Heres a myth-busting theory for my rugby mates: One of the biggest gripes in the history of the game is that the All Blacks would not be the legendary/unbeatable team they are if it were not for all of their Pacific Island imports. Far be it for me to ever defend the Kiwis, but heres the thing.... ....statistically, the practice of importing Islanders only began in earnest in the late 80s - early 90s. Before that, it was pretty much the All Whites!!! Which means that the ABs were the undisputed, dominant force in world rugby for 80-odd years before integrating Maoris into the team. Some might say that dominance was only because the Bokke were excluded for a lot of that time, but I say bollocks - they still dominated most of the opportunities we had against them back in the day, but thats a whole other story. So heres the kicker to my thought: Statistically, the All Blacks have only really become beatable in the Maori incorporated era!!! They may very well have a fiercer looking team, but they have spent more than half of the past 25 years as the number 2, 3, and even number 4 team on the world rankings. That mythical, unbeatable aura has been tarnished. So heres to our down underneath chommies importing even more Islanders to dilute their once unbeatable game \m/
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:03:59 +0000
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