NEW ZEALAND: 15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Anthony Tuitavake, 13 Richard Kahui,
12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Daniel Carter, 8 Andy Ellis; 8
Jerome Kaino, 7 Daniel Braid/Richie McCaw (c), 6 Rodney So'oialo, 5
Ali Williams, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony
Woodcock: Reserves: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 John Afoa, 18 Anthony Boric,
19 Sione Lauaki, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Conrad Smith.

Possible return for McCaw. If not, a dedicated openside in Braid. -
Balance in the backrow.
Kahui in for Smith. - Good call imo.
Somerville back after the scrum looked wobbly in Dunedin.
Tuitavake gets his chance at the expense of Wulf. - Would prefer Wulf
covered Tuqiri for the expected cross kicks and Wulf for Sivi.
Possibly Ellis' and Sivivatu's last chance.

I've had a good look around up North, enjoyed the beer in England, the
carnivorous tendencies of the Spanish and wall to wall titties on the
Cote D'Azur. I scouted some of the places our lads are heading off to
play rugby in and my opinion is that Tana's made the best choice. With
reasonable beaches around him and Provence right above him, there are a
shit load of worse places on the planet to be, namely my office right now
with the rain hosing down and a large travel debt to pay off.

The good news is that Sky Sports goes back on this week so I get to see
my first test match (and pretty much first game of rugby) since the RWC.
All I've had so far has been the local waiters at the Cafe next door to
our place in Provence gleefully informing me of the scores of the ABs vs.
England games, they seemed very happy about the results. Anyway, Deans
vs. Henry, Bledisloe Cup round 1, really looking forward to it.

So, has everyone behaved while I've been away or has it just been a load
of childish, cuntish whinging?

Ah, thought so.

The greatest of all Rugby contests, the only one that matters (for me
anyway) is upon us this Saturday night.

Yet to get tickets but I'm working on it. Just thinking about it and
as much as I am sick of the 3N format, I'm looking forward to this one
a 'wee' bit more this year...

- Kiwi Deans is Aussie coach
- McCaw is expected to start
- All Blacks hurting from +100 year record-breaking-loss at home
- It's in Sydney, and not Melbourne

I can't wait!

Only getting the chance now.
Congratulation. Well deserved victory over the Boks. For about 20
minutes the Boks were probably the better team but then the Aussies
took over and dominated from there.

The Boks mainly got fucked up at the front. Aussies were better in the
scrums, creamed the Boks at the breakdowns and dominated the line
outs.

It was interesting to see Mortlock run clean over Jean de Villiers for
his try.

Proves what I have said in the past - De villiers has suspect defence.
Adequate, but too suspect to be called dependable.

Ricky January was still in NZ. It seems he just kept on trying to
snipe through the middle. In the meantime Australia plugged that gap
very effectively from the word go.

Matfield. He was very busy being captain. This necessitated him
inspecting numerous rucks and mauls which he diligently did from about
2 meters away. He then spent all the line outs contemplating what he
saw. Unfortunately he did not reach a conclusion by games end.

9. The corner flag, is now in instead of out.

Good change. Why is it out? No other flag is out. This tidies up another
silly rule that made no sense.

8. Maul can be collapsed.

Stupid rule. I'm yet to hear of anyone that likes this one.

7. Can't pass back into your own 22.

Great rule. Why should you be allowed to pass back but not run back? This
cleans up the stupidest law in the game.

6. Penalty kicks are only for offside and foul play. Everything else is a
free kick.

This is the probably the most contentious. I think this has merits, but also
needs work. I applaud less penalties as too many teams deliberately stifled
attacking play knowing that simply holding onto the ball would mean a
penalty had to come sooner or later. Although the ELVs could be seen to have
messed the game up right now, I believe this to be only temporary. Once
teams find their feet and what works and what doesn't with the new rules,
play will become a lot smoother.

5. Touch judges are now called assistant referees, and now police offside
lines.

The end of the world as we know it. When will they stop fucking with our
game and leave it exactly like it was in 1840?
Seriously, who cares about this rule?

4. Quick throw-ins can be straight or backwards, but not forwards.

I thought this was always the case anyway. Must be one of those unwritten
rules that they decided to rubber stamp.