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GRAHAM WOODS |
Weblog: Try lines - the rugby union review
World Cup blog day two: The early pace is testing
Shamefully stayed in bed until 5.45am, an hour and 15 minutes longer than I had intended, but I've realised now this is going to be harder than I thought.
Getting home late on Friday and insisting on watching Harlequins v Northampton before going to bed was the mistake. It's all right for the players – they're either at the World Cup or with their clubs. The rest of us have to try to keep up with the action on both sides of the world.
Not that I'm complaining. I'm sick of hearing people with no interest in rugby question why domestic competitions are carrying on while the World Cup is being played. Never mind asking why, you can't get enough of a good thing I say, and Friday night Premiership action, followed by four World Cup matches (two and a half in my lazy case) and then another live Prem game on Saturday afternoon is punting heaven.
A more pertinent question came to me when I was watching Quins fly-half Nick Evans kick six out of six pots at goal against the Saints on Friday night, to add to his seven out of seven against London Irish the previous weekend. I thought, what if, in three or four weeks, we are all asking ourselves how on earth New Zealand managed to blow another World Cup? And could the answer be Nick Evans?
Evans was New Zealand's leading scorer at the last World Cup, but, knowing his All Blacks role would be to forever stand in Dan Carter's shadow, he made the move to England and surrendered the chance of further international recognition.
After his arrival Quins qualified for the Heineken Cup, beat Stade Francais in the Stade de France, and won the return against the French giants thanks to the Kiwi No. 10's drop goal in injury-time after more than 20 phases of play.
Weeks later they beat Leicester at Twickenham again thanks to an Evans last-gasp DG. And last season they won the European Challenge Cup, inredibly beating Munster at Thomond Park and overcoming Stade again in the final. In all those games Evans was instrumental, monumental, the match-winner.
And in three weeks, if New Zealand should find themselves trailing 20-18 in the dying minutes of a World Cup quarter-final, as they were four years ago against France, isn't Evans the kind of player they want? His achievements at Quins mark him out as the perfect World Cup No. 10 - think Jonny Wilkinson, Joel Stransky.
Here's hoping, at least for the All Blacks' sake, that this time their swashbuckling style sees them through and they don't need to rely on a close-out specialist. We shall see.
Not that New Zealand looked like they needed to take a different approach against Tonga on Friday. Yes the All Blacks fell short of the handicap, but they were cruising in the first period, offloading with ease and cutting the Tongans' defence open. But when they had chances to run quick penalties they chose to go for the line instead, and may have been going through the gears, trying to get in the rhythm of a structured game, much like a golfer who hits a few wayward tee shots on his practice round to get a feel for how to play his way out of the course's trickier spots.
Tonga's closer-than-expected defeat was the first of a run of five handicap wins out of five for the underdogs on the first two days, and the performances of Romania, Namibia and Japan plus the atmosphere at the grounds and lively standard of play have made for a tremendous start to the competition. Until England ran out on the pitch that is. Trust us to spoil the party.
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