World cup rugby
One of my theories of world cup rugby is that you should not beat the easy teams by large margins.
Why? Well there are two styles of rugby the first is all about not making errors because you know every error wil be punished and grinding down the oponent. the second style is about playing a weak opponent where you open up your defence because you know they probably cant take advantage.
the problem arises because they are quie different games. if oyu play 10 "lets crush them games" in a row then it will be very hard to settle back in to a "lets grind it out and win by 3 points" strategy. I think that is one of NZ's weakneses at world cup time because we will thrash a series of weak teams and loose by a small margin to a strong one.
With this in mind - if you want to win the world cup you should play every game like a grand final. sure score those tries against the minnows when they are available but keep up the mind set that any points they score are a defeat and dont try for tries that you know would be a waste of time against a good team.
Sure the public in NZ might complain about a 20 point victory over japan and insist it should have been 60 but they won't remember that for long. Giving minnows a hiding with lots of wide open agressive play says your team is good as individuals but your plan is poor (classic NZ rugby?).
BTW who were the crazy people picking france to be in the final? home ground advantage isn't worth nearly enough to get them there! they wil be lucky to make it into the quarters.
Why? Well there are two styles of rugby the first is all about not making errors because you know every error wil be punished and grinding down the oponent. the second style is about playing a weak opponent where you open up your defence because you know they probably cant take advantage.
the problem arises because they are quie different games. if oyu play 10 "lets crush them games" in a row then it will be very hard to settle back in to a "lets grind it out and win by 3 points" strategy. I think that is one of NZ's weakneses at world cup time because we will thrash a series of weak teams and loose by a small margin to a strong one.
With this in mind - if you want to win the world cup you should play every game like a grand final. sure score those tries against the minnows when they are available but keep up the mind set that any points they score are a defeat and dont try for tries that you know would be a waste of time against a good team.
Sure the public in NZ might complain about a 20 point victory over japan and insist it should have been 60 but they won't remember that for long. Giving minnows a hiding with lots of wide open agressive play says your team is good as individuals but your plan is poor (classic NZ rugby?).
BTW who were the crazy people picking france to be in the final? home ground advantage isn't worth nearly enough to get them there! they wil be lucky to make it into the quarters.
posted by Genius at 3:30 PM
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