David Kirk's Opinion at Rugby Heaven

David Kirk

All Blacks must show ruthless streak

DAVID KIRK - © Fairfax NZ News

OPINION: Every match at a Rugby World Cup has meaning, but often not the meaning most people think.

David Kirk: Now is the hour for All Blacks

DAVID KIRK - © Fairfax NZ News

OPINION: Will we finally put to rest 24 years of disappointment, asks World Cup winner David Kirk.

Bledisloe a triumph for mental toughness

Test matches are won by a combination of passion, skill and taking chances. Scoring the All Blacks and Wallabies on these yardsticks, passion goes to the Wallabies, skill is shared and in taking chances the All Blacks are the runaway winners.

All Blacks win in Brisbane

ABs press conference

Springbok pride looms to doom

It is hard to know which is less likely - the Springboks losing three in a row at home or the Wallabies winning two in a row away from home. Surely the Wallabies cannot win tonight.

Solid rebuild but where's the killer punch?

It has been perfectly clear what the All Blacks have set out to do in the first three matches of the 2008 southern hemisphere test match season.

ABs too good

Finishing class of ABs

Players key to lifting suspended sentence

New Zealand rugby has been and probably still is in a strange place. Public support inhabits a kind of twilight zone somewhere between guilty rejection and grudging support. Few can bring themselves to outright hostility but even fewer are prepared to give unconditional support.

Demise of men in black greatly exaggerated

Poor Mark Twain. He has suffered the ignominy of being so widely quoted his witticisms have become cliches. I won't spare him either.

ABs hang tough on foul night

ABs show character in wet

Boks master 'no-risk' approach

Two good teams tried desperately not to lose the sixth Rugby World Cup final. One of them succeeded.

Talent meets toughness in final

The reason it has proven so difficult to pick the winners at the 2007 rugby World Cup is because it has been the mental game, not the physical game that has determined the results.

England: The boa constrictors of rugby

England's approach to the World Cup has made a mockery of the meticulous and detailed preparation of teams like the All Blacks and the Wallabies have undertaken.

What we can learn from another failure?

The British press have been quick to put the boot into New Zealand and Australia after both teams were ejected from the World Cup in the quarterfinals. The Wallabies have been described as like a piece of Ikea furniture: comes as a flattened pack.

Our Gods fall to earth

The All Blacks didn't play badly, but they didn't play well enough. For long periods of this test match they played better rugby than any other team in the competition is remotely possible of playing.

Pupils become masters in new world order

The world of rugby willl never be the same again. A seismic shift has occured. The pool matches of the sixth Rugby World Cup are over and I, for one, am left gobsmacked.

Time to see how good Henry's men really are

After four pool matches in which the All Blacks hardly broke a sweat we know exactly nothing more about their prospects of winning the fifth Rugby World Cup than we knew before the tournament started.

Buck: It's a mind-game now.

All Blacks have all the bases covered

Believe it or not, sometimes it is tiresome to live in Australia.

Watch David Kirk assess the All Blacks.

A moment in time

I am often asked what it was like to play in the first Rugby World Cup.

Relive the '87 magic.

See where our '87 cup inspiration came from

They remain New Zealand's World Cup benchmark – the only All Blacks to lift the Webb Ellis Cup. Relive the glory as 1987 captain David Kirk explains the magical build-up to the tournament in this exclusive RugbyHeaven video interview.

Watch video.

We can win World Cup again

There is little doubt that the All Blacks have the ability to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Saying that is one thing but achieving it is another. Here's how I see Graham Henry's side as they try to win the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time in 20 years.

Watch David Kirk's exclusive RugbyHeaven interview.

Kirk – rugby facing some big issues

Rugby is eyeing some massive changes with new laws next year and a forum on the game to be held around the World Cup. Watch All Blacks great David Kirk give his view on the current problems – laborious scrummaging, confusion at the breakdowns and second-rate tours are high on his agenda.

David Kirk on the state of the game.

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