For all you sports lovers!
On the halves debate: One of the principle arguements against the Mehrtens/Marshall combination is the fact that they have never won us a World Cup. Fact: Mehrts and Marshall have never played together in World Cup finals. 87 – they weren’t around. 91 – ditto. 95 – Graeme Bachop was halfback. 99 – Byron Keheller played in the infamous semi-final loss to France. 2003 – Marshall didn’t finish the game after being taken out by George Smith, and Mehrts wasn’t even there.
22 responses to “For all you sports lovers!”
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Learn how to spell Mehrtens. The only reason he is there is to give Nick Evans a good grounding in how to be the All Black first five for the next 10 years, give him some of that institutional knowledge, as well as warn him about what alcoholism and bad sideburns will do for your selection chances.
Post made late at night…apologies for bad spelling. Corrections have been made.
Mehrtens is on the bench for this weekend…no Nick Evans.
And I was a supporter of the sideburns…I also have ginger facial hair.
Mehrts is being given a few swansong off-the-bench appearances, but he is being slowly phased out because of better players coming through (like Evans), in the same way that Matt Burke, although a legend, is being phased out of the Australian team. It would be a backwards step to make him our number one first five now, but I fully support his presence in the squad.
I agree with John
Slowly phased out? Phasing out means appearances slowly become less frequent. Andrew was unceremoniously dumped from the All Blacks and has appeared out of nowhere this season. This is a come back, not a phasing out.
“better players coming through” – Evans is not a better 1st 5 than Mehrtens yet.
Aaron: Do you know who Nick Evans is? Or Matt Burke?
Sadly Tim, I think you, my wife and Phil Gifford are alone on this one. This is not a comeback, this is a swansong, a token gesture to a former great, a washed up and boozed up has been, a shadow of his former self who, while still capable of some good rugby is but a shadow of his former self.
did I mention that he was a shadow of his former self? that’s right, I said it twice in the last post.
Fortunately his shadow can still handle more pressure than Carlos. I’ve heard Carlos’ Mum does his grocery shopping for him cos he can’t handle the pressure when he has to decide between cheque or credit card at the checkout.
Obviously untrue, Carlos flashes the cash. “Reliable” Mehrts = boring Mehrts. Carlos handled the pressure well against the English, although I agree that he can be mercurial.
Pressure against the English? We thrashed them and our forwards were going forward in both games. That’s not pressure. Carlos choked in the semi-final against Aus last year when his forwards were going backwards. Mehrtens is one of the few halves in the world who still manages to play well when his forwards are going backwards, and he can adapt to Marshall’s crap passes which Carlos can’t do.
As Wittgenstien said “Blah blah blah, shut your big fat face”
I know who Wittgenstien is. Does that count?
It was only Tim who was excluding you from the body of true sports believers, not me. I am inclusive of all people who agree with me and my every jot and tiddle.
Shall we excommunicate Tim, John? I fear it’s the only way to preserve unity…
I am a bit more old fashioned than you namby pamby modernists – burn him at the stake.
it probably goes without saying that i agree with john. spencer has to be the default choice for 1st five at the moment, and it would require a bit more from mehrtens for him to oust the incumbent.
the following factors are determinative in spencer’s failing to deliver the goods (to the extent that he has):
he doesn’t combine well with marshall. this can largely be ascribed to the slow, lob-style delivery marshall seems to favour (although this has been improved a bit lately). carlos hasn’t had the opportunity to play with kelleher much. [tim: it also seems silly to accomodate weaknesses in your halfback by replacing your 1st 5.]
the new flat backline combined with some very offside defence (especially against SA) makes for unprecedented pressure on 1st 5. mehrtens’ kicking game probably would have coped better a fortnight ago, but i feel confident that the coaching staff have fine-tuned backline tactics since.
i reckon the marshall/kelleher question is a tougher one. kelleher seems the better player in almost all dimensions of the game, but apparently marshall adds something in the way of leadership.
yeah. that guy. I agree.
Rolling subs with a tag on and off system would be good like in our old social rugby team, then you could interchange your halfbacks at will
So it’s settled. We write to the IRB asking them to introduce a rolling subs rule?
Why have rolling subs when you can just put them all on the park at one time? Saves this running off / running on bollocks
Flat backline, wow, what an awesome idea.