ...ONCE A BOK ALWAYS A BOK...or maybe we are just getting bored with the small minded topics that's going on ...as some1 said Australia is big Britain and New Zealand is small Britain both thinking like the british that they are far too superior than other teams/countries ...we will see what happens when they visit SA at the National stadium

As a nation I think we often read too much into the performances of our team and other teams around the world. I never bought into the debate about how rotation and reconditioning conspired to cause us to exit the last World Cup in the Quarter-Final stage, that was pretty much just the media's point of view on the situation. The loss was more down to the players being flat, particularly in the second half and not expressing themselves (playing within their capabilities). It seemed that Yannick Jauzion's try was like a strong kick to the guts of our players who in the end couldn't recover and close out the game. Much like what Stirling Mortlock's intercept try did to us in the 2003 Semi Final loss.

In regards to the continual "peaking too early" comment. Again that's just rubbish. As we have seen in the past, the World Cup is a great leveller of the top teams and that anyone can beat anyone on any given day. Teams like England and Australia for example may be doing poor at International level but cannot be written off when it comes to the World Cup because it's an entirely different kettle of fish.

What the ABs got wrong last time is they tried to improve the players physically when they should have focused more on the mental aspect. They were already physically good enough. The focus between now and RWC 2011 should be to improve the players mentally and help them gain the psychological advantage when it comes to the knock out stages next year.

Question for all.....where have all our big mouth bok supporters gone?? i have read many of the posts from the SA supporters over the last 3 weeks, but not too sure what has happened to them all of a sudden? I have a feeling it could one of the following: 1). similar to their puppet coach Peter De Villiers, they have run out of pathetic excuses? 2). They no longer wish to support a losing team? 3). They will now only be closet Bok supporters who will come out when SA next win a game? 4). To proud to come post comments that are actually fact based?

either way, it is quite ammusing to see how quickly these clowns abandon ship when the boat starts to sink!!! Thankfully there are at least two teams of QUALITY that help make up the tri-nations otherwise this would be as boring as the 6 nations!

Hey where's Ex-All Black Fan? Haven't seen her dribble on here for some time now.

Re #34 by Nell. Burger should have been cited for what the cameras clearly showed: a clear attempt at an eye gouge/face scratch/face slap at a defenceless opponent. His game should be reviewed after every match he plays, he is a loose cannon on the pitch. If Quade Cooper gets two weeks for a half-hearted spear tackle, Burger should get about two months for his malicious effort. Both he and Botha need to retire and go along to the "wrestling" profession!