Kieran Read celebrates after scoring the All Blacks' third
© Getty Images
|
Peter Bills reserves plenty of praise for the All Blacks after a stunning start to their Tri-Nations in The Irish Independent.
"In the land where they filmed 'The Lord of the Rings', the world champions certainly had rings run around them. South Africa's beating, by four tries to nil, was a shuddering wake-up call.Their belief, arrogance personified, that they could just rock up a few days before this first Tri Nations Test of 2010 and ignore the ruinously wasting influences of jet lag, that no matter who the opposition, they could just turn up and it would be business as usual, suffered an almighty demolition job.
"They were off the pace, surprised and stung by the snap, crackle and pop of the All Blacks' game. Bakkies Botha's early yellow-carding, not to mention his wild headbutt upon Jimmy Cowan for which he was suspended for nine weeks yesterday at a disciplinary hearing, made the South Africans' lives so much more difficult. His early absence handed an initiative to New Zealand that the Boks were never able to wrest back."
RSS feed
