adminAUCKLAND. — The All Blacks won the inaugural four-team competition last year and it would be a surprise if they didn’t do so again.
They provided the best two teams in the recently concluded Vodacom Super Rugby season and top players were coming back into the game from injury and finding their best form at just the right time.
The stalwarts from their 2012 triumph are mostly back, with Dan Carter, Kieran Read and Sam Whitelock among the key players that look ready to make a strong impact. And then there’s Richie McCaw, the captain and still rated by many as the finest player in the world, back in the game after a six-month sabbatical.
But while the superb management of players that All Black coach Steve Hansen alluded to before the final Championship match last year against the Springboks at the FNB Stadium, plus their experience, player depth and confidence, makes the Kiwis outright favourites, there is something for the other sides to cling to: Twickenham last November.
While the Boks were lambasted for making heavy weather of their rather fortunate close win over England the week before, the New Zealanders were played off the part in their final match of the year.
Yes, it was the end of an extremely long and arduous season, and that was doubtless a major factor in their unexpected stumble. But it was the ease with which England beat them, and punched holes in their defensive system, that should give the other sides, particularly South Africa and Australia, most hope.
The message that was sent out that day was that while the All Blacks are undeniably a fine team, they’re not invincible.
Remember too that they were held to a draw in Hong Kong in their final Bledisloe Cup game of 2012, just before the end of year tour, thus forcing them to surrender their quest for the elusive record for consecutive wins which is still shared by Gary Teichmann’s Springbok team of 1997/1998 and an All Black side from the 1960s. — Supersport.com.
Online Reporter